Now, I know y'all have been waiting for more than a year to read my review of The Rolling Stones' latest album. Is it worth buying? Well, I guess that by now its price has dropped significantly, so that may well be the case. You know what? when I'm listening to this on my stereo, I'm thinking to myself "this isn't half bad", basically it's way better than anyone could reasonably expect from a bunch of geriatric rockers. But afterwards this simile came to my mind: you know how there are tricks one can use to make stale bread edible again, delicious even? (back me up here, Marina; you know how). Well, that's how it feels: like I just ate some stale bread and enjoyed it. How was this miracle achieved? First of all, it's the raw materials: Jagger's ageless vocal, Keef's riffs, the underrated Ron Wood. Sure, Charlie has left the planet, but there are substitutes for almost everything nowadays, aren't there? As for finding the right cook, enter 33-year old Andrew Watt, who graduated effortlessly from producing popstars like Justin Bieber and Rita Ora to 80-year old rock legends like The Stones, Ozzy, and Iggy Pop. One may doubt his credentials, but one thing's evident: the guy is like a great forger; one who may not be able to paint a masterpiece but has studied Van Gogh's technique well enough that he can produce a slightly different version of "sunflowers" and pass it up as a minor work by the master himself. Case in point, opener "Angry": a typical Stones rocker reminiscent of classics like "Start Me Up" or "You Got Me Rockin'". What some call "return to form", I call self-plagiarism. Same difference, really. It sounds good, but I have the nagging feeling that it could have been written by an AI with access to a Rolling Stones greatest hits compilation. I much better like the attempts to slightly modernize The Stones' sound: "The Whole Wide World" and "Mess It Up" remind me of British 90's indie bands - let's say Ocean Colour Scene and Franz Ferdinand, respectively. Those kind of remind me of Bridges To Babylon; not among The Stones' best albums, but the last one in which they tried to sound contemporary. "Bite My Head Off" is reminiscent of another time The Stones tried to follow the spirit of the age, albeit with better results: back in '78, they wrote a number of punk-inspired songs for Some Girls. They didn't sound entirely convincing then, and sound even less convincing now. The best part of this punkish tune is a distorted bass guitar solo played by... Paul McCartney - The Beatles vs. Stones antipathy always was a media myth, Paul's on good terms with The Stones, he's even the one who suggested they use Watt as a producer. "Live By The Sword" is another unconvincingly aggressive hard rocker. It nevertheless has the distinction of reuniting Mick and Keith with The Stones' original rhythm section for the first time in decades. Not only is it one of two tracks here featuring Charlie Watts on drums (recording sessions started in 2019, when he was still in good health) but Bill Wyman also briefly rejoins the band on bass after 30 years of absence. To top it all up, Elton John makes a cameo on piano. "Get Close" and "Driving Me Too Hard" are a couple of mid-tempo rockers that fall under the previously mentioned self-plagiarizing category. Recognizable as The Stones, yet utterly forgettable. Ballads include "Depending On You", the obligatory Keith Richards lead vocal "Tell Me Straight", and acoustic country "Dreamy Skies" - nice slide guitar and harmonica here. Which brings us to the undisputed album highlight "Sweet Sounds Of Heaven". A gospel-style tour de force sounding like a (heavenly, indeed) cross between "Wild Horses" and "Gimme Shelter". Jagger delivers his most soulful vocal in ages, while famous guests rise to the occasion: Lady Gaga on vocals channels the spirit of Aretha, while Stevie Wonder on keyboards channels... well, himself; what more can one ask for? The album closes with a faithful acoustic cover of Muddy Waters' "Rolling Stone Blues", the song that gave the band their name. It's their most honest song here, and among the most satisfying - just as their previous blues covers album was among their best of the last 40 years, an obvious labor of love instead of yet another attempt to resurrect old glories. If "Rolling Stone Blues" turns out to be The Stones' last song on their last LP, it'd be taking them full circle and make for a perfect career closure. That's nevertheless probably not the case; according to Jagger, there are many more songs left at the cutting room floor, waiting to be re-worked and polished until they sign as brightly as the ones included in Hackney Diamonds. As there should be; after all the band hadn't made an album of new material in 18 years, they're bound to have written more songs than these. The question is: do we really want to hear the ones that didn't make the initial cut? When it took so much time and effort, famous guests and hotshot producers, to make a simply decent album from the top-tier of the available songs? Or is it time to quit? Well, people have been asking that last question for 40 years, and the answer has always been NO. My guess is it'll continue to be the same, at least as long as Mick and Keith are still physically able to sing and play guitar.
***** for Sweet Sounds of Heaven
**** for Angry, Whole Wide World, Mess It Up, Rolling Stone Blues
*** for Get Close, Depending on You, Bite My Head Off, Dreamy Skies, Live by the Sword, Driving Me Too Hard, Tell Me Straight
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