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flacnvinyl
Streets of Love, Sweet Neo Con, Look What The Cat Dragged In, Driving Too Fast and Infamy are terrible songs (in my opinion).
Under The Radar, Rough Justice, Oh No Not You Again, and the most underrated song on the album, Let Me Down Slow, are highlights.
Overall I'd say many of us hate the mixing! The mastering crunched the hell out of every song. Rough Justice is so blown out and distorted that the snare just eats into everything. If any dynamic range were left it would sound more like She's So Cold, and it would come off as a far more powerful opener! Oh No Not You Again has the rhythm guitar mixed at HALF the volume of Keith's fills. Don't get me wrong... I like Keith's riffs, but the rhythm drives the whole song. Not to mention the TERRIBLE sound of the kick drum. Just a loud thud.
Album had great potential. They should have ditched a few songs or take more time to craft the tracks into something more memorable... something they'd like to play on tour. And fire the engineers responsible for mixing and mastering.
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Gazza
Methinks some people on here just protesteth too much.
I dont think theres any Stones album which is widely disliked on here, let alone hated.
Even their most mediocre studio records (a list which IMO consists of Satanic Majesties and Dirty Work) have a few moments of magnificence which make them better than the finest albums by 95% of acts on the planet.
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Spud
It's just the now typical "brick wall" mastering that I don't like.
If the production allowed the recording to breathe, it would be much more rewarding to listen to.
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Gazza
Even their most mediocre studio records (a list which IMO consists of Satanic Majesties...
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Grison
I just wonder why so many on this board dislike this and that and those and others and still step in.
Sometimes it seems to me that a great portion of people never left pre 1981 and don't realize that the Stones did to oustanding work after Some Girls as well.
For me A Bigger Bang is one of the most refreshing albums. And I also like the compilation of the songs and how they're put together. Despite my doubts about Streets of Love I was surprised how good it worked on stage even.
Anyway I strongly suggest that some should take the move and create a loveandhatesite on their own. But then again it might be boring here....
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RockinJive
love the album. People bitch just for the sake of complaining. That's all.
Sweet Neocon wasn't my favourite on ABB, but I am as surprised as you are to the hostility to the track. I mean it should not be that surprising that such lyrics could occur on a Stones album.Quote
CanYouHearTheMusic
Of all their post-WWIII albums, I like this one the most. It's still not an album of theirs I get out very often, but there are some definite highlights.
Question: Why is it a consensus that "Sweet Neo Con" is one of their worst songs/one of this album's worst songs? Are the people who claim this a) libertarians, b) genuine fans of the Rumsfeld/Cheney/Bush policies or c) people who actually liked the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments at that time? I personally thought it was one of the three best on the record and that Mick's lyrics were really biting and the music snarled! I was wholly disappointed that, in his effort to not get the boos from half of the divided crowd that CSNY got every night they played "Let's Impeach The President" on their concurrent tour, they NEVER played it live. Mick's genuine urge to be daring had long been replaced by the need for total audience acceptance, 100% of the time if possible. A shame.
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winter
ABB is frustrating to me because it's such a missed opportunity. And since it's the only real full studio release in 16 years, that frustration is compounded. I think they had good material; good enough to be that long-awaited post-TY undisputed 'classic' that VL and B2B didn't quite turn out to be due to their lengths and lack of just one or 2 more guitar-y anthems each. After coming up with a really solid batch of song ideas, I think Mick, Keith and Don Was kind of blew off the rest of the process of arranging/producing. (The 2002 model, ala "Don't Stop".)
1. Songcraft was thrown out the window. Not much effort put into crafting intros, endings, bridges or instrumental breaks to dynamically energize the songs that needed it. LIND, RFD and BOMH are almost the only songs that actually sound like they were 'fully realized' or finished. And nary a single decent guitar/sax/harp break or solo out of 18 tracks? That's a first.
2. Demo-ish sounding. The lack of decent arrangements, solos and care make the songs sound weak and unfinished, like the 4 2002 cuts on 40Licks. Where's that piano or acoustic guitar, whether in the foreground or imperceptibly filling out the sound? 0:20 seconds into SSMC it sounds like Mick didn't finish the improvised lyric ideas so it comes off as unfinished. Why not lop off the opening 10 seconds of RJ noodling? Why not just take some time to play around with SNC's chorus melody so it doesn't just sound like "Nyah-nyah Nyah-nyah"; those were great biting lyrics. It's the producers again coming up short in their role; there was definitely a really great album here but they slacked off and followed the 2002 model.
3. Guitar anthems. When you have more potentially great guitar riffage songs than practically every album since SG, you need to lovingly give them attention, full sounding arrangements, impeccable guitar overdubs, etc. UTR, SSMC, RJ, RFD, LWTCDI and DTF would have been more masterfully treated and nourished on ANY prior Stones' record.
4. Presentation. As many have noted, brick walled sound and too many songs. Let the mixes breathe and whittle it down to 45 minutes; release the rest as outtakes, b-sides, downloads, etc. And the handling of UTR as a deluxe edition bonus track only?! Face palm. Shoulda been one of the first tracks that everybody heard on the album and trotted out on the road.
Again, great starting material and feels, but a frustrating listening experience because they didn't flesh out the songs and let them live up to their potential. Then they brickwalled the sound and didn't cull the songs down to the strongest 10 tracks. A missed opportunity.
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CanYouHearTheMusic
Are the people who claim this a) libertarians
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CanYouHearTheMusic
Question: Why is it a consensus that "Sweet Neo Con" is one of their worst songs/one of this album's worst songs? Are the people who claim this a) libertarians, b) genuine fans of the Rumsfeld/Cheney/Bush policies or c) people who actually liked the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments at that time?