10 Greatest Ever Stone Roses Songs
2. Love Spreads
Arriving five years after their debut, follow up album Second Coming bewildered many fans. Legal disputes with record company Silvertone had stalled their career, followed by an unproductive, drug fuelled sojourn holed up in a Welsh recording studio.
Years out of the spotlight only heightened expectations. People wanted an album that built on the creative success of Fool’s Gold.
With guitarist John Squire seizing control of songwriting duties they delivered something else entirely. The uneven album brimmed with Led Zeppelin inspired blues rock and, to a lesser extent, Led Zep inspired folk rock. It was doomed to disappoint.
All these years later we can enjoy the album’s best bits on their own merits. Not least lead single Love Spreads, a hugely entertaining blues rock groove.
The song’s crucifixion imagery plays into fans perception of the band as quasi-messianic figures. Or maybe it was just a studio in-joke. “Bloody hell John, blues rock? The fans are gonna crucify us!”