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whitem8
While there are some good songs on the album, the biggest problem is it just doesn't feel like the Stones. One of their first albums where I really just didn't feel like I was listening to The Rolling Stones. Steel Wheels and Voodoo Lounge, to some extent, have the same problem. But with A Bigger Bang it just feels like a solo record with Keith and the rest of the crew backing Jagger. Hearing Crosseyed Heart, I think if Keith had written, or offered to actually write with Jagger, A Bigger Bang would be a much more rewarding listening experience. But as it is, there are moments of crunching joy, like Rough Justice, juxtaposed with some of the most banally insipid music The Stones have ever put on wax. Yes, that would be Streets of Love! Coupled with rote rockers that sound soulless, such as Oh No Not You Again, with no heavy riff to hang the cliched lyrics on. And yes, the lyrics at times are quite wonderful, then utter crap. So again, this is an album I have rarely gone back to. it bores me, and when I wanna rock, I hit something that sounds like The Rolling Stones or are The Rolling Stones.
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SuperC
A IORR poster stated once that the mid-late 80's & 90's albums sound like a modern day cover band trying to be the Stones - couldn't agree more with this description. Slick, overproduced, generic sound w/ largely paint by numbers song writing. Sure, a few exceptions here and there but mostly music that I never listen again to after the initial spin or two.
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franzk
Rough Justice - nice rocker, but predictable
Let Me Down Slow - I really like it, it should've been 1st single
It Won't Take Long - nice, but not great
Rain Fall Down - great
Streets Of Love - dissapointing on the album, but great live
Back Of My Hand - nice, but again too predictable
She Saw Me Coming - OK
Biggest Mistake - good
This Place Is Empty - really touching Keith ballad
Oh No, Not You Again - cool
Dangerous Beauty - filler
Laugh, I Nearly Died - fantastic, best on the album
Sweet Neo Con - should've been erased as soon as they recored it. So bad that's almost funny
Look What The Cat Dragged In - kinda nice but filler
Driving Too Fast - boring
Infamy - ok
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TooTough
Why should they ever realease a new album when their own fans don´t like their
output of the last 30 years?
I like ABB very much, it was a good album with good songwriting, not made
to change the world, but made to put something NEW out (what some here are
looking forward to again - and bitching about that in 5 years).
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TooTough
Why should they ever realease a new album when their own fans don´t like their
output of the last 30 years?
I like ABB very much, it was a good album with good songwriting, not made
to change the world, but made to put something NEW out (what some here are
looking forward to again - and bitching about that in 5 years).
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franzk
Rough Justice - nice rocker, but predictable
Let Me Down Slow - I really like it, it should've been 1st single
It Won't Take Long - nice, but not great
Rain Fall Down - great
Streets Of Love - dissapointing on the album, but great live
Back Of My Hand - nice, but again too predictable
She Saw Me Coming - OK
Biggest Mistake - good
This Place Is Empty - really touching Keith ballad
Oh No, Not You Again - cool
Dangerous Beauty - filler
Laugh, I Nearly Died - fantastic, best on the album
Sweet Neo Con - should've been erased as soon as they recored it. So bad that's almost funny
Look What The Cat Dragged In - kinda nice but filler
Driving Too Fast - boring
Infamy - ok
Change "ok" to "horrible" for Infamy and I would agree 100% with your verdict!
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HMS
Just listened to Sweet Neo Con out of curiosity - a lot of people seem to almost "hate" that song and I had only a vague idea what the song sounds like after several years of not listening to it.
Much to my own surprise I liked what I heard - so I listened to it three times and started to even like it more than the first time. It´s a very unusual song in many ways, one of the rare political statements and musically kind of strange but very interesting with exotic, in fact oriental flavor. Listen to those heavy drums and sharp guitars, fantastic. But even more fantastic is once again the way Mick plays the harp. Mick´s angry voice sounds very good on this one, the lyrics are at times very good and show that they sometimes care for other things than girls. Not every line is good but overall the lyrics are not bad. This is a very underrated song imo, it deserves more attention than it usually seems to get. Go and listen to it, perhaps just like me you will be surprised in a positive way. This is indeed one of the highlights of the album, if you give it time to grow.
