The World Is Yours

The World is Yours is the fifth solo album by Ian Brown, released on 15 October 2007. In making the album, Brown enlisted the help of The Smiths and Happy Mondays bassists Andy Rourke and Paul Ryder respectively. He also sought the services of Paul McCartney to play bass on one of the tracks, but failed as McCartney was too busy at the time. Meanwhile, Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook appeared on the album. Illegal Attacks was released as the album's first single, on 8 October 2007, and was a contentious track, dealing head-on with the political issues of the day. The opening notes of the song are plucked softly in arpeggios, which are juxtaposed with the confrontational opening line, "What the fuck is this UK?" The song then pulses with an ominous, grinding cello, and culminates with Ian Brown pleading earnestly for the return of British soldiers to their homeland, "Soldiers, soldiers come home, Soldiers come home", (lyrics which had previously been used in "So Many Soldiers" on Golden Greats.) The song "On Track" made its debut seven months prior to the release of the actual album on the soundtrack album for Russian 2-part sci-fi movie "Paragraph 78" as an exclusive track. It was used in the closing titles for the first part of the movie. This version was 20 seconds longer as compared to the "The World Is Yours" album version and was a bit lighter as to the orchestral arrangement. The album was also released in a 2CD deluxe edition, along with a bonus disc containing orchestral arrangements of all twelve tracks.