As the frontman for Madchester legends The Stone Roses, Ian Brown showed how psychedelic pop and rave rhythms offered parallel paths to spiritual transcendence. As a solo artist, he's continued to crosswire hazy-headed melodies with modern club sounds, evolving beyond the post-Roses electro-funk of 1999's “Love Like a Fountain” to arrive at the Rihanna-inspired R&B of 2009's “Stellify”. But Brown's perma-chill voice can belie the acidic rhetoric of his words. After a 10-year layoff (during which the Roses reunited), Brown returned in 2019 with “First World Problems”, updating the classic Madchester sound to speak to our current condition.