A Bigger Bang (2005)


 
1.Rough Justice 2.Let Me Down Slow 3.It Won't Take Long 4.Rain Fall Down 5.Streets of Love 6.Back of My Hand 7.She Saw Me Coming 8.Biggest Mistake 9.This Place is Empty 10.Oh No Not You Again 11.Dangerous Beauty 12.Laugh I Nearly Died 13.Sweet Neo Con 14.Look What the Cat Dragged In 15.Driving Too Fast 16.Infamy

 

Every time you think these guys are done, they surprise us. Who would have thought that eight years after their last release (When they were already old geezers) that they would come out with another studio album? An album with sixteen songs - enough that had it been on vinyl, it would have been a double? Not to mention it's a great album - one of their best in fact.

The first song, Rough Justice comes straight for you with its classic Keith Richard riff, and we hear Jagger's famous voice "One time you were my baby chicken/Now you've grown into a fox/Once upon a time I was your little rooster/But am I just a'one of your cocks..." O.K., so they haven't grown up. Nor will they ever. In all honesty, they keep the sleaze pretty much to a minimum here, but they haven't lost their raunchy sound. In fact, it can be argued that they've actually reclaimed it a bit. Their last two studio releases had them experimenting a bit with contemporary sounds, trying to blend in to the music of the current day. They were pretty successful at it - never managing to prostitute themselves in order to make a buck. But here, it's refreshing to hear them sound like their old selves once again.

The overall sound is so generic, that at times it's a bit hard to distinguish the songs from one another. Not really a bad thing, since these are all killer songs. It didn't help that radio never plays this type of music anymore, and since they were still touring full scale, it was harder and harder to incorporate new music since fans wanted to hear so many of the oldies. So what we get is an album generally regarded as "great", but filled with songs that no one may know twenty years from now (which by then these guys will probably still be playing. But I digress…).

As far as standouts go, Back of My Hand has them playing the grittiest blues that they've played in a long time. Biggest Mistake sounds pretty radio friendly, but again, this one wasn't even released as a single. Keith croons as usually with This Place is Empty, and picks up the pace with the last song Infamy. They even sing about hints of S&M on Dangerous Beauty (they do that a lot don't they?). There may be some that say sixteen songs were a bit too much, and they might be right. But since there are really no bad filler, I can't really complain when it comes on only one CD. To this date, their latest CD release of all new material. If it does end up really being their last release, it's a great way to go out.


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