T&A Wrote:
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> bottom line is that KR is practically MIA on ABB
> and that's just not a recipe for a good Stones
> album.


Keith is not playing guitars on every track, or almost every track of ABB?

personally always thought brigdes was a nadir...steel wheels too...
i thought VL brilliant tho,
real exciting and diverse and well recorded...
and so totally under-rated for some reason...

i mean i like a cut or two from SW and bridges but that's it...
i think cumulatively they've made ONE great studio album if you collect
trax from '90 on,,,,which is no small thing...(including "high wire"

but the albums are spotty and dotty and hard to listen all the way through for me...unlike other periods...including the seventies stuff with ronnie...

for me B2B will ALWAYS be BETWEEN THE BUTTONS...
an amazing work from start to finish...hot hot hot...
cool cool cool...

specific to this thread title tho; i think RJ and LMDS, absolute wonderous classics...and a select one or two others from ABB...are better, imo, than practically all of bridges.

Keith plays - but there are zero fresh ideas coming from him. that's what I mean by MIA. Mailed in....

Who cares which one is better? I've got 'em both and tend to enjoy them both.

Bridges has better songs and better production. And more time spent on it also is my guess. Things I don't like about BTB is the ugly artwork, and the title.
Blessed Poison is better for a title.
The record sounds warm to my ears, anyway.
Not every track is great though.

To think B2B even APPROACHES ABB means you are either deaf or drunk or BOTH.

perhaps deafness and drunkenness (not to mention dumbness) are underrated.....

I'm probably going to get shat on for this, but I prefer Steel Wheels to both.

nikkibong Wrote:
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> I'm probably going to get shat on for this, but I
> prefer Steel Wheels to both.

oh no! oh! how can you? explain that!

Posted by: barbabang (IP Logged)
"Bridges has better songs > dont think
and better production." > agree

bridges has better songs from K but Infamy is a damn good "idea" of a song
unfortunately he is damn lazy

bridges has better production even if i dont like how they mix drums on FTS and, in general, how Was is a conservative producer. The other who contributed gave the album a kind of personality. Bridges also has overall better lyrics. But the album is filled with mediocre songs.

Abb on the other hand has more crap in it (IMHO) but has in itself a 42/45 minutes high level basic rock and roll album. Production is lame but songs are simple and strong (It wont take long is a perfect example of both) and you can compare with its brother Lowdown that "sounds better" but is weaker (imho)

Saint of me, Thief in the night, How can I stop and Flip the switch are the only keepers for me but the second one is the only song that I will mix in between the greatest songs of the band. Saint of me is the closest Mick got to the perfect pop-rock mix he aims at so badly. Good singalong but no backbone.
Out of control has a very good outro (expecially live) and also a brilliant Motown/Stax flavour but the songwriting is a perfect example of the weakest Mick. With Laugh I nearly died he succeded in that he failed with OOC.
Too Tight is a nice between the buttons type of rock song but cant be compared with the rockers on ABB. Might as well is far better and more challenging blues number than BOMH but the creative arrangement and production don't convince me in the end. BOMH is conservative and simplistic but gets to the (modest) point.

Sum: B2B is more ambitious but fails pretty short, ABB is a kind of "low budget" album where you have both the good and the bad of that attitude > more matter of fact but songs are often more sketched out.
Weakness of B2B: songwriting
Weakness of ABB: length and lazyness in refining songs (music and lyrics)
Strength odf B2B: performance of the band and additional musicians
Strength odf B2B: ideas of songs, mood

I think Bridges to Babylon is WAY better. Its the best Stones album in a long while, and would've been amazingly better, though, if it wasn't filled with all those Jagger tag alongs. Those @#$%& ruined some of it. I honestly don't get why the Stones need people to tell them how to make music...I mean, does Jagger even know about those one albums from back in the '60s and '70s? You know, like Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers etc.? Shit, the Stones ruled the world before Don Was even existed, so why is that freak still around?

nikkibong Wrote:
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> I'm probably going to get shat on for this, but I
> prefer Steel Wheels to both.


newly back and starting right up again?
;-)
p.s. plop-plop

Beelyboy Wrote:
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> nikkibong Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I'm probably going to get shat on for this, but
> I
> > prefer Steel Wheels to both.
>
>
> newly back and starting right up again?
> ;-)
> p.s. plop-plop


SW has Mixed Emotions, Almost Hear You Sigh and Slipping Away. Do BTB or ABB have three songs this good? Methinks not . . .

Mixed Emotions blows ass, nikki - your cold/ladyfriend are seriously affecting your hearing....

oh come on StonesTod, you know you can't help but singalong "you're not the only one . . ."

Tops Wrote:
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My ratings 89 and on...

