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powerage78
Definitely a good album, full of energy and desire, which for me is the most important thing. Contagious enthusiasm, I'd say. We're in 2023, and we're talking about a new Stones album. It's pretty incredible all the same. How it will age and fit into the band's discography, we'll see. In a good place, I think.

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Palace Revolution 2000

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keefriffhards
Its ridiculous to say I'm not a Stones fan because i can't understand the new album, i remember how thrilled i was when i first played Steel Wheels and Voodoo Lounge, it's surely okay to be confused by the direction you see 80 year old Keith take.

It's not that I'm not a Stones fan it's that this is a Jagger/ Andrew Watts solo album with Keith on it.

It's not a Stones album and i stand by that and no one can convince me otherwise. Its an abomination of a Stones album period, why only 2 tracks with Charlie, what happened to those sessions, why disregard those, he himself said what happened to the album to Ronnie in an interview, it's like they dumped that album for this solo album.

Hey Keefriff, I see your points. And they're valid points. I appreciate that you stick with your opinions, regardless of this uncalled for flack that you seem to catch.
But I say - let Mick have this one. He's kind of earned it. I don't think I have ever seen him so unapologetically excited, and gushing about a new album. He does a good job.
I do think this is what the Stones can give us at this time. And Watt pulled a lot of guitar out of Keith and esp Ronnie. After 'Crosseyed Heart' I really got the sense that Keith was done. Not 'done' as in fried; but more like a content feeling. "I said what I wanted to say, and now I'm chilling". Even Keith himself gives most credit to Jagger for HD. The only secret wish I have is that he would have pumped the brakes on SSOH, and told the room "Whoah; this sounds fukin awful".
I mean there are great things about the album: it's length. Like Doxa says, the CD age has been unkind to the album format. And while Watt's production takes some getting used to, and I still hope they do another low-key follow up album, this is what an artist should do: change. When they put out 'Satanic', I'm sure the reviews were not kind at all.
The only thing I disagree with you on, is that there should be more of Charlie. IMO the 2 tracks is right.

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powerage78
Definitely a good album, full of energy and desire, which for me is the most important thing. Contagious enthusiasm, I'd say. We're in 2023, and we're talking about a new Stones album. It's pretty incredible all the same. How it will age and fit into the band's discography, we'll see. In a good place, I think.

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georgelicks
Final US sales predictions are in, it looks like the album will sell more in the UK this week...

Drake’s For All the Dogs (OVO/Republic) is headed back to #1 after being supplanted in its second week by Bad Bunny’s nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana (Rimas), which will now fall to #3. Meanwhile, Columbia’s blink-182 is set to arrive at #2 with an impressive six-digit bow, and Geffen’s Rolling Stones will see their first album of new music in almost two decades debut in the Top 5.

Now, if you’ll excuse us, we're trying to find out how much candy we can eat before we, too, are "fun-sized."

[m.hitsdailydouble.com]

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matxil

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Witness
Myself I don't know at all what to think about this album. It probably will be rather long before I know. I read some posts, but abstain from others that disturb my own experience too much in my humble approach to it.

All the same, there is one idea I read about that puzzles me. It is the suggested point of view that this is rather much a pop album. Myself I have used that term with the important qualification "progressive pop" about the sequence of albums made up of AFTERMATH, BETWEEN THE BUTTONS and THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES REQUEST and the singles from, say (with some uncertainty), "Satisfaction" up to and including "We Love You"/ "Dandelion". Apart from that, not. Now I wonder in what sense some posters consider this album a pop album.