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Turner68
This isn't even a real Stones album. Bill Wyman was not a member of the band when it was made.
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HMS
Just listened to Sweet Neo Con out of curiosity - a lot of people seem to almost "hate" that song and I had only a vague idea what the song sounds like after several years of not listening to it.
Much to my own surprise I liked what I heard - so I listened to it three times and started to even like it more than the first time. It´s a very unusual song in many ways, one of the rare political statements and musically kind of strange but very interesting with exotic, in fact oriental flavor. Listen to those heavy drums and sharp guitars, fantastic. But even more fantastic is once again the way Mick plays the harp. Mick´s angry voice sounds very good on this one, the lyrics are at times very good and show that they sometimes care for other things than girls. Not every line is good but overall the lyrics are not bad. This is a very underrated song imo, it deserves more attention than it usually seems to get. Go and listen to it, perhaps just like me you will be surprised in a positive way. This is indeed one of the highlights of the album, if you give it time to grow.
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DandelionPowderman
The tracks I still enjoy:
Rough Justice
Let Me Down Slow
Back Of My Hand
She Saw Me Coming
Biggest Mistake
This Place Is Empty
Dangerous Beauty
The rest I grew tired of, or they were pretty bad to begin with. I liked Laugh, I Nearly Died a while. Now I can't listen to it (apart from the big Mick-choir, that's cool).
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GasLightStreetQuote
HMS
Just listened to Sweet Neo Con out of curiosity - a lot of people seem to almost "hate" that song and I had only a vague idea what the song sounds like after several years of not listening to it.
Much to my own surprise I liked what I heard - so I listened to it three times and started to even like it more than the first time. It´s a very unusual song in many ways, one of the rare political statements and musically kind of strange but very interesting with exotic, in fact oriental flavor. Listen to those heavy drums and sharp guitars, fantastic. But even more fantastic is once again the way Mick plays the harp. Mick´s angry voice sounds very good on this one, the lyrics are at times very good and show that they sometimes care for other things than girls. Not every line is good but overall the lyrics are not bad. This is a very underrated song imo, it deserves more attention than it usually seems to get. Go and listen to it, perhaps just like me you will be surprised in a positive way. This is indeed one of the highlights of the album, if you give it time to grow.
It is clear why you like DIRTY WORK so much: you just like really bad Rolling Stones. You don't and can't like really good Rolling Stones. Sweet Neo Con is really bad.
Lyrically it's weak. He did his best writing for Dangerous Beauty, a much heavier political track that got absolutely zero attention at the same time this stain-the-toilet track did.
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Witness
I for one (or for a very small minority) did like that the Stones expressed some views once again on society and on politics.
The element of subtlety of the song was presented by one poster here, when I myself had not yet caught hold of the album. That consists of the lyrics not being voiced by Mick Jagger, the vocalist, apart from the refrain "How come you're so wrong, my sweet neo-con". Instead in this conception, the lines of the verses are the words allotted to one NeoCon, allegedly spoken by that hypothetical person.
I find that the song is perhaps more important than it is a grand song as such. On the other hand, in a way of less is more, as many Stones songs are, in my outlook, I find that the music's more or less harshness in my outlook suits the lyrics rather well. So I consider "Sweet NeoCon" as a song that contributes to define the album and be among the songs that make A BIGGER BANG verging on the semi-great. The potential objections to such a characterization, which I still can see, would in case for me be other songs that many will prefer, but to me are more derivative of earlier song material from the band,if not directly, so indirectly.
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TooTough
Why should they ever realease a new album when their own fans don´t like their
output of the last 30 years?