Slowly working my way through various missed Stones albums. Dudes're prolific! Also, 1973.
In the Stones' cannon this seems to be Exile on Main Street's little brother. Recorded under similarly exil'd conditions, often adhering to a similarly dusty aesthetic, and following on the tail end of a pretty incredible run of albums, the critical consensus seemed to be that this album was a turning point into disappointment and the end of the Stones' golden age.
Maybe its the blessing/curse of hearing records years later and out of context, but I think its a lot better than most people seemed to think. Sure it, had a lot to live up to, but there's some great variety here, a shredded intensity, and an embarrassment of beautiful moments.
On the front side, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo and Dancing with Mr. D are the kind of rollicking Stones jams that Primal Scream at its best tried to recreate, while 100 Years Ago crunches with some of the crispest drumming the Charlie Watts ever put to tape. The second half, meanwhile, has some masterstrokes of feel and texture. Hide Your Love bumps with baritone, Can You Hear the Music has a sawtooth Ratatat heart, and Winter's solo soars alongside strings like The Smashing Pumpkins finest moments*.
Maybe there's some sick hipster contratianism leading me astray, leading me to praise the un-over-praised, but I like this one. In fact, its funny I should mention The Smashing Pumpkins (a band the Stones generally sound nothing like), I think there's some of that wild eclecticism of Mellon Collie on display here. That playfulness, that flailing at ideas and resistance to downpinning, that cascading from theme to theme, sound to sound, one perfect moment leading into another completely unlike it a song and a half later. I've got a soft sport for that kind of thing. I suspect strongly that I'm overrating this, and I'm pretty sure I rated much better regarded albums much lower earlier in this project, but at the moment I heard it I downright liked this one here. Maybe I'm just benefitting from not having burned out with a new great Rolling Stones album a year for 5 years straight and can take it at its merits, as a perfectly good album 4.5/5
You might like this if: You like good'ole rock and roll, with a desperate, imaginative slash through it.
* Actually, most specifically The Last Song, which featured a similarly gorgeous solo played, not by Billy Corgan, but by William Corgan Senior. Important facts!
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