

A career-cripplingly hard act to follow, The Stone Roses’ shaggy-but-sculpted 1989 debut nevertheless comes by its reputation as one of the finest UK albums ever. The thing is basically a tower of monster singles. All of which—from messianic widescreen-psych come-ons like “I Wanna Be Adored” and “I Am the Resurrection” to “Fool’s Gold,” a wah-wah’d, wiggly wonder that’s arguably the Madchester era’s definitive rave-‘n’-roll anthem—sounded like they’d been around forever upon delivery and will be around forever for precisely the same reason.