She deserves a pat on the back and a firm handshake for having the nous to see past the countless reams of bullshit that have been written about this comically overrated band over the past 20 years.

that piece is the very definition of workmanlike. She can't even be bothered to slag the album off with any enthusiasm.

I said it before in the other piece about The Roses but I was in my late teens at the time. Acid House and rave culture was to me the most exciting thing I'd seen, and unlike Punk or the 60s I was there! The Stone Roses captured a place and time brilliantly for me, being very Mod but brought up to date. After all Baggy was pretty much a Mod Revival.

Anyhow, the 80s had some fantastic pop moments, but guitars...The Smiths, The Jesus And Mary Chain or U2 were pretty much your lot. Towards the end of the decade bands like The Wonderstuff were starting to bring back guitars and attitude but looking back there isn't much between The Stuffies and The Fratellis. And Miles Hunt may have had a big mouth, but he didn't really start any new trends in music. Unless you count Neds Atomic Dustbin.

Whereas The Roses, much like say The Smiths or The Jam or The Clash Or The Pistols inspired so many bands - either to form new or to change their ways and jump on the bandwagon.

It's not just about the music: Never Mind The Bollocks isn't necessarily the greatest album of all time, but nobody could claim it wasn't an event. The first Roses album for a lot of people fits that category. It was a huge kick up the back side for British music.

are the Fratellis ?

Especially with the point about the lyrics. She doesn't actually manage to quote any howlers - just that the song 'I Wanna Be Adored' has the lyrics 'I Wanna Be Adored' in it. Hmmm probably about the same or less as 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' repeats its title.

As for 'She's The One' - presumably she means 'This Is The One' - it's the same thing, but she ignores great lines like 'I'd like to leave the country, For a month of sundays, Burn the town where I was born' and 'a girl consumed by fire'.

Oh and Ian Brown's not Mairah Carey - hold the front page!

Shit journalism even if you agree with the sentiment

"second only to The Doors as the most overrated band in pop history" is particularly telling. To dismiss The Doors in such a throwaway fashion is just ignorant. To dismiss the Roses the same way is less contentious, but no less wrong. I'd suggest that 'The Stone Roses' and 'L A Woman' are both in any top 100 albums list worth its salt.

Furthermore, when the article goes on to state, "'Kiss me where the sun don't shine / The past was yours but the future's mine' – is seen as prophetic, a brilliant statement of intent. To me it just seems like foolish chutzpah." it serves to inadvertently admit that the writer has no understanding whatsoever about the moment in time in which the album belongs. That line in the song is a brilliant crystalisation of how I felt when I first encountered both the Roses and The Happy Mondays; hopeful.

Over-rated? Of course. Every exciting new thing eventually palls, and the rosy specs are supplanted by the grimy glasses of hindsight. Bloody awful? No, not at all. Inspiring and uplifting is what they were, and at the time it sounded fucking marvellous.

There is no comparison between the light, varied rhythms and quality, subtle jingly guitar of The Stone Roses and the stodgy, crude playing of Oasis and their followers. It's the argument of the feeble minded to blame an act for the unimaginative, inferior copying of those that follow, unable to come up with their ideas. One might as well blame The Beatles for all those who thought they too could write their own songs - look what you've gone and done! The Stone Roses came up with their own idea when no one else was doing the same thing.

... come on, it makes a change from people going on and on about The Clash (a band no-less overrated).

So what if they influenced other bands that people don't like - what's it got to do with them?

Plus, it was a bit of a leap from the debut album to Fool's Gold wasn't it? Can't think of Oasis or any other bands doing something similar.

Question: Would people rave on about Oasis in the same way if they split after their first album?