Ian Brown - NME Godlike Genius, Q Legend - returns this autumn. The new single Stellify is released 21 September on Fiction. It is followed a week later by his sixth studio album, My Way, which will debut almost two years to the day after his last long player, The World Is Yours. Where that record was led by the anti-war single Illegal Attacks, My Way sees Brown moving from social commentary to the personal, drawing deep from his own experiences to create his most intensely emotional record in years.
The bulk of the 12 tracks were co-written with long time collaborator Dave McCracken at Battery Studios, where Brown and the Stone Roses recorded their seminal debut 20 years before. When he bumped into that album's producer, John Leckie, in the studio corridors for the first time in two decades, it proved the catalyst for another landmark record, but this time one that spans the length and breadth of Brown's extraordinary life.
Stellify, the opening track and first single, sets the tone, with staccato rhythms colliding with pounding bass and euphoric brass, as Brown addresses his "angel falling from the sky". Another standout track Crowning Of The Poor quickly follows, telling the tale of the "son of a poor boy", of dreams and aspirations, and of where things went right and wrong. Whilst the lyrics find Brown in reflective mood, the instrumentation is resolutely forward-thinking, led by propulsive synths, hip-hop beats and basslines strenuously road-tested by his teenage son's in-car rig. By the time So High brings the album to a close, Brown has covered more than four decades, including 12 years of the Roses and more than 10 as a solo performer, whilst assembling an album that is arguably his finest work.
Ian Brown has been confirmed as a very special guest on the main stage at the 2009 Reading and Leeds festivals. More dates will be announced shortly.
Stellify is released 21 September 2009 on Fiction; My Way follows 28 September
