Unfinished Monkey Business

10/06/1998 3:00 AM, LAUNCH
Bob Gulla

It ain't easy following up a music project that just happened to influence the larger part of a generation of pop fans. Ask John Squire, former guitarist of the near-religiously acclaimed Stone Roses. His new band, the Seahorses, had some promise but paled in comparison to his more famous previous work. Ian Brown, Squire's vocal counterpart in the Roses and the perpetrator of a solo album all his own, has risen to the same level of accomplishment with his debut, Unfinished Monkey Business, but may perhaps be destined for the same wayward fate.

Not that Brown's record is bad. Like Squire's Seahorses, the album offers a cornucopia of cool sonic concepts and inspired writing. And, in a surprising development, the normally empty-handed Brown not only sings here, he plays guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, trumpet, and handled production chores, too; an impressive feat considering many thought he'd be up the proverbial creek without his talented band giving his expression the proper vehicle. Songs like the vintage electronic, Yazoo-inspired "Lions," the coolly funky "Can't See Me," and the rather exotic first single "My Star," prove that Brown can stand alone, that life does indeed continue, even after the revelatory work of a band like the Stone Roses.