Metamorphosis (1975)


 
1.Out of Time 2.Don't Lie to Me 3.Somethings Just Stick in Your Mind 4.Each and Every Day of the Year 5.Heart of Stone 6.I'd Much Rather Be With the Boys 7.(Walkin' Thru the)Sleepy City 8.We're Wastin' Time 9.Try a Little Harder 10.I Don't Know Why 11.If You Let Me 12.Jiving Sister Fanny 13.Downtown Suzie 14.Family 15.Memo From Turner 16.I'm Going Down

 

If you were to ask any diehard Stones fans to list all of the band's albums, this is the one they would most likely forget. It's not their worst, it's just, well, forgettable. At this point in the band's career, they had accumulated enough material to release a complete record of outtakes to make sure that a lot of their unreleased songs could find a home somewhere.

This, in effect, almost sounds like two different albums. The first half of the album consists of "older" material that could have easily fit on any of the band's first five albums. The material is all good, it just sounds as if it's, well, unneccessary. Most of the songs are original, and for whatever reason, sound a little too constricted and too well-recorded to rival some of the band's best earlier material. The first song Out of Time is a prime example, with orchestration and outside vocals, it loses so much of the spontaneity that made their earlier records so special

When they get to Try a Little Harder, it's very obvious that they're presenting us with "later" (i.e. late sixties) material that is much more welcome. They throw some great little throw-aways in the latter half of the record, but, like all "outtakes" albums, remains mostly unknown. This is a "nice to have" release, not a "need to have".


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