I dunno, this record is weird, I played it in the office today both of the 20 year old chickies liked it, especially LMDS, but it made me uncomfortable, the letchy old Jagger, playing the satanic lover and the sentimental wimp at the same time its annoying. Also I hate Dangerous Beauty, the double meaning is puke inducing, about that little gimp in Irag.

On the other hand the first 2 songs are great, as is ONNYA, I think its a mixed bag, but frankly I prefer the wild aggression of records like Dirty Work and Undercover,or the Ultra Stonesy sound of Main Offender, to the rather sanitised BOMH or Infamy. But its one of those albums, it will look different as time goes on, a worthwhile (near) end of career effort.
Also SSMC is still making me sing along to "Wild Thing"

So thats my 50p over and out.......................

wore out on it after about 6-8 listens...haven't played it in about 3 weeks. no shelf life at all, it seems. like I've said...problem is in the lack of KR contributions (idea-wise, not necessarily guitar-wise)...it's essentially GITD part two with a better band.

I play it often and still think that the record has got great consistency and will brilliantly stand the test of time. as in every Stones record, there are always new things to discover in it!

"got to be worked on
don't have no bark nor bite..."

T&A Wrote:
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> wore out on it after about 6-8 listens...haven't
> played it in about 3 weeks. no shelf life at all,
> it seems. like I've said...problem is in the lack
> of KR contributions (idea-wise, not necessarily
> guitar-wise)...it's essentially GITD part two with
> a better band.


I truely feel bad you feel this way. I have listened to it every day just about since its release. I am not even sure if I could give it a full review after only hearing it 6 or so times.

humanriff, funny you mention playing it in your office. I did the same thing last week and a few of the younger girls simply loved it, especially Streets Of Love. They even asked me to make them a copy because of that song.

The incredible thing is the almost offensive similarity of hook between IWTL and Infamy... which on top, is an undeveloped, poorly structured embryo of a closer!
And I hate the lack of distinctive melody all over... I undertstand a strong Rolling Stones rocker does not necessarily need one... But those somewhat stronger rockers remind you of this, then of that... (Yeah, gimme Main Offender any time!!)
The more I look at the cover, the more I see a terrible irony in it. We flash you in the face this "bigger bang" light, but once you get "inside" there is nothing but a blank, dark premise...

Yeah my 12 yr old daughter sings along to Streets of Love. Her other fave's are Ruby Tues. and Beast of Burden ("the pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty girls song"). But usually she sticks to Eminem, Green Day, Gwen Stefani, top 10.

IWTL - ?

every time i play "the bang" it still holds fine

It won't take long.


The record is playing in my car all the time.
It's great to listen to while on the road.
Plus I'm too lazy to switch records from car to house et vice versa.

I absolutely love ABB.

J-J-Flash Wrote:
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> T&A Wrote:
> >
>
> I truely feel bad you feel this way. I have
> listened to it every day just about since its
> release. I am not even sure if I could give it a
> full review after only hearing it 6 or so times.
>
>

Yeah - but you don't keep banging (no pun intended) your head against the wall, right? If something doesn't grab you after repeated listenings, you move on. I listen to ALOT of music and have plenty of other choices and I don't think it's wise to "choose poorly."

You remind me here of another thing, T&A. And I don't mean this to brag or anything, nor to be doing any age discrimination... But as you get older and more experienced, and accumulate hours upon hours of music listening, whether with recordings on in live situations, a lot of people do become "faster" in their appreciation capabilities. (Which is probably the same in any field!) Furthermore, this capability is increased when the music becomes simpler.
In other words, no I don't think I need to listen to aBB a few dozen times to be able to review it publicly... This morning at work I spun it probably for the last time before the coming Montreal concert of January, after which I might be enticed to play it again, who knows... Or if someone draws my attention to some piece or detail thereof... Otherwise there is no way I will unshelve it...

I have noticed that many people here who had a negative attitude towards the album before it came out all said it was pretty good when it first came out then went back to being negative and saying its bad after hearing it.

What I meant by listening to it a handful of times before dismissing it was that with Stones albums I always notice more things after repeated listens. And their records always seem to grow on me. Even an album like Dirty Work I thought sucked when it came out, now I can listen to it and feel that it is not half bad. That is just an example, I liked ABB pretty much from the start but more so over time.

I certainly didn't have any "attitude" about the album before I heard it. I think my expectations were relatively low, based on their paucity of output over the past decade or so. In retrospect, I think my expectations were basically met.

Odd-beat - I definitely agree with your points. I think as you get older the problem becomes one of less and less time to listen to more and more and you realize life is short and not worth wasting on "marginal" listening experiences.

I still am listening to it, I really think it is much better then anything since Undercover, its a really good album and it is sad that many here don't like it, I'm not critizing anybody for that mind you to each their own, I just thought most every stones fan would dig it but I guess we are a diverse group of fans, oh well

Limbostone Wrote:
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>
> The record is playing in my car all the time.
> It's great to listen to while on the road.

