Unfinished Monkey Business Review

07/13/2005 6:29 AM, AMG


It's skunky, lo-fi, and filled with an almost myth-destroying Dadaism that one starts to wonder if there ever was a sole vital force in the Stone Roses. Ian Brown's befuddled first effort quickly altered his reputation from one of swaggering genius into indie's embittered Charles Foster Kane. "Can't See Me" and "What Happened to Ya" -- unemotional, flattened versions of "Fool's Gold" -- are never taken past the sludge rock stage, but one would still have to own a heart of fossilized bone to deny the real anger and vulnerability in cajoled slow numbers like "Corpses." Worst in its bedroom riffs, best when it goes quiet and Brown croons to the patter of the drum machine, this is what it sounds like when a musician isn't sure if he's just getting started or if he's already utterly, irredeemably defeated. ~ Dean Carlson, All Music Guide