when announced new album coming out & your expectations:

After released honestly upon hearing were you:

Pleasantly suprised

About what you thought / expected

slightly disappointed

Very dissapointed / letdown think stinks

Personally I was highly suprised & very pleased other diehards: MEZ

Hand on heart, the first time i heard it I must admit to feeling dissappointed.

after the press conference, where jagger was telling the masses that the new album was going to be rocking and hard hitting, I really thought it was gonna be a back to raw rock n roll

Then when I first heard Rough justice, i nearly shit, it totally rocked, it was raw and reminded me a lt of rocks off.

When I finally heard it, I thought it was too produced and clean, with not enough rocking tunes, plus some superfluus tunes that shouldn't have been on there.

It's grown on me now, and now I've edited it down to 12 tracks getting rid of Rain Fell Down, This Place is Empty, Sweet Neo-con & Biggest Mistake' I think it's a good album - just not the album I was expecting / hoping for.

pleasantly surprised james. No, i was glad, i realized in about five minutes that i was listening to their best albums since a very long long time ago. now, i still love it so much. me and my friends play it every funckin' day!!!

I knew you had great taste Faraway! James

I was worried when I first got BB that there would only be a few songs on it that I liked, like on Bridges, but I freakin love em' all! I didn't realy like rain fell down. Turns out that song is my husbands favorite on the album so it has grown on me. I play it all the time since I bought it. I'm so thrilled. I Love The Rolling Stones!!!! Rj, lwtcdi, dtf my favs. Later y'all, Susan

My answer is :pleasantly surprised.
How many albums have you instantly liked after listening only once? to me only a handful and among them only one Stones album ,Get Yer ya ya's out ,because I knew all the songs from the original recordings.
I know by experience that when it comes to the Stones I must take my time and wait to see whether the songs grow on me or not.My expectations are always very high,I guess I alaways looking for another Sticky,Bleed..
ABB grew on me slowly but steadily and to me it's their best since Tattoo you.
May I remind you ,distinguished members of this board, that Exile received poor critics when it came out.Today it's being considered as their masterpiece.
Back to ABB: thinking that these guys after more than 40 years of writing rock music history are still able to come out with powerful songs,I mean ,HATS OFF !

I loved it from the first seconds of RJ and right to the end. Then it grew on me, and now I think everything on it is good, except Let Me Down Slow and Biggest Mistake. And these two songs aren't even throwaways....

JumpingKentFlash

Maybe I am a slow starter, but I was and still am sad about ABB. I really hoped for something a bit different from the usual formula, hopefully something more 'rootsy', a bit bluesy perhaps.
I still haven't bought the album, but I know all the tracks - I've heared it all before, too many times......sorry.

At first, I was slightly dissappointed with ABB, but by now, the album is at a level that I expected, which is on par with Bridges and VL.
There's no Don't Stop on this record, and at times, Mick shouts more than he sings, and Driving Too Fast feels like it lacks a 3rd verse, but these are only minor mishaps when you look at what's on the album. My picks are (in no particular order): Let Me Down Slow, She Saw Me Coming, Infamy, Driving Too Fast, Biggest Mistake, Rough Justice, Laugh and Back Of My Hand. I'm not so fond of the other songs on there. I tend to skip Rain Fall Down, Sweet Neo-Con (both disco songs), This Place Is Empty Without You (well...), Dangerous Beauty (got this bad band chemistry Undercover vibe to it) and Look What the Cat Dragged In (Beatle bashing as metaphors in 2005? Come on...)
I miss Ronnies guitar when he's not present, but that was not to be, and it's good to see that he's back.

didnt expect much...so i was pleasantly surprised

i expected a lot and was blown away.
after a few weeks of submerging myself in it,
i was even more blown away, and have stayed that way.


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

i love it now. we'll see if it has lasting power. if in 2 years it still gets in the rotation, then it is a classic.

Best album since Tattoo You or Undercover but I hate the mix/production. Way too "bright". Vocals are way out on top and snare is loud and clangy. Guitars are low in the mix. The middle tones are missing. Going back to Some Girls era everything seemed to be at same level--Mick's voice worked as one of the instruments now it's like "Mick and loud snare drum w/ a band somewhere far back". I would lower Mick and "warm" the snare and then it would be great.

