Twenty years... of the long waited 'come back' album. Yeah, how time flies, and it still like one of the 'recent' Stones albums...
Perhaps never been an album sounded to my ears first so nice, but then very quick has run out of any interest - and something in it still prevents me of rethinking of its value. Okay, to contribute to this thread I relistened the album and had few drinks with my lady... Nice way to spend a Saturday night!
It's so much product of its time. It's the slick production that mostly detroys the album, but that's NOT the only explanation. For example, I still find both PRIMITIVE COOL and TALK IS CHEAP much more interesting albums. There is so much 'compromise' feeling in the album - seemingly, Mick and Keith are colloborating with silky hands - after several years of 'cold war' neither of them seem to upset other by two 'radical' ideas. I never been too convinced of their 'buddy' feeling in 1989 - it sounds more and more that they made a business deal that they need to tolarate each other in order to keep the business going on - and Cohl most probably had presented them a deal with numbers they could not refuse... At the time it was reported how quickly they did the whole thing: the songs, the actual recording, and then the tour... (a bit same with ABB actually - it means also that they didn't spend the time to find the right take, the right feeling, the right inspiration, the re-try, the re-shape, etc... Most likely from STEEL WHEELS on they would be live Mick Jagger time in studio - the days of 'artistic' Keith leadership days were over.)
I think that the economical, Jaggerish push is to be heard in the actual tracks. I find for example, the way "Hold On Your Hat" rocks very forced - it hasn't that natural groove they have in their best rockers. It sounds like that they need to waste a lot of energy to sound rocking hard enough; it has the feeling "hey listen: we can still rock hard!!. Jagger shouts and screams but almost without point or direction. The opening song of "Sad Sad Sad" is a total throwaway within the Stones rocker series. "Rock and A Hard Place" is a bit too Stones by numbers kind of number, too obvious... a bluesy "Break The Spell" comes and goes almost without noticing.
Then the 'mid-series' - "Hearts of Sale" has a potentia but goes finally nowhere. "Mixed Emotions"has the typical Stones groove, and a nice, catchy chorus - a good song but perhaps a bit too calculated of that "now we are back and buddies" feeling - also something too 'obvious' in it, but surely one of the strongest cuts. Keith's "Can't Be Seen" is a bit AOR number; unusual chord changes yes, but too much 'teflon' in it.
"Terrifying" sounds slickier than anything in PRIMITIVE COOL - The Stones totally in strange waters - and that's a song I probably can never be able to listen to the end. It is as far from the rawness or dirtiness than Stones never have been or can be. Jagger sings folky "Blinded By Love" like a Saturday night karaoke number, but there is something so human or vulnerable I find it fascinating, but the charm won't last many relistenings.
The strongest cuts are probably from the melody section: "Almost Hear You Sigh" shows that the slickness can be used to work for the band, too. One cannot resist the sereine call of the acoustic guitar - the trademark of the times - and Jagger's voice that makes a grown man cry. "Slipping Away" is the first time Keith Richards ballad started to sound like a cliche or "I heard this before", but it is a good song.
Then there is total bonus: "Continental Drift" - yeah, world music was a hip thing, but taking the Stones history into account, it is a strong and justified performance. One of the strongest and most interesting pieces ever in recorded Stones history. Maybe the last time they really tried to enrichen their musical vocabulary with an obvious success. It shows that there is actually a living, sensitive and reflecting core somehere deep there in Glimmer hearts. Seemingly this was also the song in the album they put most energy - even travelled to Morocco to record the JouJouka masters.
Gotta go!
- Doxa
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2009-01-10 20:49 by Doxa.