Steel wheels 7/10
Wandering Spirit 8.5/10
Main Offender 7.9/10
Voodoo Lounge 9.8/10
BTB 8/10
Goddess 3/10
ABB 8.9/10

JumpingKentFlash

I'll join the 89 and on ratings club:

Steel Wheels 2/10
Voodoo Lounge 5/10
Bridges 3/10
Licks New Tracks 2.5/4
Bigger Bang 7/10

Pretty skimpy for 17 years (those f@#*&ing solo albums--what a waste!).

JumpingKentFlash Wrote:
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> Tops Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> My ratings 89 and on...
>
> Steel wheels 7/10
> Wandering Spirit 8.5/10
> Main Offender 7.9/10
> Voodoo Lounge 9.8/10
> BTB 8/10
> Goddess 3/10
> ABB 8.9/10

3 out of 10 for Godess? Come on, do you even own it? It has good songs, and you know you like 'em!

3/10 is a generous rating for DITD

I prefer Bridges because it's full of musical ideas.
The only songs on ABB that really bring something very strong are RFD, Neocon and LIND but the rest is just mediocre material, sometimes with self-parodical lyrics, well produced (sound-wise), though.
Bridges is more coherent and has more strong or experimental songs like Out Of Control, How Can I Stop, Might As Well Get Juiced...and a wonderful, radio-fitting single.
I think the main reason for the greatness of BtB is that Keef seemed to bring in a lot more in 1997 than he did in 2005.
On the next album, Keith and Ron should have more influence on the songwriting.

Steel wheels : 6/10
Voodoo lounge : 7/10
B2B : 5/10
ABB : 7/10

did you ever notice that Lowdown is pretty much the same song as Rock Awhile from Talk is Cheap? Keith's rhythm,the bass & drums are the same. Rock Awhile has a Keith/Sarah Dash vocal somewhat similar to Mick's Lowdown vocal (lyrics totally different but similar style). There is a lead guitar on top of Lowdown not on Rock Awhile. W Wachtel played on both.
I just toggled between these accidentally and could not tell the difference at certain parts.

I really remember disliking it after buying it save a few decent numbers. It is worth another re-visit as you suggested OpenG.

Make sure it sucked as bad as I remembered! haha will keep an open mind.

Alway loved the riff in SOM.

Maybe if you put together the best songs from Voodoo, B2B and ABB you'd have one good record... Let's be honest, ABB isn't really that good. I'd say Wandering Spirit blows all these records out of the water.

B2B is weakest of the studio albums since SW.
FTS sucks - corny
OOC sucks - hated at the shows when there sooo many great songs.
a couple good ballads and SOM is great.

SW, VL and ABB are much better. Even the production is better. B2B is thin, not a solid sounding recording. Hate Gunface.

SW and VL are the top two.

jjflash73 Wrote:
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> B2B is weakest of the studio albums since SW.
> FTS sucks - corny

Agree! FTS is a lowpoint for me too.

> OOC sucks - hated at the shows when there sooo
> many great songs.

Don't agree, it was GREAT!

> a couple good ballads and SOM is great.

Saint of Me is great.

> SW, VL and ABB are much better. Even the
> production is better. B2B is thin, not a solid
> sounding recording. Hate Gunface.

Hate Gunface, me too.

> SW and VL are the top two.


Exchange SW with A Bigger Bang, please.

Erik
Mixed Emotions is one under rated Stones song. The ballads - Almost Hear You Sigh, Slipping Away are just great.
Rock and a Hard Place rocks
and then there 'Terrifying' which is so cool.

I like ABB a lot. but I think SW has better writing and I am a Jagger lyrics guy.

That first line of 'Rough Justice' kills me, this is the guy who wrote 'Sympathy' and he says 'baby chicken'. ouch, it hurts.

Love the lyrics of LWTCDI and many more.

Its a toss up. I give it to SW because it was the first album in years, a tour after many years and the songwriting.

I respect your opinion.

as u can see by the track list from the US release;
btb is the clearly superior album: at least 3/4 of these tracks KILL:

Let's Spend the Night Together
All Sold Out
Yesterday's Papers
My Obsession
Ruby Tuesday
Who's Been Sleeping Here?
Connection
Complicated
She Smiled Sweetly
Miss Amanda Jones
Cool, Calm and Collected
Something Happened to Me Yesterday

Beelyboy

B2B Bridges to Babylon is the topic bro, if it was Between the Buttons I would be screaming. That is a classic!!! Sorry for any confusion.

Nikkibong - agree with you, first time ever, SW and Vl are much better than B2B. No contest.

And where the hell was KR when the ABB was being recorded? It was only him and Mick writing, CW was ill.

jjflash73 Wrote:
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> Erik
> Mixed Emotions is one under rated Stones song. The
> ballads - Almost Hear You Sigh, Slipping Away are
> just great.
> Rock and a Hard Place rocks
> and then there 'Terrifying' which is so cool.

>
> That first line of 'Rough Justice' kills me, this
> is the guy who wrote 'Sympathy' and he says 'baby
> chicken'. ouch, it hurts.

what, and the "horny as a hog" lyric is jagger at his most poetic?!