| September 3rd, 2005 09:44 AM |
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| Nellcote |
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/7590942/therollingstones?pageid=rs.Artistcage&pageregion=triple1
Let's just get this out of the way: A Bigger Bang isn't a
good Rolling Stones album considering their age. It isn't a good Rolling Stones album compared to their recent work. No, A Bigger Bang is just a straight-up, damn fine Rolling Stones album, with no qualifiers or apologies necessary for the first time in a few decades.
The sixteen songs on this disc, their first studio album in eight years, mark the closest collaboration between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in ages -- they wrote many of them nose to nose on acoustic guitars while waiting for Charlie Watts to recover from treatment for throat cancer. Whether fueled by their notorious competitive camaraderie or inspired by their oldest mate's brush with mortality, the results sound like a genuine band effort -- loose, scrappy and alive. A Bigger Bang recalls the best things about rough, underrated Stones albums like Dirty Work or Emotional Rescue, though it's also impressively consistent. The key here comes from surrendering to the groove. Most of the tracks are built around the incomparable spark that's lit when Keith's guitar and Charlie's drums lock into a rhythm. There's never been another team that can drive a band quite like these two, but on their post-Seventies work that magic has usually been buried in the mix. On hard-charging songs like "It Won't Take Long" or the rave-up single "Rough Justice," the Stones reassert themselves as the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band, and not just as the Greatest Show on Earth.
Mick and Keith have always said they want to grow old like the bluesmen they idolize, and on Bang they finally figure out how: The album revels in the Chuck Berry boogie and classic R&B pulse that's always been their lifeblood. The latter-day Glimmer Twins have often felt the need to coat their songs with layers of winking irony or studio gloss. Here, the dance-floor strut "Rain Fall Down" and the soul ballad "Laugh, I Nearly Died" are powerful because they're played straight, never turning cartoonish or mannered. Jagger's voice throughout is a knockout, deeper and more forceful than seems possible after forty-plus years of rocking the mike. The subject matter on A Bigger Bang, though, is thankfully a bit less mature. The album mostly sticks to familiar, nasty Stones territory: being heartbroken and breaking hearts, the evils that women (and, sometimes, men) do. Maybe his palimony suit and much-publicized tabloid romances have given Mick some new fire -- the women on these songs have "burglarized my soul," "wipe the floor with me" and are "fucking up my life." Not that our boy is much better himself, confessing that "I took her for granted/I played with her mind" and -- leaving us to guess at the details -- "I was awful bad." On "Dangerous Beauty," we return to the S&M underworld, as previously featured on "When the Whip Comes Down." The CNN-ready chart-buster "Sweet Neo Con" savages an unnamed born-again, war-happy politician with ties to Halliburton -- a surprisingly direct attack from a band whose best-known political statements expressed the ambivalence of "Street Fighting Man" or "Salt of the Earth." But Jagger works up more passion concentrating on what happens when "I see love/And I see misery/Jammin' side by side." The only unseemly moments come from these sexagenarians' frequent usage of words like "cock," "tits" and "booty." (As for the line "Come on in/Bare your breasts" on the otherwise enchanting "This Place Is Empty" -- um, Keith, ick.) Of course a disc that clocks in at sixty-four minutes (just two minutes less than Exile on Main Street) is too long. In their defense, there isn't a single track that's a real lemon, though little would be lost if the perfunctory rocker "Look What the Cat Dragged In" was left for an iTunes exclusive. A Bigger Bang may not be a perception-shattering comeback like Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind/Love and Theft combo, but by returning to their roots and embracing their age, the Rolling Stones have come up with an album that's a worthy successor to their masterworks. Jagger and Richards are still standing -- grumpy old men, full of piss and vinegar, spite and blues chords, and they wear it well.
ALAN LIGHT
(Posted Sep 22, 2005)
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| September 3rd, 2005 10:06 AM |
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| nankerphelge |
"A Bigger Bang recalls the best things about rough, underrated Stones albums like Dirty Work or Emotional Rescue"
Oh my! |
| September 3rd, 2005 10:27 AM |
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| Lazy Bones |
Why not 5? Close doesn't count. |
| September 3rd, 2005 10:31 AM |
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| nankerphelge |
Age discrimination, clearly! |
| September 3rd, 2005 11:12 AM |
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| glencar |
Sounds like Look What The Cat Dragged In knocked off half a star. Dammit! |
| September 3rd, 2005 11:18 AM |
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| nankerphelge |
Easy -- this guy mentioned Bigger Bang as "recalling" both Dirty Work and Emotional Rescue. I wouldn't put much faith in his star rating system -- he has defective ears apparently! |
| September 3rd, 2005 11:48 AM |
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| FPM C10 |
I think they HAD to give it 4 1/2 stars, instead of 5, after Jann Wenner's unbelievable review of "Goddess In The Doorway". Remember that? According to Jann, who's been kissing Mick's ass ever since 1972 (when RS mistakenly panned Exile and then had to print a retraction and a re-review). that was the best album EVER! "World, meet Mick Jagger, Solo Artist" or something along those lines.
