The Stone Roses formed in 1984 and released their first full length debut, The Stone Roses, in spring 1989. The album brought the band nationwide success and cemented their reputation amoung critics. The album is still regarded by some as one of the most important albums ever made.
In 2004 an Observer Music Monthly poll, consisting of musicians and critics, voted the album the greatest of all time, as did the writers of NME in 2006, declaring it to be the greatest British album of all time. It is widely considered as the seminal record of the Madchester movement that was active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and as being highly responsible for the mid 1990s resurrection of British guitar music that came to be known as Britpop.