Flashpoint (1991)


 


  1.Continental Drift Intro
  2.Start Me Up
  3.Sad Sad Sad
  4.Miss You
  5.Rock and a Hard Place
  6.Ruby Tuesday
  7.You Can't Always Get What You Want
  8.Factory Girl
  9.Can't Be Seen
 10.Little Red Rooster
 11.Paint it Black
 12.Sympathy for the Devil
 13.Brown Sugar
 14.Jumpin' Jack Flash
 15.(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
 16.Highwire
 17.Sex Drive

 

After the juggernaut that was the Steel Wheels tour, it was practically a foregone conclusion that the Stones would release another live album. What did surprise some, though, was the relatively conservative format—just a single disc. But this was the dawn of the compact disc era, and with nearly 80 minutes of space to work with, the band made the most of it.

Flashpoint is about as solid a live compilation as one could hope for. It offers a healthy cross-section of the Stones' long and winding career, pulling in a few tracks from the then-recent Steel Wheels, tossing in some deeper cuts that had rarely seen the light of day in concert, and anchoring the whole thing with several of the band’s most iconic songs. As far as capturing the spirit and scale of their live shows, this one delivers.

As was becoming their habit, they tacked on a pair of new studio tracks at the end—Highwire and Sex Drive. Both are decent enough and arguably better than some of the actual studio material on Steel Wheels, but still, it would’ve been nice to get a few more live numbers instead. With so much history to pull from, and so many nights recorded during that world tour, the decision to limit the setlist feels slightly conservative.

Still, there’s no denying this is the most comprehensive live representation of the band to that point. The production is tight, the performances energetic without being too slick, and the sequencing does a good job of moving from era to era without feeling jarring. Unlike some of their earlier live efforts, which either felt too loose or too polished, Flashpoint strikes a nice middle ground—showing off a band that had clearly matured, but could still bring the fire when it counted.

If you were looking for one Stones live album to sum up their legacy as a touring powerhouse, this was, at the time, your best bet.


Go back to the main page
Go To Next Review