10 Rock Music Acts Who Peaked With Their First Album

8. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses are one of the most influential bands in the history of British music. First swaggering onto the scene in 1985, the Manchester quarter and their sound would play a huge role in inspiring so many majors UK acts of the '90s and beyond.

Key to that inspiration and influence? Why, that would be the Roses' self-titled 1989 album.

In I Wanna Be Adored, this record had one of the all-time great album openers, with the slow rolling bassline of Mani enticing you in as the song unravelled into a true indie rock classic. And in I Am the Resurrection, this album has one of the all-time great closing tracks - as Resurrection's eight-minute run time explodes into a phenomenal John Squire masterclass that perfectly highlights why Squire is revered as one of the best to ever pick up a guitar.

Sandwiched between these excellent opening and closing numbers, there's belter after belter; the frantic, explosive She Bangs the Drums, the riff-tastic Waterfall, the jittering, driving Bye Bye Badman, the bitter political swipes of Elizabeth My Dear and Sugar Spun Sister, and the iconic, all-engulfing This Is the One.

Due to countless issues within the band, it took a further five years for the next proper album to arrive in the shape of the opinion-splitting Second Coming, with 1992 also seeing a B-sides and early singles collection put out as Turns Into Stone.

While Second Coming certainly has a handful of fine songs, neither than nor Turns Into Stone are a patch on the sheer brilliance of the Stones Roses' self-titled debut.

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