Unsung Rock: Stone Roses Meltdown?
It’s been a pretty busy week in the land of rock music. Stadium titans Muse and The Killers have both unveiled trailers for their new albums, with both band’s sparking debate among fans eager to grasp their new musical directions from short snippets. The biggest news, however, involved the antics of The Stone Roses during only the third gig of their reunion tour.
For those of you who missed it, the Manchester rock-legends were expected to play an encore of ‘I Am The Resurrection’, but instead fans were treated only to vocalist Ian Brown telling them that drummer Reni had gone home. Quite understandably, this has raised the question of whether the fractures that caused the band to split sixteen years ago still exist.
As a band who only released two studio albums throughout their career, it’s probably fair to say that The Stone Roses have a lot more to give. It’s not an understatement to say their debut release shook up the music world, and while their ‘Second Coming’ wasn’t as well received, the Manchester four-piece still have the potential to make an impact once again.
The problem is that the much-hyped Stone Roses reunion has come with a lot of responsibility. They’re due to be headlining T in the Park and V Festival this summer, and yet already many fans are worried those performances are at risk of being called off due to the band’s apparent internal problems.
Ian Brown and co have probably made too many commitments since their reunion. There are several newer bands that could have had the opportunity to really establish themselves by taking the festival slots The Stone Roses have been lucky enough to secure, and so they have to prove their worth by settling their petty differences and putting on a good show. 
Anyway, that’s enough about The Stone Roses. The other big news this week is Muse’s recently unveiled album trailer. Matt Bellamy and co are no strangers to genre deviation: in fact, the three-piece alternative-rockers have dabbled in everything from prog metal to synth-pop. Even so, no one was expecting Muse to join in with the recent dubstep craze and include it on their highly-anticipated sixth album.
The trailer has caused a stir amongst fans of the Devonshire-rockers, and it’s not hard to see why. Muse are creative, sure, but they’re still a rock band and dubstep may appear to be an innovation too far. That being said, the talents of Matt Bellamy as a songwriter are pretty much undisputed and it thus wouldn’t be surprising if he found a near perfect balance between rock and dubstep to create something really special.
If the trailer is to be believed and Muse are taking on an entirely new artistic direction, then it’s hard for me to complain. Sure, there’s a part of me that wants Bellamy and co to play it safe and return to the heights of Absolution and Black Holes, but speaking as a fan of music in all its forms, the thought of something really new and different this September is incredibly enticing.
That’s just about it for Unsung Rock this time around. As always, we’ll close with the Picks of the Week:
The Milk – Every Time We Fight
Acclaimed indie-rockers The Milk return with an infectious track that will only add to the hype currently surrounding the band. Every Time We Fight presents the band at the height of their talents, and comes with an excellent music video starring and directed by James Buckley (aka Jay from The Inbetweeners). The quality of their debut album will decide their success, but for now The Milk are definitely ones to watch.
The Temper Trap – Trembling Hands
Aussie indie-rockers The Temper Trap made their return recently with a self-titled follow-up to 2009′s platinum-selling Manners, and the record’s second single Trembling Hands is undoubtedly the highlight of the album. It’s an uplifting track featuring talented lead-vocalist Dougy Mandagi once again on top form, and shows The Temper Trap can have a much longer life-span than many gave them credit for. This is definitely worth a download.
Born Blonde – I Just Wanna Be
Born Blonde are the latest indie band to come out of Shepherds Bush, and their new single I Just Wanna Be perfectly displays their Verve-esque Britpop charm. It’s an excellent track, oozing with a certain quality rarely found in the efforts of indie bands. Born Blonde have a long way to go yet, but I Just Wanna Be is sending them in all the right directions.
You, the reader, are invited to join in. Heard any great Unsung Rock? You can e-mail Dan with your suggestions for the ‘Picks of the Week’ at unsungrock@rocketmail.com, or simply leave your comments below.
RE Muse, everybody reacted similarly when ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ came out — only that song wasn’t a direct attempt at attempting a particular genre — it was just a bit funkier than what they had done before that. I think it’s quite likely that something of the teaser’s ilk will appear on the album. If a preview comes out of a Muse track building up to a release, it tends to appear on the final product…recent disappointments from them make me wish ‘Eurasia’ had been a bad dream after all. We all know how Matt aspires to be like his idol Morello with the guitar technics, so perhaps being the first (megahuge rock act — it’s been done by small bands on YouTube) individual to play live dubstep on a modified guitar rig. Naturally, it will probably turn out to be a pile of shit, and Muse’s fall from grace that began on track 6 of Absolution onwards will continue. Admittedly I’ll always be a fanboy, but it gets more difficult with each release.
While I happen to really like Muse’s last couple of albums Kane (even if all the rock pomposity and genre-experimentation can sometimes get a bit much), I have to say that “naturally, it will probably turn out to be a pile of shit” made me piss myself laughing.