Review: Live4ever’s verdict on the new Stone Roses single ‘All For One’


Pennie Smith

Pennie Smith




Matt Humphrey:

Are some things better left alone? Maybe, but an insatiable curiosity for what might be possible can often trump one’s protection of a legacy.

Whilst ‘All For One’ may not emulate the quality of many Roses tracks that have become ingrained in the fabric of Manchester’s musical heritage, it’s still a decent, direct pop song which offers glimmers of the baggy magic that made them such a force in the late 80s.

What is lacks is that emotive, rousing energy of songs on their debut, but perhaps ‘All For One’ has been cherry-picked for its accessible, commercial, sing-along appeal. They’ve not reinvented the wheel, rather given us more of the same, and on its own merits it is a solid effort.

Andy Peterson:

21 years – that’s a lot of water, under a lot of bridge. In fact, it’s been so long that the bridge got pulled down and the river’s full of prams and cars and old dreams; if anything was a metaphor for what you should’ve done with your life, it’s the roaring chasm between the last new Roses material and now.

The sense of anticipation was of course only possible because The Stone Roses are a band who’ve managed to transcend bad blood, bad management and a (largely) bad follow up album to remain cryogenically frozen in our hearts somewhere between the end of the Berlin Wall and the Poll Tax riots.

So on with the show: what’s ‘All For One’ like? Well, it’s more ‘One Love’ than ‘Breaking Into Heaven’, a heap full of positive sentiment – stick together, we can beat the man, stronger holding hands – it’s peaceful, it’s protest, it’s pop. Ian Brown sounds fresher than he has done in years, whilst Squire has stepped away from the pedals, kicking out a blues and generally taking us up yonder mountain in that effortless way he had when we was kids. ‘All For One’s a sixties/eigthies/nowies thing, not soaked in amphetamines and dressed in baggy jeans because locating it in a specific place and time would only end up with us feeling out of time everywhere, instead of 2016.

We all have questions, of course. Is it the best thing they’ve ever done? Course not, next. Is it the sound of a band, not four people? Yes. Can we get excited about a new album? Definitely. ‘All For One’ isn’t a statement record: it’s a nod of the head, a tapping foot, a prelude to good times you’ll need to save up your head for. And let’s face it, we weren’t expecting to get much more than that.

Dave Smith:

An instant verdict for something which feels like a lifetime in the making…How exactly should we judge ‘All For One’? On its own merits, of course, but is that really possible for a single with such a weight of history on its shoulders? The Stone Roses know all about the burden of expectation regardless; refer to the fist-waving response the Zeppelin riffage of ‘Second Coming’ received from those desperate for a repeat of the melody drenched, effortlessly fused songwriting of its classic predecessor.



If we are going to compare it to the past, ‘All For One’ certainly does immediately put thoughts back to 1989 rather than 1994. Its lyrics lack the bite of Brown the twenty-something however, but the guitars have the unmistakable, warming glow of John Squire’s genius. Above all, it doesn’t feel particularly disappointing, and given everything that’s perhaps the highest praise it can receive at this early stage.

Ryan Walker:

Let’s ignore the clichéd response of an old band getting back together and making new tunes and saying, ‘it sounds like a classic, old tune, but for now’. ‘All For One’ is a song that still walks on the same side of the street as their seminal, legendary, unbeatable, immovable debut – those ideas of oneness, togetherness, the desire for unity, equality, liberty – the classic Roses conventions springing and sprinting throughout the track.

It’s also a song that can open for the Roses in June, a galloping, cocksure kaleidoscope of magnetic signature guitar solos from Squire, the whispering mantra meditating with melody from the punk-rock psychedelic pop drone of Brown, the multi-limbed rhythm section of our bass and drum duo Mani and Reni. The band interlock well, the tune has a spine, it has eyes, and a smile, one can now safely take a deep breath and inhale that ethereal freshness, ‘join hands, and make a wall’.

Steven White:

The band have lost none of their previous kinship in calling it ‘All For One’. An expedient PR-move on their part you might say. We’re all in it with them and their triumphant comeback together, like old friends reunited after a long stretch apart. A familiar-sounding John Squire riff (squat somewhere between ‘Waterfall’ and ‘Love Spreads’) runs through the track, powered by Reni’s hyped-up drum beats and mimicked by a cheery Mani bassline.

Defiant and repetitive is their tone, as if they’ve got a lot of making up and reminding how great they are to do. ‘All For One’ might have crept on to their last studio album, or been an outtake from it. It’s nowhere near worthy to lick up the classic crumbs left behind by their debut album, but it’s unfair, however inevitable after such a layoff, to compare like that. Just be glad that they haven’t shamed themselves with this comeback. They’ve stuck to their roots, and their roots were always good enough.


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