So no one takes anything in Rolling Stone ABOUT the Stones too seriously. Actually, no one takes anything in RS about ANYTHING too seriously. But they had to retain some degree of the appearance of objectivity about it.
Ah, Rolling Stone...
(slips into crotchety old man persona as he flashes back to childhood) Why, when I was a young 'un, I had a subscription to Rolling Stone. 1969 it t'were. I was in 6th grade. It was a GOOD counter-culture rag in them days! I'd open it at the breakfast table and they'd have the word "FUCK" in a banner headline and I'd have to turn the page fast and hope my folks didn't see it. There'd be naked pictures of hippie girls and articles advocating drug use. I kept my subscription till 1972. I had issues with Bob Dylan and John Lennon and Keith Richards and Pete Townshend and Keith Moon on the covers, every other week an in-depth interview with a new genius of cool, and sadly the death issues of Janis and Jimi and Jimbo, Christ - come to think of it I had the original Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas issues! And my first issue was a special about Rock & Roll Circus. I had a pile of classic stuff there! Good reading, and they would be worth some mnoney these days too.
Then in about '78 I loaned them to my buddy Dan, and his sister cleaned up the house one day and threw that stack of "old newspapers" out.
D'oh!
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| September 3rd, 2005 11:49 AM |
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| Jair |
Since they gave it FIVE stars to Mick's GITD, what can you expect from Rolling Stone Mag?
Besides, who's cares anyway to someone else's opinion?
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| September 3rd, 2005 12:44 PM |
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| time is on my side |
I agree with the statements above that any magazine that can give Goddess In The Doorway a 5 star rating has a serious credibility issue. However, it's only someone else's opinion. The one that should matter the most is your own. Personally, I think the only solo effort by Mick that measures up is Wandering Sprirt but, then again, that's just my opinion. The hell with critics though I admit I still read their reviews especially the one's on this board.
Here is the infamous five star review of Goddess In The Doorway:
Mick Jagger
Goddess In The Doorway
*****
Originally released: 2001
Virgin Records
Download this album now for
$11.88
Play this album and thousands more for the price of one CD
Preview songs for free (right on this page)
Up to this point, Mick Jagger's solo career has been an incidental affair, something that has surfaced in the interludes between Rolling Stones albums and tours. His previous releases - 1985's She's the Boss, 1987's Primitive Cool and 1993's Wandering Spirit - were earnest, respectable efforts that offered their fair share of pleasures but did not establish a distinct or significant new musical identity for Jagger apart from the Stones. Goddess in the Doorway finds Jagger taking a giant step - not away from the shadow of the Stones but beyond what that understandably history-bound band has been able to achieve on record in recent times.
In terms of consistency, craftsmanship and musical experimentation, Goddess in the Doorway surpasses all his solo work and any Rolling Stones album since Some Girls. It does so by returning to the dance beats, big grooves and modern edge that have characterized the Stones' best work. The key to all the Stones' classics - from "Satisfaction" and "Brown Sugar" to "Miss You" and "Start Me Up" - is that they are built from the rhythm up: Goddess in the Doorway, which was almost entirely constructed around Jagger's rhythm guitar, is a return to that modus operandi.
Jagger has poured his heart into this album. The strongest songs - "Don't Call Me Up," "Brand New Set of Rules," "Hide Away" and "Everybody Getting High" - are also the most candidly personal. In the past, he has slipped into personae - the Street Fighting Man, Jumpin' Jack Flash, the Man of Wealth and Taste - but he lets his guard down to an unprecedented degree on Goddess; the beautiful ballads draw on feelings of loneliness, vulnerability, spiritual yearning and, as always, life with the ladies.
These gains in maturity have taken no toll on Jagger's inner rock & roller. The Street Fighting Man can still swagger at the top of his - or anybody else's - game. Goddess in the Doorway resembles the Stones' best albums in that it's a varied yet cohesive collection of ballads, hard rockers and one country song. But on his own, he is free to cast off the blues-rock anchor that both defines and (at times) confines the Stones. Jagger heads into edgy, danceable modern-rock territory with the throbbing electronic groove of "Gun" and the snarling, whip-crack assault of "Everybody Getting High."
Making the most of this opportunity to stretch himself, Jagger has recruited some outstanding guests, many of them younger artists whom he directly influenced. Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty collaborates on the pop-y, melodic opening track, "Visions of Paradise," which boasts a soaring chorus. Lenny Kravitz produces and co-writes "God Gave Me Everything," a driving, riff-propelled rocker that evokes the punkish stomp of the early Stones.
