Ian Brown is held in high regard by many, many people; which I guess you can sort of expect for the man that was the lead singer of The Stone Roses. With the release of his greatest hits album under the imaginative title The Greatest, Brown is pretty sure of himself and his music. God knows why.
Seriously the guy can't sing. He can not sing at all! If Charlotte Church has the voice of an angel then Ian Brown must have the voice and looks of a monkey. It seems almost ironic that The Greatest is released on Fiction Records. Somehow Brown has built a solo career off of being the lead singer in one of the biggest (but certainly not the best, that was The Mondays) Manchester bands without ever being pulled up on his lack of talent. Sure the guy is 100% rockstar with the swagger and the large personality and I'm sure he's magnetic live, but dear me on record he plain sucks.
To be honest, I only listened to the intros of each song, because once the monkey man started to sing I couldn't carry on with it. 'My Star' has a lovely intro though and 'F.E.A.R.' is passable I guess, but only once or twice.
I found the sleeve to be much more entertaining than the music. If you see this in the shop do take a look at the great pictures of Ian over the years. I counted 5 where he has his mouth pushed out like a chimp. There is a great picture of him and some rabbi's looking confused. And my personal favorite is of him sitting next to a chess board with giant pieces on it laughing at camera and looking like a happy little chimp.
It always bemuses me that someone as terrible as Ian Brown, who is trading off of his name rather than talent, is able to etch out such a successful career. Meanwhile, many bands that have much more to them fail or never get half the money thrown behind them as our simian friend Ian. Avoid this thing like the plague and go buy something at least half decent.
