No bid for rock'n'roll immortality can hope to succeed unless the aspirants are well-versed in the dictum of Arrogance Is Next To Godliness.

Sure, everybody likes a well-behaved pop star to appear now and again, even if only for the simple reason that you can point at the telly and say to your parents "Look, they're not all drug-crazed, drunken deviants", whereupon you immediately retire to your bedroom and stick on the sleaziest scumbag to hand and applaud yourself for striking another blow for Us Against Them. No-one truly interesting ever became rich and famous by putting the interests of others (and that always includes other members of The Chosen One's band) before their own, the best rock'n'roll acting as an affirmation of Ego on the part of the performer for the benefit of the listener. Which brings us to the Stone Roses.

Opening your debut album with a song called 'I Wanna Be Adored' is an inspired move. Even before a word is sung or a note played the impression is created that The Stone Roses' manifesto is unlikely to include a clause bestowing goodwill to all men and rain forests, and even if they do care they'd probably tell you to fuck off if you asked them, an impression reinforced by the tune itself. The guitars wrap around each other with menacing determination while Ian Brown drawls the title with a lethargic lasciviousness worthy of a young Jagger, not begging but bragging. A pity then that The Stone Roses don't come close to recapturing the thrill of the opener on the rest of the record.