For the last few weeks or so, there have been rumours pinging around about a new album from Stone Roses icon Ian Brown. The whispers appeared to be true as Ian Brown posters prematurely went up around Manchester containing the words 'First World Problems'. Today we get the new track in full, and it's been well worth the wait. Brown's last solo effort was 2009's 'My Way', released a couple of years before that lucrative Stone Roses reunion. Ironically after years of fans calling for the band to reform and record new material, their two singles from 2015 were judged as an anticlimactic folly, and people began wishing for more solo stuff from Brown. Today, they've got it. It comes from the upcoming album Ripples, out in March. 'First World Problems' is an interesting return, a bright, uplifting, funky track characterised by strange keyboard sounds.
Brown produced ‘Ripples’ as well as writing the majority of tracks on the album. Three of the songs were co-written with his sons, who also play a multitude of instruments across the release. Covers of Barrington Levy’s ‘Black Roses’ and ‘Break Down The Walls’ by Mikey Dread also feature.
The album was recorded in Liverpool and enhanced in the Beatles room at Abbey Road Studios, before being mixed by long-term collaborator Steve Fitzmaurice. The record was digitally mastered by Bob Ludwig in New York, while the vinyl was mastered by Chris Bellman in LA.
Ian Brown has retained complete creative control of the project - producing the album, directing the video (to be released soon) as well as creating the artwork himself and playing guitar, drums and a host of other instruments throughout the record.