if you're interested here's may take on the album after a dozen of complete listenings
first the things that don't work for me
yes the album is too long as someone anticipated when we knew we would get 16 songs
i will burn my own edited copy of ABB without:
Streets of Love
Rain Fell Down
Let Me Down Slow
Biggest Mistake
SOL and RFD because of the overpruduction that destroyed the guitar sound. RFD is really disappointing because it is a good song if it were treated "matter of fact" as a new Hot Stuff or, to take Keith side, Big Enough, if you know what i mean. Lately on the record they got a dirty funk with Sweet Neocon.
LMDS because is too easy. Country meets pop but it does not work for me. Stones know or knew how to rewrite country being straightforward (Faraway eyes, Sweet Virginia) or melting it with r'n'r or other influences (HTW, half Beggars, a lot of Exile). To me country needs to be twisted to be good stones and not make it even easier and mellow. BM is an example in that. First it starts awfully with the chorus. Then it goes as a countish pop ballad too straight for my ears. Mick, later in the record take a sweet revenge working gospel and r'n'b' in what is the best track of this record for me and one of their best ballad ever, Laugh? I Nearly Died.
I know that many people like Dangerous Beauty but I am somehow puzzled by it and think of it as maybe the only real filler of the album. The song gets better in the second half when the boys loose their guitars/vocals but in the end it does not take off for me.
So my ABB goes like this:
1) Rough Justice
2) It Wont Take Long
3) Back Of My Hand
4) She Saw Me Coming
5) This Place Is Empty
6) Oh No! Not You Again
7) Laugh? I Nearly Died
Sweet Neo Con
9) Look What The Cat Drag In
10) Drive Too Fast
11) Infamy
This, IMHO,is 42min of Stones as good as they were at the end of the seventies.
The whole album, IMHO, marks a good point in being more solid than BTB and VL, with, in general, stronger songs and a stronger identity in terms of sound.
So, in my personal historical rating at the moment it stays slightly behind SG, B&B and TY.
That is a 7/8 out of 10 or a B- if you prefer.
RJ rocks loosely as they always should (that, IMHO, does not happen with D
(8/10)
With IWTL Stones try to quote Stones'69 (they don't dare to do it very often)...and they got it right! The song is strong. Maybe even too strong as I feel the need of...i don't know a break with harp or organ or something. But it's a keeper (7.5/10)
BOMH fits perfectly in the tracklist (sure in mine!! hi hi) as they know how to play the blues. The song is maybe too "flat" as someone pointed out but here the most important thing is how they play it and they play it great (7.5)
What many people think of DB I think of SSMC. To me, the perfect single. A great wild riff, a shade of reggae that reminds me of Luxury, Keith on backing vocals as he should ever ever be, Mick crawling and not dictating the lyrics, no guitar solo as greatest stones songs don't need it. Highlight (9/10)
If IWTL quotes Stones'69, ONNYA is Stones'78 and god knows if it works. A soundflood with a great chuckberrysolo. I like when guitar/bass/drums and voice are melted like this. This is stones to me. (8/10)
LIND is something else. Here I am not afraid of any kind of comparison. The sound reminds me a lot of TY side 2, but this song would have been a highlight in LIB or SF, not to speak of B&B. It is top class r'n'b with a gospel soul. You don't get anything better. (10/10)
SNC is funk as i like the stones to funk: dirty and mean, with guitar sounding as Dance, Hot Stuff or Hey Negrita and obsessive and not decorative keyboards. Good harp, nice turn in the end. Unfortunately lyrics are pretty lame. I am not a neo con supporter but I think that Mick delivers a pretty childish political sermone here lacking all the ambiguities of great stones political songs (SFTD, SFM). (7.5/10)
I love LWTCDI. This song is way more than "Undercover + INXS" as someone said. Great song where guitars and percussions fight till the end to take over and you don't know who wins. The song fpr sure. The guitar solo is fantastic, the rhythm is smoking, mick is crawling again, thank god sometimes he forgets how to spell words. (8,5/10)
DTF is Stones'78 again and, again, it works. Strong r'n'r without compromise. Here is the rhythm guitar fighting with bass and then no "beautiful solo" (thank god) but dirty and mean slide again as in the beginning (RJ). (7/10)
Then there's Keith
First thing i want to say is that his songs are both good but, differently from the rest of the album, i think Thief in the night and How can I stop were slightly better. At least this is the case for TPIE for me. A beautiful countryish ballad (i like it better than The Worst) but nothing extraordinary. A good break in the middle but piano, guitar and voice are too sharply separeted for my ears (7/10).
Much better with Infamy. A nice turn at he end of the record with great mick and a groove that, for me, is the trademark of this album (connect this with SSMC and SNC). (8/10)
To sum it up. I got what i was hoping for: a strong album that is for sure a step beyond their latest efforts. With an identity that could be even stronger had they limited the number of songs and/or been guided in that direction by some kind of good producer.