"F.E.A.R." is the first single from

Ian Brown Ian George Brown (born 20 February 1963) is an English musician. He was the lead singer and the only continuous member of the alternative rock band the Stone Roses from their formation in 1983. Following the band's initial split in 1996, he be ...

's third solo album, '' Music of the Spheres''. Released on 17 September 2001, it placed No. 13 on the UK Singles Chart and was both a commercial and critical success. In late 2002, it won a Muso Award for best single, as voted by his peers in the British music industry. In October 2011, ''NME'' placed it at number 67 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".

Influences

The song incorporates a lyric scheme where each

verse Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse (poetry), a line or lines in a poetic composition * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict meter or rhyme, but still re ...

forms the

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

"F.E.A.R." (for example, ''"For each a road"'' and ''"Fallen empires are ruling"''). In an interview with ''Clash'' magazine, Brown said that a main influence for "F.E.A.R." was ''

The Autobiography of Malcolm X ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X'' is an autobiography written by Muslim American minister and activist Malcolm X in collaboration with American journalist Alex Haley. It was released posthumously on October 29, 1965, nine months after his assas ...

'', which preached the study of

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

, so that one could have "control over people through the use of language." He then created hundreds of acrostics for the word "fear". Brown revisited the concept in the title of the ''

Solarized Solarized is a color scheme for code editors and terminal emulators created by Ethan Schoonover. The scheme is available in a light and a dark mode. Packages that implement the color scheme have been published for many major applications, with ...

'' track, "Time Is My Everything", which is often abbreviated by with the acronym "T.I.M.E." on concert setlists. Remixed and instrumental versions of "F.E.A.R." also appeared in the remix album, '' Remixes of the Spheres''. A 30-second clip of the instrumental version appears at the end of the LP version of ''Music of the Spheres''; this is a tribute to

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player an ...

's ''

What's Going On What's Going On may refer to: Albums * What's Going On (album), ''What's Going On'' (album), a 1971 album by Marvin Gaye *What's Going On (Johnny "Hammond" Smith album), ''What's Going On'' (Johnny "Hammond" Smith album), 1971 * What's Going On (D ...

'' which also featured a clip of the lead track at the end of the album.

Track listing

CD single

#"F.E.A.R." (album version) #"F.E.A.R." (with Dann) #"Hear No See No Speak No" #"F.E.A.R." (CD-ROM video)

7" single

#"F.E.A.R." #"F.E.A.R." (instrumental)

12" single

# "F.E.A.R." (

UNKLE Unkle (often stylised as U.N.K.L.E. or UNKLE, occasionally known as UNKLE Sounds) is a British musical outfit founded in 1992 by James Lavelle. Originally categorised as trip hop, the group once included producer DJ Shadow and have employed a ...

remix)

Release details

Music video

The music video for "F.E.A.R." marked Brown's

directorial A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision. The director has a key role in ch ...

debut. It featured footage of the singer slowly riding a bicycle through the busy streets of

Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

and

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, which was then reversed to give the impression of being ridden backwards. The route followed was from

Berwick Street Berwick Street is a street in the Soho, London, England, Soho district of the City of Westminster, running between Oxford Street to the north and Peter Street at the south. It was built towards the end of the 17th century; several early 18th ce ...

to Gerrard Street.

Certifications

Other uses

A remixed version of the song by Unkle was used as the menu music in the video game F1 2010. The song was used in pre-launch music video promos for CNX, a short-lived British television channel, launched in 2002 and a sister channel to

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fear Songs about language 2001 singles Ian Brown songs Songs written by Dave McCracken 2001 songs Polydor Records singles Songs written by Ian Brown