Great album openers get the listeners to keep on listening. They can do this in any number of ways. Some openers set the tone by easing us in. Others jump right in and blow our minds from the very beginning. A great album opener isn’t an easy thing to create. More than a great song, it’s all about the sequence. Track 1 has to be the perfect starter. This month, I’m highlighting my favorites. #AlbumOpeningSongs
A review of the best album openers isn’t complete without “I Wanna Be Adored”. For one year, this was the greatest band alive. The Stone Roses never regained form after recording one of the strongest albums ever made. But they deserve a ton of credit for inspiring a new musical era and helping to birth the Manchester scene. They say that The Velvet Underground was the band that made kids want to start a rock band. Well, that’s what The Stone Roses were for me. If I were to be in a band, I would want it to be just like The Stone Roses. Indexing high on magnetic one-liners, airy production and attitude. And “I Wanna Be Adored” will forever be The Stone Roses’ one true anthem.
It’s their entry into the rock world and perhaps it’s also a glimpse into what ultimately caused their demise. On every part of this track, there was an attitude that we haven’t heard before: Ian Brown’s insistent vocals, John Squire’s wailing guitar, Reni’s barrage on the drum kit and that killer bass line from Mani. The bass seems to have a mind of its own. Meandering as if it’s lost and in complete control at the same time. There’s an incredible audacity to the lyrics as they’re written like they came from a band that was already on top of the world. But it happened the other way around. After they wrote and produced the song and album, it seemed like they were on top staring everyone else down.