Ian Brown Music Of The Spheres - from Hero to Hero

In my first year at Sheffield Hallam University I wound up in a not-quite-halls, not-quite-large-shared-house in the middle of a very rough estate on the outskirts of the city. The building was in fact an ex-convent, which had eight bedrooms, one kitchen, and two shower rooms on a floor. There were three floors. I was on the bottom floor, which was inevitably the basement. As is the case with a bunch of 18-year old lads and girls, it didn't take long to become acquainted, and the party - which is the only honest overview of the first year I can give - well and truly began. Across the corridor from myself was a girl called Emma. She was, like me, heavily into her music, and we had struck up quite a quick rapore. One night, as the green smoke rose, she gave me the copy of an album, Music Of The Spheres, to take away and have a listen to. It was her favourite album at the time, which is something that, almost a decade later, i must apologise to her for since she didn't get it back for months.

I was aware that Ian Brown had been the front man in The Stone Roses. I really liked The Stone Roses, but hadn't done any further investigations into what had happened to them all after the split. Emma was a Rose maniac, and knew exactly what had happened to them all - that was how she'd got hold of this album. In fact, brown had made two solo albums post-Roses previous to Music Of The Spheres - Unfinished Monkey Business (1998) and Golden Greats (1999), which I would gladly discover later. You know, it's astounding how you stumble upon these pots of gold, it really is. I suppose the main thing is that you actually do. Destiny I suppose.

I don't think my record player had anything else on it for months once I had borrowed/stolen Music Of The Spheres. The opening track, F.E.A.R, is an anthemic, hypnotising, orchestral magnum-opus. Brown's lyrical stand-point is very clever, and the music almost classical contemporary. Stardust is a lead-guitar meets electro face-off, in which Brown's classic Madchester drawl booms through, and Bubbles a strangely arresting loop that cannot help but sharpen the senses. The Gravy Train, in which Brown states: "It aint cocaine running through your brain/As you eat caviar on the gravy train," is typical of the minimalist song structure that Brown adopts throughout this record; simple, but thoroughly stimulating. Hear No, See No and Northern Lights venture into groundbreaking territory for me. They are almost anti-songs; they defy structural constraints, and deliver the listener into a world of experimentation
and creative freedom. Dave McCracken's production is second to none; dreamy, spacious soundscapes pulled back to earth by Brown's masterful lyric.

Whispers is the highlight on the record, followed closely by Brown's sublime dedication to his wife, El Mundo Pequeno. At first it just doesn't seem right that this Manc shoe-gazer should be singing such a delicate song in Spanish, but it really works. Forever and a Day is rousing, and Shadow Of A Saint a tremendous clincher at the death of the record. Forty minutes of brilliance - and, refreshingly enough for me, something I genuinely wouldn't have found. It takes pride of place in the collection, and would certainly drop into my top five albums of all-time without a shadow of a doubt.

A little later in 2001 myself, Emma, and a few others headed to Sheffield's Octagon theatre to watch the man himself perform Music Of The Spheres live. Having seen him many times since, it is fair to say that sometimes Brown is ordinary on stage. On this night he had a blinder. What a gig, what an atmosphere, what an album. After the show we hiked round the back to the stage door, hung around, and eventually met Ian Brown, who was genuinely warm and receptive as he signed all of our merchandise and chatted away. Needless to say we bounced all the way home, and breezed through the resulting hangover the next day! So this album holds fond memories of a great time in my life; it is the soundtrack to a major part of my story. I hope that you get chance to pick the album up and have a listen, then one day it may become a part of yours too.