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Return to the main Rolling Stones page before I beat you Black and Blue ... the Colors of Democracy
Overall Album Score: 8.5 out of 10 Well! I guess the Rolling Stones weren't descending into the sea of utter muck like I would have thought after listening to It's Only Rock'N'Roll ... their follow-up, Black and Blue is an improvement! The good songwriting and studio mixing is BAAAAAAACK! This is the first time I remember thinking "boy, that was a well-produced song" about a Rolling Stones number ever since Sticky Fingers. Also, the great songwriting is back! Hooks abound in this album. What's with all the weird songs in here, anyway? There's alotta weird stuff in here. There's groove based quasi-disco music ... there's reggae ... there's jazz-gay ... and just to prove that they are truly weird, the Rolling Stones even add in some signature Stones style rockers and ballads! (That was unexpected to me, anyway. I personally thought this album was just going to be full of belching and tape recordings of people opening beer bottles with their belly buttons.) And Mick Jagger still looks weird. I guess I shouldn't complain about that too much. At least he doesn't look elderly yet. Overall Album Score: 8.5 out of 10 (Another mighty fine album from The Rolling Stones! In more ways than one, this is their best album ever since Sticky Fingers. Contest that statement all you like!) Average Song Score: 8.4 (This is a nice collection of tunes! The songwriting is very strong and the diversity makes it interesting.) Album Tilt: 8.5 (This is a pretty fun album to sit through.) Artist Rating: 8.5 (The successful piddling into other music genres is what's specifically keeping this one afloat! I'll also add that the production of these songs were all-in-all well done.) Track Reviews Hot Stuff 9/10 Nice groove! It might be too close to disco for my virgin ears, but it's still completely 100 percent okay in my book. (I guess when I review Some Girls, it might pop my cherry.) That's all that really has to be said about this track. It's got a nice groove! It's groooooooovy! The melody is pretty good, too. The key changes in here happens at just the perfect times. Yep. The Rolling Stones are still masters of their art ... even if this ain't reg'lar Rolling Stones rock-and-roll. Hand of Fate 8/10 This is more of a regular Rolling Stones song ... with a regular melody ... a regular rhythm section ... (there's a bit of a disco-bit in the middle of this, but it isn't stark). Unfortunately, there's nothing about "Hand of Fate" that should make it stick out! But it is, all in all, a nice song. (Oh ... don't we take Keith Richards too much for granted? ... That's a nice electric guitar solo in here, even though I'd imagine that he cranked it out like clockwork.) Cherry Oh Baby 8/10 Reggae is gay! (Hey, it's not my fault that reggae has the word 'gay' in it ... I didn't name it.) But it is gay. And why did the Rolling Stones decide to start writing reggae songs, anyway? In all fairness, this is a well-written song within that genre, and I also suppose that it gives the Rolling Stones discography more diversity. So instead of complaining, let's celebrate. Let's all go suck on a coconut! Memory Motel 9.5/10 Hey! This is kinda pretty! This a quasi-"Wild Horses" ballad that's really quite good. It's a lot better than the "Wild Horses" type songs from It's Only Rock'n'Roll. A nice melody ... nice singing ... the instrumentation might have used a little work (I don't really care much for that electric piano) ... but it's all quite nice. This is surely a post-classic Rolling Stones classic! Its 7-plus minute running time is hardly a burden. Hey Negrita 7/10 More reggae inspired stuff?? Oh ... this one isn't entirely raggae. This is sort of a rock/reggae type combination. It's not bad, but it does make me rather ancy listening to this. Melody 8/10 Jazz now? What kind of weird stuff were these guys smoking? I don't know ... but I kinda miss that good old rock-and-roll. *Sniff* Oh well. "Melody" is pretty nice ... and it does prove that The Stones were successfully branching out and trying different things. That's never a bad thing ... as long as it's successful. (There are some funny vocal bits at the end of this.) Fool to Cry 8.5/10 Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Huh? Oh! Hello! I fell asleep because this song is so boring. But I guess it has a nice enough melody ... some good harmony-work with that organ thing. "Fool to Cry" is far from being a failed experiment. But apart from the very end of this when it picks up steam, it puts me to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. I was forced by the mafia to raise this to an "8.5" from its original "7." I guess I overlooked the simple fact that this is actually a good song. Just because it puts me to sleep, that doesn't automatically make it a bad song. Crazy Mama 9/10 Well hey! This album concludes on a high note! This is a regular-ish Rolling Stones rocker with riffs, crunchy guitars, nice solo work by Keith Richards. I might also add that the sound-mixing problems The Rolling Stones seemed to have ever since Exhile on Main St. are not evident here. This one is mixed very well up to par with the stuff from Let it Bleed and Sticky Fingers. This is a very nice track! Hello! E-mail me and complain about (or praise) this review until yer black and blue here! |