Rough Justice has loud guitars and is mixed by someone different than the rest of the album. What's the deal w/ that? It sounds great--rocks harder than anything in 20/25 years by Stones.

i like this album pretty much...nice feeling. but it could have been a little shorter some songs are rubbish, eg. neo con, lwtcdi and dtf. rj really rocks hard.´unfortunately i haven´t heard any of the new tracks live.. but i´m already waiting for a dvd from the boston show.

why are you always comparing stones´new stuff with their achivements from decades ago? the band has evolved a lot in all these years, haven´t they? they have changed their tastes of music. Jagger got a lot influence from dance, and richards likes reggae.

I was pleasantly surprised. The only song I don't love is Neo. It just has an awkward groove to me ... similar to one of my least favorite stones tunes of all time: Hold Back. Other than that, I can't get enough of BB. I love the rockers, but LIND is incredible and RFD is funky stuff. This album really has something you can sink your teeth into. LIND could fit right on side two of Tatoo You. I would also like to mention my recent addiction to the tremendous guitar work of Look What the cat dragged in....too cool.

Best Stones Reggae was from 70s although I also like You Don't Have to Mean It. Anxious to hear Get Up Stand Up live.

I was without doubt pleasently surprised.....

I was very much in doubt, what they were able to put up after 8 years of waiting, no record from Keith, so so record from Mick and nothing from Ron....

The same with the show - very well surprised. You never know, when it will be the last time and the least you want is Stones acting like fools on stage....

-



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-12-22 05:01 by cirrhosis.

Chas Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Best album since Tattoo You or Undercover but I
> hate the mix/production. Way too "bright". Vocals
> are way out on top and snare is loud and clangy.
> Guitars are low in the mix. The middle tones are
> missing. Going back to Some Girls era everything
> seemed to be at same level--Mick's voice worked as
> one of the instruments now it's like "Mick and
> loud snare drum w/ a band somewhere far back".

Turning down the mic of Mick wouldn't help, but turning up the band would.

billwebster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Chas Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Best album since Tattoo You or Undercover but
> I
> > hate the mix/production. Way too "bright".
> Vocals
> > are way out on top and snare is loud and
> clangy.
> > Guitars are low in the mix. The middle tones
> are
> > missing. Going back to Some Girls era
> everything
> > seemed to be at same level--Mick's voice
> worked as
> > one of the instruments now it's like "Mick
> and
> > loud snare drum w/ a band somewhere far
> back".
>
> Turning down the mic of Mick wouldn't help, but
> turning up the band would.
>
>
>
sure it would...just bring down Jagger's vocals in the mix...that makes the instrumentation louder

Let me at those knobs!

liked it when i first heard it...by the third listen i knew we had something good. Still listening and liking it very much 2 months after which I KNOW I HAVENT DONE SINCE TATTOO YOU

I was delighted, but thought it was alittle too long. Leaving out a couple of songs or so would have made it stronger. Which two or three? Everybody's differs, but for me, Neo-Con and Driving. Maybe Streets, too.

I was stunned by its quality. Far better than expected.

I love it more & more all the time! It really is good. MEZ

Mick didn't want his guitar playing drowing out his singing!

Pleasently surprised!

Like, love or hate Mick, it proves that he is a creative machine.

Disappointed about the lack of Keith/Ron in most songs.

I am really into "Look What The Cat Dragged In" now that I have worn out Rough Justice, Back of My Hand and Oh No...

Didn't care for LWTCDI at first but it's got wailing guitars and groovy Undercover of the Night percussion. Like a way more rocked out Undercover. Did I mention the guitar playing on this? Can't get enough of it.

One of the greatest albums of the Stones. I don't know if it is the best or the runner up or on the third place ... that's not essential. You have hard hitting rockers as "ONNYA", very melodic rockers as "Let Me Down Slow", classic blues ("BOMH"), and great ballads, particularly "This Place is Empty". And Í like the mix which is analytical, you can hear every instrument loud and clear, the guitars are prominent in the mix. I think that Don Was is the right man for the right band. He has worked with the band since "Voodoo Lounge", and the sound of all the three studio albums is great, in my opinion. So I was surprised and enjoyed, but I expected a very good album, cause I liked the four new compositions on "Forty Licks". It seemed to me a promise, and ABB fullfills it indeed.

I prefer the 40 Licks new songs production. I find it warmer, more appropriate for rnr. ABB still rocks just a little too "bright".

ABB IS WITHOUT DOUBT THE SINGLE BEST ALBUM THEY HAVE DONE SINCE GOATS HEAD SOUP.