The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses, the 1989 debut from the band of the same name, was cut mostly at Battery Studios in London with John Leckie producing, in sessions that stretched from June 1988 into February 1989. What came out the other end is a record that shimmers and swaggers at the same time: chiming, jangling guitars, a rhythm section that swings like a dance record, and vocals that float above it all with a lazy, sneering confidence.

It's alternative rock you can dance to. "I Wanna Be Adored" creeps in out of the dark and builds to a blissed-out plea; "She Bangs the Drums" is pure sugar rush; "Waterfall" and "Made Of Stone" ring like church bells. And "I Am The Resurrection" struts so hard you'd swear the band could keep it going all night.

It didn't set the world on fire right away. The album caught on alongside the band's high-profile gigs, which made them the poster boys of the Madchester and baggy scenes, and its reputation just kept rising. It has now sold more than four million copies worldwide, and when Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums came out in its third edition in 2000, the book put it at 11. These days it turns up on all-time greatest album lists as a matter of course.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.