I consider it a pop album, because the main distinctions of most of the songs are the melody and the chorus/verse(2x)/bridge structure. There are some guitar licks, sure, but they don't dominate or really define the songs. Maybe Angry up to a point is an exception, but even here the song is very much defined by the melody. There is hardly any roughness or jam-like feeling to it.
Blues songs are in general not pop, because their main attraction is not so much the melody or the chorus/verse/bridge thing. And if you think of the Stones' classics (Satisfaction, JJF, Sympathy, Midnight Rambler, Gimme Shelter, Tumbing Dice) or something like Slave (which for some odd reason has been compared with Get Close), those songs are mainly defined by a (often quite repetitive) riff, or a rhythm, a sound, a groove, almost a "trance" if you like.
The songs HD album are mainly defined by how the chorus kicks in after the verse. Also, with pop, in general the lyrics might carry less weight than with other music styles. If you listen to recent interviews with Mick about the way he likes to write songs, it sort of confirms what I am saying.
There's nothing bad about "pop", but it's not what the Stones up until "Tattoo You" were mainly about, for me. (With exceptions, of course, like indeed Aftermath (which I like), Between the Buttons (which I strongly dislike) and Their Satanic (of which I like for 50%, both the poppy Rainbow as the groovy Citadel) or a charming song like Angie.)
For me, the main distinction between the Beatles (brilliant popsong writers) and the Stones was always that the Beatles came up with fantastic melodies like "I Feel Fine" or "Hey Jude" and the Stones came up with simple-chord repetitions like "Midnight Rambler". Anyone could "write" Midnight Rambler, but only the Stones could play it right.

Now, does this mean I want the Stones to re-do their old work like Exile or Let It Bleed? No. What I really would like (but I am very well aware that this is not going to happen), is that the Stones would have moved outside of the realm of pop and songs for the masses. That they would go out on a limb (and maybe fail miserably) and try something out-worldy, and "honest". Artists like Nick Cave or Tom Waits have done that (not always with good results).
But anyway, as a pop album, the HD is certainly not bad. The melodies are often very catchy and stick in your head. I can understand people are happy to listen to it. I am rather happy to listen to it as well (apart from the awful Get Close), but it doesn't give me any "deep vibes" (whatever that means and I am aware it might sound a bit pretentious).

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Witness
[...]
But since you argue with a formal concept, which I do not and even cannot do, I acknowledge that I am unqualified to give an answer to your argument. However, I have learnt something about what you meant. But I wonder how many posters and readers would use your defined concept or, alternatively, a more or less vague genre term like myself.

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matxil

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Witness
[...]
But since you argue with a formal concept, which I do not and even cannot do, I acknowledge that I am unqualified to give an answer to your argument. However, I have learnt something about what you meant. But I wonder how many posters and readers would use your defined concept or, alternatively, a more or less vague genre term like myself.

I have become a big fan of the definition of Swayed1967 (on page 18): pop = you sing it in the shower.

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LeonidP
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Count Ins ... I love them, don't think the Stones did that before, not included on official releases anyway (yes, I am sure I'll be corrected of that one) - but we have 3 in the same album!

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LeonidP

Sway has "1,2,3,4"

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Stoneage
Am I the only one noticing that "Driving Me Too Hard" starts like "Tumbling Dice"? Almost the same intro riff.

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shawnriffhard1

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LeonidP
.

Count Ins ... I love them, don't think the Stones did that before, not included on official releases anyway (yes, I am sure I'll be corrected of that one) - but we have 3 in the same album!

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LeonidP

Sway has "1,2,3,4"

See, I was right! ... in that I would be corrected. Thanks!

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LeonidP
Mick's done just as great before ... check Superheavy, One Day One Night, w/ Joss Stone - not sure Stones fans appreciate how great that one is!

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jahisnotdead

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LeonidP
Mick's done just as great before ... check Superheavy, One Day One Night, w/ Joss Stone - not sure Stones fans appreciate how great that one is!

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Woz
Man, Ronnie's guitar solo on Whole Wide World blows me away. The more I play the record, the more and more I love it.

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georgelicks
UK Midweek Update (Friday/Tuesday sales)

1 The Rolling Stones - Hackney Diamonds (64,628) [58,456 physicals, 4,017 downloads, 2,155 streaming]
2 blink-182 - ONE MORE TIME... (19,996)
3 Bombay Bicycle Club - My Big Day (11,091)
4 Olivia Rodrigo - GUTS (5,494)
5 Drake - For All the Dogs (4,656)

Crazy sales, currently only behind Ed Sheeran (76k) and Taylor Swift (65k) opening weeks this year in the UK, already over Olivia Rodrigo's first week (60k).

A success in their homeland.