> I absolutely love ABB.

Same here.

I think it's a great record.
The songs I've listened to the most times are -

Laught I Nearly Died
Sweet Neo Con
Driving To Fast
Look What The Cat Dragged In
Rough Justice

I find myself popping the CD into my car and playing tracks 10-15 (Oh No, Dangerous Beauty, Laugh, Sweet Neocon, Look What the Cat, Driving Too Fast). I love this sequence of songs. It lasts just long enough for my drive from work to home.

T&A Wrote:
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> wore out on it after about 6-8 listens...haven't
> played it in about 3 weeks. no shelf life at all,
> it seems. like I've said...problem is in the lack
> of KR contributions (idea-wise, not necessarily
> guitar-wise)...it's essentially GITD part two with
> a better band.

I couldn't agree more. I like "Rough justice" though so I even bought it on red vinyl so I will be able to put it in my jukebox (that I will possibly buy one day).

I do like some songs on it, yes, but as a Rolling Stones album A BIGGER BANG is as flaw as it can be. Better than STEEL WHEELS or stuff like that but then I don't listen too often to that one either.

T&A Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wore out on it after about 6-8 listens...haven't
> played it in about 3 weeks. no shelf life at all,
> it seems. like I've said...problem is in the lack
> of KR contributions (idea-wise, not necessarily
> guitar-wise)...it's essentially GITD part two with
> a better band.

I couldn't agree more. I like "Rough justice" though so I even bought it on red vinyl so I will be able to put it in my jukebox (that I will possibly buy one day).

I do like some songs on it, yes, but as a Rolling Stones album A BIGGER BANG is as flaw as it can be. Better than STEEL WHEELS or stuff like that but then I don't listen too often to that one either.

I think ABB has good songs and great performances but would benefit tremendously from a warmer production and groovier bass lines. Don Was's production has not completely shaken the 80s loose, I don't think. With all these "garage punk RnR" young groups happening (White Stripes, Strokes, Franz Ferd, Modest Mouse,even Green Day) I'm surprised they didn't play to that angle. Get Jack White to produce--I love the album he did for Loretta Lynn.

I think this album is there most rocking-est since '81/'83, though, best of post-Undercover.

after almost 2 months, it is holding up. clearly their best since 1981

Best album since Tat You and T&A should promptly get back on his meds!

I very much dig what you said odd-beat in both your posts. I know what you're sayiong about "getting faster" in being able to assess music. Even faster in knowing how to appreciate. But this is a dangerous, kind of arrogant attitude to have. I do this too. But I have now learned to try not to. I find myself assuming that I see through much of what comes my way. It is that kind of attitude that has me "scanning" a new album sometimes; just checking in on a song and basically summing it up after ca. 1 minute. Where I say to myself "Okay here was the intro thing with the single guitar, good stable fill w/drums when kicking in...oh I see they're doing the hi-hat thing in the verses...good f/x on the Bass...they'll probably do a minor key shift for the bridge," (skip ahead to bridge)".."yep there they go.." That kind of thing. I have realized that I, and only I myself am robbing myself of one of the ebst things in life. If someone like the Stones who I have accepted are smater than me, and older and wiser too, presents this kind of song to me, then I think to myself :They surely know something I don't". So I give them the respect of listening to the song from scratch as if it was Exile" for the first time at age 10. Granted, this kind of attitude adjustment works ONLY if I have accepted that I bow to the Stones' choices, Their sense of balance.

I gotta admit when I first listened to this disc it reminded me of Voodoo Lounge: good songs, well-performed, but kinda Stones-by-the-numbers. After a couple of weeks though it has really grown on me. The best thing about it is that several songs really sound fresh, to my ears: Let Me Down Slow, She Saw Me Coming, Biggest Mistake, Sweet Neocon are all like that. It's got a couple of songs that quickly wore out, but I count 11 real strong tunes. I say best disc since Dirty Work, but since not many share my taste for that one, I'll go with best since Tatoo. As Mel Brooks would say, "it's good to be a Stones fan". Or good to be king, or something like that....

Karl

great, insightful posts ChelseaDrugstore & Odd-Beat...i am in the process of re-learning to listen to music now with fresh ears...and it helps to re-discover the joy

Bigger Bang is great album.Keith reaaly palyed some goody guitar specially in OH No not you again and Dangerous Beauty.

October 23rd was the first time I heard something else since the ABB release. Now I listen to all the stuff I used to, and ABB is one of them. I've started to see it as part of the discography, and it's very good. I think it's the best album since VL (Which wins by a small margin). And VL was the best since Exile. So after Exile it's:
1.- VL.
2.- ABB.

No Some Girls. And that's not an accident.

JumpingKentFlash

ABB can't be no 2

It is, so make like a hockey stick dude.

JumpingKentFlash

JumpingKentFlash Wrote:
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I think it's the best album since
> VL (Which wins by a small margin).

eh? theres only been one other album since Voodoo Lounge!