The Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang

I should have bought this album earlier, I really should. I should have listened to the critical praise it was getting, heeded the advice of wiser minds than my own. I shouldn't have doubted the power of the Stones, but I did.

The upshot, of course, is that I get to be extremely surprised and pleased with a CD I came into with only middling expectations. The record is a compulsive listen; it creeps into your skin and hides out, digging deeper in with each spin, until it has engratiated itself so much that you can't stop listening to it.

It's hard to put your finger on just what it is about this record that makes it so good. Lyrically, musically, it's pretty much what the Stones have done for years and years and years: solid rhythm, hooky riffs, swagger and sneer and tongue firmly planted in cheek. The trick here, I think, is that the Stones aren't trying so hard this time out. They're not trying to be the biggest rock'n'roll band on earth, they simply are the biggest rock'n'roll band on earth. The swagger is genuine, the music is loose and natural, and nothing feels forced or tired. These 16 songs are all in forms and styles that the Stones have been playing for the past thirty or more years, but it never feels tired or old. There's a vigor to this music, a renewed sense of purpose that hasn't been present in the Stones' work in a long, long time.

If none of the tracks particularly stand above the rest, it's not because none of them are any good, but because every single song is uniformly strong. Every track has something to recommend it. There are tough rockers, barrelhouse country blues, moving ballads, and everything you'd expect from the Stones. Keith Richards even takes a couple of vocals, sounding for all the world like Tom Waits (I mean this in a good way: for a man who looks and sounds--when he talks, anyway--like a corpse, he can actually sing halfway well).

All in all, it's nice to see the Stones reinvigorated after middling (or even downright awful) previous efforts. I mean, Bridges to Babylon was okay as far as efforts to contemporize the Stones' sound, but it wasn't that strong of a record. Really, nothing they've made since the early '80s (and that's being generous) has been all that strong. A Bigger Bang definitely proves that they've still got something to say and can still say it in an engaging, consuming way.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: The Rolling Stones, "This Place is Empty"