Single of the week
THE STONE ROSES 'Fools Gold'/'What The World Is Waiting For' (Silvertone)

Happy Mondays last week, so why not The Stone Roses this for a Mancunian clean sweep? There's almost an inevitability about it that, like temptation, is kind of hard to resist. Let's not even try.

What The World Is Waiting For' is no grand or howling statement of intent, rather the sound of a band just beginning to flex its muscles, newly confident in its powers of persuasion. On first hearing it may lack the instant gratification of 'She Bangs The Drums', the mighty swell of 'This Is The One' or the sheer bloody tunefulness of 'Waterfall' and 'Don't Stop'. Instead prepare both body and mind for the sort of song that just taps you on the shoulder and says, "follow me, pal".

Built around little more than an acoustic strum and the airiest of beats, the guitars gradually weave their way in, over and around the melody while the vocals play it cool, almost noncommittal, all the way to the final line about getting off the world. A shifting, gently infiltrating and ultimately irresistible kaleidoscope of sound is the payoff.

Flip over the 12-inch and find out how and why The Roses bridge that gap between rock and Acid House with getting on for ten minutes' worth of 'Fools Gold' (the A-side according to the press office, but the B-side according to the sleeve). There's still lan Brown's detached voice but underneath this time is as insidious and slinky a piece of funk trance as has been heard in many a moon, complete with conversational wah wah and a heartbeat straight out of The Meters' drummer Joseph 'Zig' Modeliste's copybook. I believe.

From Sounds 18/11/1989