This album begins with a hell of an intro, and what could be more perfect for a band who've teased us with a new release for so long? While Second Coming might not be worth a five-year wait, it is polished and shined with the kind of care that sharply contrasts with the recent "we made it up in the studio as we went along" efforts of Pearl Jam and REM. There's some serious production here, and overall this record pisses all over Oasis, Suede, and just about all the other whiny dribble England's come up with in the last few years. And despite all the production, much of this still sounds off-handed and fresh. In short, The Stone Roses have done the nearly impossible: They've crafted a giant, wide screen epic of an album that begs comparison with the classics. It thinks big, it acts big, but it delivers.

-Steve Aldrich