First Reni leaves The Stone Roses, effectively retiring from rock'n'roll; then John Squire jumps ship and launches The Seahorses; finally, Mani cries off and throws in his lot with Primal Scream. So what's poor Ian Brown to do? Why, anything he wants, because now he's got the whole place all to himself. The first solo album from the former singer of The Stone Roses sounds like the work of an amateur musician having it his way in the recording studio, and, true to its title, has a messy, incomplete feel. Brown tackles most of the instruments himself, learning as he goes along, but rarely reaching anything close to competence. Sure, half-decent songs like What Happened To Ya Part 1 and Corpses In Their Mouths benefit from Brown's lo-fi style, but Ice Cold Cube is diluted by the downbeat approach, and Lions dissolves in a disastrous flurry of drum programming and keyboard twiddling. For some of the tracks Brown enlists the help of guitarist Aziz Ibrahim, John Squire's replacement in The Stone Roses, and his old mate Reni on drums, so songs like Can't See Me and What Happened To Ya Part II have the makings of a coherent groove, and the recent single, My Star, has enough flashes of pop brilliance to shine through the matt sheen. One suspects that if Brown hadn't once been a pivotal figure in the birth of Britpop, then this album would never have made it past the A&R man's in-tray. But strangely, despite its almost wilfully unprofessional quality, Unfinished Monkey Business still has a few rough ideas to keep you listening right to the final, floundering tune, and you can't help feeling a grudging admiration for Brown's bottle. He must be made of something tougher than Stone.