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Name: Keno
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Subject: B2B/ABB/B&L, a new look!
Date: Saturday, January 26, 2019
Time: 6:34:13 AM
Remote Address: 97.107.69.29
Message ID: 319934
Parent ID: 0
Thread ID: 319934
Tonight, well yesterday evening, since it's almost sunrise here, I finally finished up re-rating all of the Stones U.S. studio albums. I started to do this for a third and final time in the spring of last year, but the summer months got away from me and most of them got rerated last fall and earlier this winter. The albums were first rated back in 1998 when I first started up the site, then again in 2005, since time does change your point of view on things, and since I'm slowly heading into retirement, I decided last year to give the entire 25 U.S. studio albums one last look over at that time.
The 1997 release of Bridges to Babylon was first played tonight, as I've been redoing these ratings in their order of their release and this one was up next. Although this one had been the only one of the band's newer releases that I was never crazy about, tonight it was the only LP out of the 3 that saw a higher rating, and now it moves up from 23rd place in the album rating scale that I put together back in '98 (based on my ratings), to number 20.
I was somewhat surprised to see such an improvement in the rating this one received after I got finished, as I never have any desire to play this CD. I always find it a bore to listen to, as something always seems missing when I do play it. But it did get off on a good kick tonight for me with the first 2 numbers - yet still, after the third song I was getting bored in playing it and wanting to hear something better. But since this wasn’t being played for pleasure tonight and instead I looked at this as work, I kept the LP on and played it on through to the end. After it was over I thought to myself, that’s the last time I’m gonna have to listen to that entire mess again. Yet overall, it got a higher rating tonight from me, as it did sound better, even if still not good enough.
Once B2B was over, on came the next release, 2005’s A Bigger Bang. I always loved this one since its release and never understood why many other Stones fans didn’t. It still sounds very good and full of energy compared to B2B that had just played, yet once the album was all over with, its rating took the biggest dive out of all of the other 25 albums I had re-rated.
If I’m recalling this all correctly, only 3 albums out of the Stones 25 releases saw lower ratings from me when I finished all of this work tonight – including 2 of the 3 I had just listened to. Not sure why tonight things didn’t go as well, I wasn’t in a bad mood and felt very much like doing this. No, I wasn’t under the influence of my beloved cannabis when I played the LPs tonight, and yes, weed does make music sound just a bit better when you hear it after a toke or 2. But several of the albums were rerated in a straight state this time around, and had I smoked some weed tonight, I really don’t think the final scores would have been any higher, even if I would have been.
So why did ABB do so poorly tonight? Did I finally see the light that so many Stones fans have been saying about this LP since its release back in ’05? No. It still got a decent rating from me, now at 7.59 and good for 12th place in the same mentioned album ratings. Still, that is a drop down not only out of the Top 10, but out of the Top 5, as it was tired with Goat Head’s Soup for fifth place before tonight’s new rating took hold.
Overall, ABB is a very even album with no bad songs on it. Yet for only the second and third time since I’ve been rerating all the albums, 2 songs on this one dropped out of the “10” ratings slots. No, I never look at the old ratings any of the albums had in the past before I rerate them, but I did remember that 2 songs on here were 10s, that being “Rough Justice”, and “Back of My Hand”. I knew as soon as I played these songs tonight that they weren’t reaching the top level I like to hear as soon as they played, especially RJ, while Mick’s wonderful BOMH still sounded great, it was missing something this time for me that would make it a ten. Since this was only the second time I rated this LP, well, sometimes being excited about a new album can make you enjoy it more, but ABB isn’t new any longer, it’s now an old release, and it just didn’t shine as bright for me tonight. Still, it’s a good LP regardless.
Finally, the Stones last studio album release, from 2016, Blue and Lonesome was up next and started to play. By the time this one came on I was a bit tired, and in all of my years reviewing albums, I don’t think I ever reviewed 3 in a row before. B&L also saw a drop in its rating, from 7.80 to 7.33, dropping from 10th to 17th place in the standings.
This Blues cover LP, as I’ve been saying since I first heard it, has had just one problem for me, a blues lover. That being that it’s too damn fast for a Blues album! One thing that the Stones of all bands taught me about the blues, is that they need to be played real slow – and that’s how all of the past Stones blue numbers had been played in the past. But on this one, they are all put together much faster, and the truth of the matter is, that this LP is not a Blues LP at all, but a Blues-Rock album. Not that it’s a crime to make such an album, but I would have rather heard at the least some pure slow Blues played on this one – and there aren’t any at all on the LP. That, and there’s also almost no slide guitar heard on this album, other than Eric Clapton’s one guest spot. Why didn’t Ron Wood play any slide on here? For that matter, why didn’t Keith or Mick?
Yet still, with that said, it’s overall a very good album indeed! Like ABB, this one is very even throughout, without a bad track on it. The best song on here is still “Everybody Knows about My Good Thing”, yet it ain’t as good as the slow Blues number that Mick plays on the band’s last LP, ABB, that being “Back of My Hand”.
So that does it, I’ve finally rerated all of the studio Stones albums! I really do feel I won’t ever do this again – not unless I live into my 90s perhaps and still have all of my senses working correctly. But I think over the last 20 plus years since when I first rated all of the albums, really not that much of a change in my feelings. Okay, some, especially in the later day releases, which can be expected. But overall, most of the band’s studio LPs are great and that fact will always be so for me, anyway!
Keno
PS... You can check out the new ratings for all of the Stones albums here
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