Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened: Friday March 4

Second Coming was one of the first CDs I ever owned. I might not have even bought it; I might have stolen it from my brother. I was a little on the young side to remember their self-titled first record contemporaneously (though I love it now), so I didn’t really understand how excited people were that Second Coming came out after so many long years (5). I also got this album when I was so innocent that I don’t think I processed until now that it’s called “Second Coming” (which I always read as “This is our second album and we like religious themes”) and there’s a penis illustration on the cover right next to the word “Coming”. Har har!

The two Stone Roses albums are very different, but both have their merits. Tears could be a lost Led Zeppelin song. Second Coming is at once balladeering and funky and has righteous lyrics that are fun to sing along to (“I’m going to break right into heaven”, “love spreads her arms and waits there for the nails”, “all through the night I watch the sky”, “I’ve seen the future in the tracks of your tears”). It’s truly a classic of 90s Britpop, in a wholly different way than The Stone Roses album.