if the stones had made steel wheels 10 tracks and voodoo lounge and a bigger bang 12 tracks and brides to babylon 11 tracks, do you think these albums would be more respected by stones fans or do you think they as lot of fans would still consider these albums weak? i think they would be better. not to say i hate these albums but if they had cut a few songs they would be better. they should have cut these songs from the respective albums:"always suffering", "anybody seen my baby?", "sweet neo con", "look what the cat dragged in", "driving too fast", "hearts for sale", "break the spell", "sweethearts together", "blinded by rainbows" and "baby break it down".


i'm not saying i hate any of these songs i just feel that they are the weakest of those 4 albums



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-03-14 12:15 by keefriffhard4life.

I am sure that, no matter which song selection would have made it to the final products, there will be a lot of fans who would say "hey this does not sound like Exile" and therefor disrespect the albums.

Me, I like the albums the way they are. Of course there are some songs I like better than others, but others might have other preferences. So I think it will lead to no general improvement to skip some of the songs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-03-14 12:20 by marcovandereijk.

The shorter the better! I still prefer the length of vinyl: about 40 minutes.
But it depends ofcourse on the choice of songs. I - and I think many on this board - could do without songs like Neocon and Suck on the J!.

There you have it: I love Suck on the jugular and it's one of those songs I would like to keep if the album was cut to pieces.

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marcovandereijk
There you have it: I love Suck on the jugular and it's one of those songs I would like to keep if the album was cut to pieces.

i like suck on the jugular too. solid track. i think the problem is a lot of bands tried to fill most of the space of a cd instead of just making a solid 40-45 minute album

IMO, songs like ASMB, DTF, HFS, BTS and BBID are good enough to be on any album. But I see your point. It's easier to make a killer 9 song-album than a strong and consistent 15 track record.

My band is currently in a recording process for an album, and the record label has asked for 15 songs. We think that may be too much for a release, and will lobby hard for releasing a 10 track album.

I like them the way they are. ABB is one of my favorites no matter how many songs are on it. Its funny how people compare these albums to Exile,say they are too long and don't hold up to Exile,while Exile is a long album too. They could have shortend it too. Would you love a 9 song Exile?

I think that Voodoo Lounge was the best of the bunch-- Bridges next, Steel Wheels after that, and forget ABB......

Subtracting songs from an album don't make the existing ones any better - so, no.

[thepowergoats.com]

4 studio albums in 20 years isnt much.

the stones have made over 70 songs in this time and could easily have done a couple more albums.

dont see the need to do albums containing 13, 14 or 16 songs.

they should have kept each album at 10, which could have included a couple of songs per album of other artists tracks.

I don't find any of those albums to be "weak",
They'd all have been lauded to the rafters if any lesser known band had made them. They'd have been "...the best thing since the Rolling Stones ! " ;^)

Despite being a life long fan of the band, I listen to and enjoy the recent albums as much as the older and "classic" stuff.

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wee bobby lennox
4 studio albums in 20 years isnt much.

the stones have made over 70 songs in this time and could easily have done a couple more albums.

dont see the need to do albums containing 13, 14 or 16 songs.

they should have kept each album at 10, which could have included a couple of songs per album of other artists tracks.

I will never understand this.
Who cares about the number of songs?
It's where the songs are good or not.

I'll take an album with 16 good songs over one with 10 equally good songs, thanks.

[thepowergoats.com]

...4 excellent albums......in the good tradition of the Stones....

Bang RULES...the best of the lot by a long shot. Some filler, yes, but I still like the continuity of it....has a nice groove, especially, if you listen to the vinyls.....

JR

They aren't bad albums at all.... I just don't find that they're as good as their 68-81 output.
I still mostly like them.

[thepowergoats.com]

Of course they aren't as good as the 60s output. It's the 1990s and Twentyhundreds of The Rolling Stones model. Take it or leave it I guess. I like it. I don't like every song. Every album has a song on it I don't care for it. Doesn't make the album any worse or 'not as good as Exile' or any of that lame shit.

It is what it is. I think A Bigger Bang is a solid snarling album. It probably is too long. But then if some of those tracks were used for B-sides...some of us might be saying 'how come they weren't on the album?' and so on.

