Christ, where to start. IMO the true power of the band was in it's jamming ability, their groove was so strong. On those grounds alone, Resurrection and Fools Gold stand alone, and from second coming Tears is a bit of a standout, although more of Squire virtuoso with able support from bass and drums. I believe One Love was about 30 minutes along at one point, but Silvertone were having none of it. Now that is something I'd like to hear.
From the debut album I always had a real affinity with Sugar Spun Sister, as it does that bitter-sweet 3 minute pop song thing really well (as did Bye Bye Badman). She Bangs the Drums is very flat on the album, suffereing for it's mono recording, The cd single release backed by Standing Here & Mersey Paradise was mixed in stereo and has an infinitly stronger kick into the chorus. Mersey Paradise was the song that hooked me in at the time so I'll give it props as the best of short sharp sweet variety of song they masterfully stole from Jesus and Mary Chain school of song writing.
I'll also give a special mention to Elizabeth My Dear sung live at Glasgow Green at the height of it all, he sings about 3 words and the 10000 crown do the rest. Was a special special night for a young 16 year old hirop.
I can recommend this site
http://www.thestoneroses.co.uk/press/face-january-1990 for anyone wanting to get a feel for what that time was like rather than just listening the music from the time and saying, "eh...it's kinda ok". The press articles are scanned copies of articles from the time, including the articles from Q and The Face. You can't really seperate the three, the vibe, the music, and the drugs all went together to make a heady heady brew. They were kids totally out there depth in a vile music business, yet still made possibly the best album since punk!