I put this on the other day. Then I got the urge to put it on again. I have come to the conclusion that it is in my top 5 Stones albums - after the big 4 and Some Girls. I don't care how slick the production is - their great songs and it's Keith's last flash of brilliance as a guitarist and songwriter, I reckon.

I share your feeling deuce.

.... ''always suffering'' is a very, very gooood song....never even gets a mention here,, play that one on a clear day with a view

It was a great tour too!

B2B is a great album!!!

I didn't like it when it first came out but I've really taken to it the last few months. As so often the case with the Stones, the album was ahead of it's time, IMHO. Some great tracks here!

Ol' Baboon's also returning to it. Keeps on growin.

Horrible album, sorry guys.
Loved VL though.

Possibly their most underrated album. There are some parts that make me cringe a little (like the rap on Anybody Seen...?), but certainly less than in any of their albums since Tattoo You.

Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful, dreadful.

wouldnt go as far as to put it in the "top 5" but I think its a superb album and I've never tired listening to it.

Excellent album. I started a great appreciation thread for it over on the Rocks Off board some months ago. It's a very different Stones album and in my opinion, a record, which shows the boys, CAN be experimental when they want to be. Most of it works too.

The 2 ballads and Gunface makes me cringe...Flip The Switch too, it sounds so forced. But some songs are great, of course.
Anybody Seen My Baby and Too Tight is 2 of the great ones, that many people on this board don't care for. I was disappointed by ASMB at first listens...I think it's excellent now.

Wow... I hadn't heard the word "album" in years! I forgot about those... been listening to CD's for 20 or so years now... I do miss those Big 'Ol album covers with the fancy art work though...that was cool... ahh, the meories....

A cd can also be an album. Just for the record.

And a record can be a CD and it an be an album, and a CD can be an album and it can be a record and an album can be a CD and it can be a record. If ya know what I mean.

Bridges to Babylon. Interesting album. Loved it then. Love it now. Always Suffering is cringe-inducing and Flip The Switch is much too forced, like Erik Snow sez. The Album, or record or CD, should have started with ASMB and left out Always Suffering. Addition by subtraction. The last 2 keef tunes are amazing.

I always thought that the lines in Flip the Switch about "toothpaste, mouthwash, all that shit" and "I even got myself a little shaving kit" bore Mick's fingerprints. But I was intrigued when I re-read a claim by Keith in an old Q magazine that HE wrote those lines: "Ten days before those Hale-Bopp comet people in San Diego committed mass suicide. And they'd all dressed themselves up and packed their cases and put in these little shaving kits. I almost described the scene before it happened."

I always felt that Always Suffering and Already Over Me were a little redundant of one another. I could have lived without one of them but can't decide which one is more expendable. I would have gotten rid of Low Down, too, to come up with a lean 11-track album.

In that same issue of Q, Mick says that Thief in the Night "always stayed where it was in the demo and never seemed to flower." Hate seeing the boys dissing each other in print.

Q gave the album three stars, by the way. Time out of Mind, reviewed in the same issue, got four stars. Not that any of this matters now or then.

Not in my Top 5, but definitely in my Top 10. A near-classic, the Stones' best album since Undercover.




IMO, there is not one weak song on the album. It's fresh and the Stones don't feel the need to go, "Hay, look at us, we're trying to make our music sound exactly the same as it did back in the good ol' days!!", which plagues Voodoo Lounge. And they use different producers, aside from Don Was, something which also hindered VL.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-10-02 01:30 by it's_all_wrong.

And many of those songs, I might add, sounded great live. The versions of Out of Control, Saint of Me, Flip the Switch, and perhaps especially Thief in the Night are themselves worth the price of No Security.

Exactly

Out of Control when played live was an absolute showstopper (as was 'Saint' to a slightly lesser extent) and the audience loved it.

It was proof positive that even in their 50's the Stones could put on a concert where they didnt have to reply on songs written in the first half of their career to get the crowd worked up. The Stones knew it too - I only wish they felt the same way about their new material as they did pre-40 Licks.

The version of OOC on No Security is worth the cost of the album on its own

ROCKMAN

Very good album, it's a grower for me. Gets better every year. (Never liked the cover art of it though, but the album is better than ABB for me, right now)

Yeah they sure burnt up buckets of electricity on all
live Out Of Controls...and dont forget the MSG 16 Jan 1998
Don Was Live Remix version found on US Promo....PLAY LOUD....





ROCKMAN

soundcheck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> .... ''always suffering'' is a very, very gooood
> song....never even gets a mention here,, play that
> one on a clear day with a view


Thank you its my favorite on the Album.

Mikio Ariga



ROCKMAN

Keith was excellent on that tour. It's kind of sad to see how much Keith has declined since the '97/'98 tour (although thats another discussion all together...lets not go there!). Too Tight is underrated - would love to see them dust that one off. One thing about this album too is Mick sings in the sort of raspy yelling style on a few tunes (although, not the same as it was in the 70''s) - Like on Lowdown, Saint Of Me, and I think a part in Too Tight.

duece, my KISS loving friend, as usual you are right on time. Have some "Cold Gin" on me.

It grew on me with the time, it's fresh and innovative, like ahead of his time.

Love the B2B album. Once again IMO the Stones thrive on confusion and controversy. They obviously could not agree on one producer, on one "set" of BU musicians, yet they end up with one of their most unified sounding albums. It flows much more to me than VL or ABB. Like others have said it is one of the last dominating moments of Keith presence. And the Stones were not afraid to topur behind it and actually play from it. Those were KILLER livecuts. I know that they could have done the same with ABB had they only had some umph.
BTW - count me in as one of the Always Suffering fans. The only song on the entire album I am not too crazy about is "Gunface". Also I am totally surprised about those lyric lins in FTS; that Keith wrote them. I still bet Jagger squeezed the toothpaste though.

"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."

Lots of great comments about Bridges To Babylon.

For me the filler (or throw-away) songs are Low Down, Might As Well Get Juiced, and Thief In The Night. Remove them and you have a solid album.

I'm not that crazy about Too Tight, but I can see it's appeal to others.

I think Gunface is such a strong track that never got it's props. Very progressive with strongs bass, drums, and raunchy guitar licks.

Out Of Control and Saint Of Me are also fresh and new sounding, even to this day. A song is great when it sounds like you are hearing it for the first time, even if it's almost 10 years old.

Flip The Switch and Anybody Seen My Baby? are also excellent songs with strong grooves. The lyrics in FTS are kind of silly, but that's part of the song's charm for me. The lick towards the end of ASMB is great and I love how it fades out.

Already Over Me and Always Suffering are classic Stones ballads/soft rockers. Never get tired of that genre.

Of the Keith songs, How Can I Stop stands out to me as the albums best, although his slow ballads are becoming predictable.

On the whole, a great, great album!

One of their most underrated! Love it! Great tour as well. Some great guitars, and grooves on this disc.