Released on 5 December 1994, "Second Coming" was the second and final studio album by English rock band The Stone Roses, the album sold over 1 million copies under the dedication of the band's publicist Philip Hall who died of cancer in 1993, the album spawned three singles "Love Spreads", "Ten Storey Love Songs" & "Begging You".
Some people called the album as a cursed album for many reasons, perhaps a tainted one, by its long gestation, emerging five years later after the band's masterful debut, and for some others, this was the album that finally destroyed the band.
Second Coming was never an accessible album. the opener Breaking Into Heaven takes four-and-a-half minutes of tribal drumming, swampy atmospherics and occasional blasts of guitar before it actually gets going. When it does it is a groove-laden blues opus, complete with extensive solos, highlighting all the practice that John Squire put in while the Roses were spending five years in legal wrangles with their previous record company.
Actually it was this guitar-led formula dominates the album, yet it only throws up one song that reaches the heights of the masterful "Love Spreads." There are good moments dotted throughout, the languid roll of Daybreak and the pure energy of "Begging You" in particular, but whereas their early days were marked by an optimism and ambition that captured the hearts of a generation, this is an altogether darker and more aggressive beast.
The softer touch that marked their eponymous debut make an appearance with "Your Star Will Shine" is a stumbling, staggering folky ballad that you can't help but be touched by, while "Ten Storey Lovesong" takes the Roses back to their Byrds-influenced psychedelic heyday, and is the only other song after the brilliant "Love Spreads" that runs the first album close.
The second album by the Manchester four-piece, it suffered greatly at the time from the sheer weight of expectation generated by both the 5 years since the band's eponymous debut, and the band's withdrawal from the live arena for 4 of those years. In addition, the Stone Roses made their return to a changed musical environment, having to compete with a new generation of Britpop bands. The album reached number 4 in the UK Album Chart.
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