That's how I feel about it all anyway. I skip Sweethearts Together and Neo Con and a few others. That's why the industry created the skip button.

I agree, they would have been better if some tracks were left out. Problem is, I could choose my selection, but then the next fan would select his/her preferences, and then the next fan would choose his/her, and so on.

No one seem to ever agree on what tracks are the best and the worst on those albums. There are some obvious keepers, but apart from that, the only way to please everyone seems to include all of them.

I've been thinking about burning my own collection from the last four records. Would be pretty good, the best 80 minutes.

I would throw away the whole Bigger Bang except "rough justice", "Look what the cat.." and "this place is empty". this album is crap. Bridges to Babylon was weak, but a few songs were ok, Anybody seen... is great. Voodoo Lounge: great songs are "love is strong" (same song as "Wicked as it seems") Moon is up and 2Worst" Steel wheels is @#$%& great.
You see - everybody got´s his own opinion ans would cut different songs away. But how can you think, ABB could be a GREAT album. Come on!!!!!!

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DandelionPowderman
My band is currently in a recording process for an album, and the record label has asked for 15 songs. We think that may be too much for a release, and will lobby hard for releasing a 10 track album.


New album, "Won't Bow Down", out soon on US label D and M Records!

Looks like it's not going to be "out soon"

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yapyap5
I like them the way they are. ABB is one of my favorites no matter how many songs are on it. Its funny how people compare these albums to Exile,say they are too long and don't hold up to Exile,while Exile is a long album too. They could have shortend it too. Would you love a 9 song Exile?

yapyap, come on.... exile is a masterpiece in music-history and abb is just an okay-album. it has no relevance at all and its by far to long!!! filled with really lousy fillers (sweet nc, driving too fast, look what tcdi, dangerous beauty, streets of love...)

I think Steel Wheels, Voodoo Lounge, Bridges To Babylon and A Bigger Bang are all good albums. Each one is better than the next, in my opinion. You might say they're on sort of a roll. I agree each of them is too long and contains a few songs that should be cut (although you can scarcely find two fans who agree on which songs are filler).

I have an edited version (as well as the originals) on my hard drive and play them all the time. Much better with just 10-12 tracks, as God intended for an album to be before the accursed CD era, which thankfully is pretty much over thanks to the digital era.

I like all four of the modern albums and wouldn't cut any songs since one person's favorite can be another person's filler. I like ballads like Always Suffering and Streets Of Love but other don't. Conversely I think a song like I Go Wild is filler but other people love it. Better off including all the songs imo since imo none of them are truly bad.

"Lyin' awake in a cold, cold sweat. Am I overdrawn, am I going in debt?
It gets worse, the older that you get. No escape from the state of confusion I'm in.

If you think the album is too long don't listen to the songs you don't like. The more songs the better. It gives us more to choose from

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cool,calm,collected
If you think the album is too long don't listen to the songs you don't like. The more songs the better. It gives us more to choose from

Good point. That's the great thing about buying the CD and ripping it to your computer, you can just delete the sons you don't like and arrange the rest in any order you want. Still bothers me when there's filler, or what I consider filler. I mean, would Sticky Fingers still be the great album it is if it had four more songs and they were all ok but not that great?

It'so frustrating to me when people trash the post Tattoo You albums. These are very good albums, but probably won't get the respect they should until the band is over. On ABB, Back of My Hand harkens back to Prodigal Son back on Beggar's Banquet. When Clapton did an album of old blues songs, Back to the Cradle, it was given critical acclaim. A few years back Santana's comeback with the Supernatural album was given all kind of kudos.
Led Zep performs a concert and everyone is all excited, no one is making the age jokes on them. Why can't the Stones get the respect they deserve. If the Stones stopped recording after Tatto You we wouldn't have such grat songs as One Hit To The Body, Almost Hear You Sigh, Out Of Control, Too Tough, Rock & A Hard Place, Love Is Strong, Out Of Tears, Streets Of Love, Biggest Mistake etc. I could go one forever. I hate that they haven't put out more albums lately, I'd love to see a new disc every year still.

