Fuzzy Solace

In the pantheon of the Britpop music era, not much compares to The Stone Roses self-titled album which was released in 1989 and has become the equivalent to The White Album to my generation of music snobs. They released a long awaited and far inferior album called "Second Coming" a few years later before the band imploded under the heavy weight of giant egos. Since then, there's The Seahorses who are made up of two former members of the band who've released some third rate efforts. And then there's Ian Brown, who's released about 4 albums since leaving his post as The Stone Roses lead singer. Ian's work is quite good. But there's a really weird problem with all of his CDs --- the engineering quality on them is atrocious. I know Ian shoots for a sonic quality in his work. But for some reason either he or the sound engineer thinks that quest should include turning the bass levels up to gansta rap levels. What you're left with --- for example on the very solemn and lovely "Corpses in Their Mouths" on the Unfinished Monkey Business CD --- is a deep, muddled, buzzing sound in the bass line that obscures the vocals. I just thought I had to share that after that Corpses popped up on my Ipod --- you know, in case Ian or his engineer happens to read this.