The “rock titanic” album that sank the Stone Roses and catapulted the Gallaghers

“The Oasis has changed my life,” Noel Gallagher said.

“If it weren’t for them, there wouldn’t be an oasis,” Liam concluded without numbness.

As the band swings back in The river in 2025 And the name oasis It explodes again, and an underground history of British rock emerges: a history The second comingthe album that promised coronation Stone roses He ended up becoming the “Titanic Millionaire”: a shipwreck that inadvertently opened up space for generations oasis It exploded at supersonic speed.

In the mid-1990s, England awaited a triumphant return Stone roses. Her debut made an impact: a bright, youthful, sassy album that mixed club soul and rave with guitars and gave rock Manchester New chapter.

until Pete Townsend, from the World Health OrganizationHe was amazed when he heard it Stone roses For the first time. He even said that his drummer was the best of his generation.

This debut album came with songs that paved the way for British pop music: “I Am the Resurrection”, “She Beats the Drums”, “Fools Gone”. Even its cover – with lemon in it French May 68 They were used to mitigate tear gas attacks – and remain a symbol of the situation. Barricade rock. A little tolerant and also indifferent.

Throw in Ian Brown on front, John Squire on guitar, Manny Moonfield on bass – today he plays with Primal Scream – and Rene Wren on drums: a quartet with its own chemistry, the key to the sound of that beginning.

Oasis inherited that: freshness, ease, popular arrogance… bangs.

But the next Stone Roses album, The second coming It took five years to appear. There were battles with the company, producer changes, a capless budget, and internal discussions. When he came out, it was already too late. Many read it as the most solid shipwreck of its generation.

However, the story does not end there.

What promised to be a renaissance ended up becoming “the Titanic of British rock”. but The second comingwhich we heard today, is something else: a huge, demanding, rare and progressive album.

The wait is announced from the start: the eleven minutes of “Storm to Paradise,” an entrance that functions as both an introduction and a declaration of principles: If you don’t like it, leave. From folk to electro – the tenderness of “Tightrope”, the tension of “Teardrops” – and “Driving South”, where John Squire inserts Hendrix’s phrases into a “postmodern” key: not as an homage, but as a rereading.

“Love Spreads” has become an absolute classic. The countryside has something of a soul “Moby Dick” by Led Zeppelin Hence, the tradition of drum solos and grooves comes from Gene Krupa to Buddy Rich.

On “I Beg You” with loops and riffing guitars Simon Reynolds He saw “a whirlwind that captures the moment when a delirious dream begins to unravel.” More than one critic has compared its psychedelic circular pulse to “Tomorrow is never known” From the Beatles.

And the cover. Never before has a record looked so much like its cover: A collage resembling a Pollock painting, with spots, cuts, layers and textures. This is the case The second coming: Layers of guitars, hidden details, and a dense mix that’s better understood with time rather than the urgency of a release.

That’s why today, without the shadow of a perfect debut, The second coming It sounds more modern than many albums of its era. It doesn’t seek the immediacy of ‘like’: it’s a horizontal album, a musical landscape that stretches out and comes back, not a vertical one to quickly scroll through while doing something else.

But in 1994, it was too much. Too ambitious, too free, too long.

Manchester came from Joy Division by The Smithsfrom a tradition that was not afraid of discomfort. The Stone Roses made an album looking back – Hendrix, Zeppelin-And forward – loops, staccato rhythms, emerging electronics – at the expense of the consumer.

And andThe day before Kurt Cobain’s death, Oasis released their first single, “Supersonic.”. Months later, the Stone Roses’ “artistic suicide” occurred

It was a shock of reality: while everyone was talking about the end of Nirvana, there was a new band that was starting to hit the ground running faster than the rest.

while The second coming Oasis launched under the weight of its own media weight Sure maybe With the speed and hunger of the new band. Huge songs, instant tunes, street style and a pulse that brought Manchester back to the entire UK.

In one year, Oasis went from small bars to stadiums. The space left empty by the Band of Roses – by wear and tear and delay and impossible expectations – was immediately occupied by the Band of… Gallagher brothers.

Before the official dissolution in 1996, John Squire jumped ship. until Slash from Guns N’ Roses He offered to take his place in the final round of Stone roses. Decades later, he recorded an entire album with Liam Gallagher, as if history needed to close the loop.

In the song “She Bangs the Drums” from the Stone Roses’ debut album, Ian Brown sings:

“The past is yours, but the future is mine.” A line that ended up being literal, but for Oasis.

The thing is, rocks definitely, or maybe, don’t advance in a straight line.