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saturn57
It'so frustrating to me when people trash the post Tattoo You albums. These are very good albums, but probably won't get the respect they should until the band is over. On ABB, Back of My Hand harkens back to Prodigal Son back on Beggar's Banquet. When Clapton did an album of old blues songs, Back to the Cradle, it was given critical acclaim. A few years back Santana's comeback with the Supernatural album was given all kind of kudos.
Led Zep performs a concert and everyone is all excited, no one is making the age jokes on them. Why can't the Stones get the respect they deserve. If the Stones stopped recording after Tatto You we wouldn't have such grat songs as One Hit To The Body, Almost Hear You Sigh, Out Of Control, Too Tough, Rock & A Hard Place, Love Is Strong, Out Of Tears, Streets Of Love, Biggest Mistake etc. I could go one forever. I hate that they haven't put out more albums lately, I'd love to see a new disc every year still.

i hope this was directed towards the other posts in this thread and not me (the threadstarter). i neever trashed them. i love them. steel wheels is actually my favorite stones album. i'm only 26 and grew up with these 4 albums. i just think they worried about filling at least 60 minutes for no reason other than a cd can hold 80 minutes

Songs are songs - they are always as fersh as the ears that hear them. THere will always be this huge awesome catalouge the Stones have - largely recorded in the past, yes. But so what? The last four albums don't suck! (Dirty Work & Primitive Cool - those did suck, yes, but that's not the point).

The point is - when I put on Goats Head Soup I'm swept away to Stones perfection everytime, and the taste is always as sweet.

[thepowergoats.com]

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guitarbastard

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yapyap5
I like them the way they are. ABB is one of my favorites no matter how many songs are on it. Its funny how people compare these albums to Exile,say they are too long and don't hold up to Exile,while Exile is a long album too. They could have shortend it too. Would you love a 9 song Exile?

yapyap, come on.... exile is a masterpiece in music-history and abb is just an okay-album. it has no relevance at all and its by far to long!!! filled with really lousy fillers (sweet nc, driving too fast, look what tcdi, dangerous beauty, streets of love...)

Arrgh. I hate that term "filler". People are quick to just apply it to songs they personally don't like. How can you call Streets Of Love "filler" when it was the lead single??

... with the video filmed in my hometown!

[thepowergoats.com]

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Subtracting songs from an album don't make the existing ones any better - so, no.

jamesfdouglas, we've disagreed on this before...about a week ago I wrote this in another thread ('best album of each decade' - found it using the great search function on this site):

"This is obviously a subject for another thread...but let's take BTB as an example...take out:
1. Flip The Switch
2. You Don't Have To Mean It
3. Might As Well Get Juiced
4. Always Suffering

And now Start the album unapologetically with the lead single...no need to dress up the beginning with a derivative 'rocker' the Stones could write in their sleep...and use this track listing...and you see what a moody, mature, and absolutely up-to-date (for 1997) album you have-->

Anybody Seen My Baby?
Low Down
Already Over Me
Gunface
Out of Control
Saint of Me
Too Tight
Thief in the Night
How Can I Stop

This album is tight and dark and saturnine...a real theme of dread and loss and danger suffuse the album...THIS album would have been an oblique masterwork...THIS is the Stones' Film Noir album...an opportunity squandered...sacrificed on the altar of CD length conventionality."

I stand by this, though, obviously everyone would edit the album and track-listing differently. No, "Subtracting songs from an album don't make the existing ones any better", but it CAN radically improve the flow and feel of an album...tight editing gives it a narrative thrust that is lost on the longer releases with a lot of filler...and it CAN bring into bold relief the excellent songs that would normally be overlooked in the jumble and multiple-track idiocy of over-long CD's (see Voodoo Lounge!). I'm convinced that an album like Black and Blue - considered one of their weakest albums - would have been made far better by adding material that the Stones left on the editing floor (through laziness or disinterest), and Exile could have been 25 songs and I'm sure it would have still been a killer...but on their releases of the last 20 years pruning would have made their albums far more intense and compelling.

And forgive me if I sound archaic, but I still love the concept of a tightly edited album as an artistic statement...with flow and narrative...not a set of 14-16 songs put together to fill up a CD or thrown up on iTunes and sold as a set to pick from and re-arrange in order to maximize clicks and profits.