On "Hide Away," one of my favorite tracks, Wyclef Jean helps burnish a subtle reggae- and hip-hop-inflected groove. Employing some of his most moving and nuanced vocal phrasing, he confides, "I'm gonna fly away/And no one's gonna find me." The lyrics portray a guy who's got it all - fame, fortune and the means to indulge any materialistic and hedonistic impulse he might divine - but is wise enough in his late middle age to know there's something more out there.
"Joy," a rocking, gospel-tinged collaboration with Bono of U2 - and featuring an indelible guitar hook from Pete Townshend - offers a revealing glimpse of what Jagger is seeking: "I looked up to the heavens/And a light is on my face/I never never never/Thought I'd find a state of grace." The mark of U2 is overt on "Joy," but the band's influence subtly courses through the rest of the album; like Bono and company in the last decade, Jagger (along with producers Marti Frederiksen and Matt Clifford) has adapted modern rhythms and contemporary production techniques to his own naturalistic rock & roll ends.
"Everybody Getting High," featuring Aerosmith's Joe Perry, and "Lucky Day" are fierce, biting rockers. No one struts or wags a tongue as sharply as Jagger, and "Everybody Getting High," in particular, stands out as a blistering, arena-ready, hard-rock singalong. The absurdist lyrics find Jagger poking fun at scenes from his celebrity life: "My dress designers, they wanna doll me up in blue/Mmm-hmm pretty/Next fall collection, they're gonna show it in the zoo." The tight blues shuffle "Lucky Day" is highlighted by some brief but fiery harmonica playing from Jagger. Like a good blues workout, it leaves you hungry for more, and this masterful use of tension and restraint is part of what makes Goddess in the Doorway so beguiling.
It may seem a truism, but it's worth noting that he is - along with John Lennon, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan and Bono - one of the great male rock voices of this age. And he is in exceptional form on Goddess in the Doorway. If anything, Jagger's voice is rounder and warmer than ever, and he brings a new richness of phrasing to the heartbroken, confessional "Don't Call Me Up" and the extraordinary closing tracks, "Too Far Gone" and "Brand New Set of Rules."
After all of the excursions undertaken on Goddess in the Doorway, Jagger brings it all back home with these last two numbers, which are musically rich and lyrically reflective ballads in the grand tradition of such Stones pillars as "Wild Horses" and "Moonlight Mile." Jagger offers unabashedly human, vulnerable sentiments on "Brand New Set of Rules" (which features daughters Elizabeth and Georgia May on background vocals): "I will be kind, won't be so cruel/I will be sweet, I will be true/. . . I got a brand-new set of rules I got to learn."
It is a clear-eyed and inspired Mick Jagger who crafted Goddess in the Doorway, an insuperably strong record that in time may well reveal itself to be a classic. World, meet Mick Jagger, solo artist.
JANN S. WENNER
(RS 883/884 - December 6, 2001)
TIME has not treated GITD kindly. Most critics, outside of Jann Wenner, have dismissed this solo effort as disappointing.
[Edited by time is on my side] |
| September 4th, 2005 04:49 AM |
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| Daethgod |
"In terms of consistency, craftsmanship and musical experimentation, Goddess in the Doorway surpasses all his solo work and any Rolling Stones album since Some Girls."
WTF ???
I liked Goddess but jeeeeeeeeeeepers !
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| September 4th, 2005 06:10 AM |
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| Mathijs |
I actually think the RS review is a good one, even though he missed the mark on Dangerous Beauty being not about SM but about Lindsy England. And, Look What the Cat Dragged in is one of the best tracks of the album in my opninion...
Mathijs |
| September 4th, 2005 06:52 AM |
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| corgi37 |
Only 4 1/2 stars? Maybe the moronic reviewer couldnt count up to 5?
[Edited by corgi37] |
| September 4th, 2005 07:05 AM |
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| Poplar |
that review of "Goddess":
Look What the Cat Dragged In:
[Edited by Poplar]
[Edited by Poplar] |
| September 5th, 2005 12:09 AM |
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| time is on my side |
Indeed, LOOK WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN |
| September 5th, 2005 09:36 AM |
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| West 8 |
GITD deserves 5 stars & anyone who does'ent hear echoes of it on ABB is in denial. |
| September 5th, 2005 09:38 AM |
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| Jumacfly |
quote:
West 8 wrote:
GITD deserves 5 stars
post of the month!!  |
| September 5th, 2005 09:54 AM |
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| West 8 |
Did RS print a review which panned Exile ? Then a month later come up with a totally different review ? If so, does anyone know where you can find the reviews on the net?? |
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