Ian Brown, Unfinished Monkey Business Reviews

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Good Points: It's not quite the Ian Brown that you would expect to hear now, but for a man not quite knowing his place or style in the aftermath of the Roses, it's a stunning debut, topped only by Golden Greats. Under produced? Yep. Confused? Yep. Brilliant? Yep.

Bad Points: Very few, although the album does lose some steam towards the end. Nah Nah and the title track serve no real point on the album, while some of Brown's questionable lyrics are also prominent in certain places (Corpses In Their Mouth). Otherwise, it's hard to criticise Unfinished Monkey Business

General comments: It usually manages to polarise opinion, but Unfinished Monkey Business sees Brown in fine form, on an album financed by himself, with the instruments played by himself, despite his relative inexperience. With the transition from Second Coming era Stone Roses (Ice Cold Cube was debuted at the final, disastrous Roses concert at Reading '96, on here it's arguably the highlight of the album) into the new-age Brown still occurring, there is quite a mix of musical styles and moods, but in it's own way, it works. Much has been made of the under produced nature of the album, but it has to be said that on tracks such as What Happened to Ya Part 1 and Deep Pile Dreams, overt dubbing and implementation of groovy beats may well have spoiled the song.