Ian Brown
My Way
Release Date: Sep 28, 2009
Genre(s): Rock, Pop, Alternative
Record label: Polydor
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Album Review: My Way by Ian Brown
Very Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
While we’ll most likely be denied ever hearing the man saying, “Fookin’ Space Hoppers, right, they were magic” on one of those I Love… programmes that the BBC make to fill up their Sunday night scheduling, you have to admire [a]Ian Brown[/a]’s aversion to nostalgia. A lesser man would have reformed [a]The Stone Roses[/a] by now (you could buy a fuckload of cagoules with the money they must have been offered) and it’s refreshing, in an age when everyone from the [a]Pixies[/a] to [a]The Wonder Stuff[/a] can’t resist scratching an itch, that Brown’s pride and sense of self is more committed to looking forward than back. What’s that? He plays [b]‘Waterfall’[/b] live? Well, I bet you would too if you’d written it…The story goes that this new record was conceived after Brown had just come out from a binge on [a]Michael Jackson[/a]’s [b]‘Thriller’[/b].
Based on rating 7/10
Just over four weeks ago, while waiting for a friend at this year's Leeds Festival, a caterwauling sound disorientated me and many others. It was the sound of Ian Brown tunelessly ripping 'Fools Gold' and the memory of The Stone Roses in two like some drunken karaoke singer on a Sunday lunchtime. Or maybe it was just another aspect of a calculated dismissal of his past, because if My Way - his sixth album to date - is anything to go by, Brown still has so much more to offer.
Based on rating 3/5
All shuffling beats and pub wisdom, it's same again for Brown's latest. For the Glory, however, is the last word on those rumours of a Roses reunion (still not happening obviously)..
Based on rating 3/5
There is a sense in which fans of Ian Brown are the Bilderberg Group of rock. They are a large, shadowy organisation. No one outside their mysterious ranks really understands their actions or motives, but it's clear they wield considerable influence: enough at least to keep the former Stone Roses frontman thriving in the music business. His career has survived incarceration, accusations of homophobia and the oft-mentioned but incontrovertible fact that, away from the dulcifying technologies of the recording studio, his voice sounds less like something you'd actually pay money to listen to than something you'd deploy to stop ships crashing into Lizard Point in poor visibility.