In terms of pure musical content - 3 1/2.  Maybe a 4.

Unfair to judge what is supposed to be an album of leftovers in the same context as you would a bonafide studio album.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was, even if some of the songs did require a bit of sugar coating.

As a concept, it kind of falls between two stools. Its neither an outtakes album nor is it a new release. Listening to it purely on its own musical merits though, I'm enjoying it.

too early to tell..like the original I think these will grow on me.......I'm gonna "drop" these in sporadically with the 18 original remasters and see how a 28 song playlist sounds like and if these new ones actually blend in well.

I listened to it from the next room while on the internet and having a beer - and, as Stones music, it was enjoyable, probably better than the four new tracks on Forty Licks.  I haven't stopped to pick apart the overdubs from the original, except where obvious, and they're not painfully obvious.

"Maybe the deal is," I said to myself, "that they should just make some more moody, sludgy stuff like this, or the Olympic tracks on Metamorphosis ("Family," etc.) instead of trying to reinvent the wheel with every flash album - because they've hardly been England's Oldest Hitmakers."

They could easily work sets of new stuff like this into a sideshow of the live act, maybe including seldom-played Exile tracks like "Sweet Black Angel,"  "Ventilator Blues," and "Let it Loose."  That sort of suite would be preferable to playing all of Exile live, as discussed.

It also crossed my mind that they've got Ronnie - once a past master at ingratiating acoustic and electric guitars into the same song, for Faces and solo Rod.  Why not prop him up and go in that direction, which would be a Ronnie-style step toward that Exile or Beggars Banquet vibe.

Really, these guys should listen to their own bootlegs - "Yellow Cab, "Fiji Jim," e. g. - and discover why people like this tossed-off-with-passion-and-error feel.  That feel worked for the Faces.  The Stones need to loosen up, not tighten up.

Was Exile - being locked in a Gestapo maison in sweaty, dangerous South-of-France - like being locked in that grotty kitchen by Andrew Oldham?  Maybe they need to be knifed in that dirty, filthy basement again.

I give it a 4 for its self-educational potential.

4 stars = good

5 stars = fantastic

If  4 = (just) GOOD and 5= FANTASTIC...

a few hairs above 4

3.5.  mostly solid but no particular excellent tracks

The new vocals are pretty glaring -- couldn't they at least lower them in the mix?  especially on Following The River.  There's no mistaking Jagger then vs. now.  I like Plundered My Soul but it sounds more like about as authentically retro as Don't Stop did.  I guess they've tried to pass off old outtakes as new songs in the past, might as well try turning that formula around, right?

I like Pass the Wine, Dancing In The Light and So Divine best.  Keith's scratch vocal in Soul Survivor seems like the kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel that I'd expect out of a 4 disc box set, not a trim 10 tracks.  and Title 5 runs about a minute and a half longer than it takes to get the point across, and doesn't sound much like it fits with the others.  Not that Exile Blues is that much of a gem but I don't understand why they didn't throw it on here, would've been a better closer to the 2nd disc.

sweetcharmedlife wrote on May 20^th, 2010 at 10:04am:



Off the top of my head :  The Beatles - Free as a Bird (I think that Macca wrote the bridge as Lennon's orginal demo didnt have one)

I've seen it done the other way around, though - Billy Bragg & Wilco's two 'Mermaid Avenue' albums (which took lost Woody Guthrie lyrics and added music). 

Apparently, there is a plan to do something similar with some unpublished Hank Williams' lyrics, with Dylan having acquired the rights. The plan is that several artists will record them with newly composed music.

A pleasant suprise . If the alternate ADTL had been included .......a solid 4

sc uk

Jumping Jack wrote on May 20^th, 2010 at 1:42pm:

JJ, surely you can't be serious?

Pdog wrote on May 20^th, 2010 at 4:19pm:



Though not "unfinished", natalie Cole did the same thing as a duet w/ her father, Nat King with the song "UNFORGETTABLE"

Paranoid Android wrote on May 20^th, 2010 at 8:25pm:


THERE'S A TEAR IN MY BEER, HANK JR AND DADDY HANK SR.

Steel Wheels wrote on May 20^th, 2010 at 9:30pm:



Yes.

Kilroy wrote on May 20^th, 2010 at 11:15pm:


Brilliant video for that, too. Although, like that Natalie/Nat King Cole stuff, the original recordings werent 'unfinished'.

As for the original question about taking old unfinished material and putting new lyrics to it, the Stones themselves have done this before. Apart from some of the stuff on Tattoo You, they did it with songs like 'Too Tough' (the music for which bears a striking resemblance to the 'Cellophane Trousers' instrumental cut for Black and Blue 8 years earlier) although the whole song was re-done.

I give it 4 1/2. Following The River is the only clunker... and even at that, as far as Jagger ballads go, it's not ball crushing.

I'll give it 2,5

Erik_Snow wrote on Jun 30^th, 2010 at 12:30pm:


the OP used a 5 star rating... does this mean.. 2 1/2?

4.5. I really dig it. It's great that they finally opened the vaults. And I appreciate the fact that they kicked the old stuff around for a bit. It's also fun to hear that they made the right decisions at the time when you listen to the alt takes. Great addition to the catalogue.

5 out of 5