The Greatest (Polydor)
After the Stone Roses’ disastrous appearance at the Reading festival in 1996, Reni retired, Mani became a hired gun in Primal Scream and John Squire backed the wrong Seahorses. Ian Brown, though, never looked back. His post- baggy sound — a weightless psychedelic groove spun with Mancunian mysticism — has proved a remarkably effective tool. Rather than just pile up Brown’s solo singles, The Greatest collects together 17 tracks taken from his four solo albums and his (unfairly maligned) UNKLE collaborations. There are several new versions (including Forever and a Day), a remix of Can’t See Me, the Solarized’s bonus track Love Bug and a new number, the acid-soaked All Ablaze. The highlights are plenty: the prowling synths of Golden Gaze; the acronymic F.E.A.R; the evolutionary twist of Dolphins Were Monkeys; and the reflective Keep What Ya Got. All hail King Monkey.
MP