Ian Brown: 'Illegal Attacks'

You could never accuse Ian Brown of sitting on the political fence. With new single 'Illegal Attacks' King Monkey opens with the lines: "So what the **** is this UK / Gunnin' with this US of an A / In Iraq and Iran and in Afghanistan." Rather than brushing around the subject of Western foreign policy, the former Stone Roses frontman takes a sledgehammer and JCB digger to it. It's the sort of boldness we've come to expect from a man who named his best of compilation The Greatest.

While the husky haunting chorus of : "Soldiers / soldiers / Come home" is certainly emotive and heartfelt, the directness of Brown's scathing lyrical attacks end up weighing down heavily on the track. While it's impossible to quibble with whether the singer 'means it', as he chunters about Texas oil barons, war zones and the plight of Palestine, it's less clear as to whether we necessarily want to hear lines such as: "Does a day not go by / Without the Israeli Air Force / Fail to drop bombs from the sky," while we sit down to munch on our breakfast.

The seething, brooding back beat saves the track from being a straightforward political manifesto for the Ian Brown Party, while Sinead O'Connor's brief appearance on backing vocals is also a pleasant surprise, offering support to the typically croaky Brown hollers. Radio play and MTV rotation are bound to be minimal due to the lyrical message, so it's worth hunting down the track to hear what the fuss is about, but don't expect a musical masterpiece from the Madchester legend, as he's sacrificed much of his usual magic to ensure he creates a political punch.