(Album) Flowers

Flowers

Released
June 26, 1967

How do I classify this? And where do I start?

Flowers is technically a compilation album, but it’s more than that. Not only does it contain unreleased songs from the Aftermath sessions, it contains songs only released on British editions of albums. It’s an album to tie up loose ends, and that’s just fantastic. It only took until 1967 for this to happen. I think the most important part of this album is that every album after this remained the same between regions. And that’s just wonderful.

An Ode to Loog

Many other things happened. In the Rolling Stones timeline of albums, this is the very last album to be produced by Andrew Loog Oldham (and that’s only because it’s an album of old recordings), a relationship that started with The Rolling Stones, staring Oldham and the Stones’ business manager Eric Easton as producers, before The Rolling Stones No. 2 became Oldham’s lead producer role.

The producer job was his first. Before the Rolling Stones, he was more of a publicist, promoting both Dylan and The Beatles in 1963. Oldham was also the one to sign the Stones up to Decca, trying to get an “anti-Beatles” band (and rightfully so, since Decca turned down The Beatles.)

Outside the band, Oldham lived on drugs and had a bad-boy reputation, as in he had a bodyguard to threaten people. The drugs part of Oldham’s life was one of the reasons for his departure with the Stones. Before his official departure, however, he had sold all his management position to Allen Klein, the master of stealing everything The Stones wrote pre-1971 and then defrauded The Concert for Bangladesh GEORGE HARRISON TRIED TO PUT ON A NICE CONCERT AND IT IS STILL ONE OF THE BEST AND YOU DID THAT.

How do The Rolling Stones see Andrew Loog Oldham now? According to credible source Wikipedia, who’s page on Andrew Loog Oldham is filled with missing citations, has this quoted from The Rolling Stones’ website, a quote that I couldn't find:

“Accounts regarding the value of his musical input to The Stones recordings vary, from negligible to absolute zero.”

The album has several things to note in it’s selection of music:

• Songs from British albums that didn't make it anywhere else in the American catalouge.
• An alternate mix of Out of Time, originally released in 1966.
• Songs from the Aftermath sessions saw their first release: My Girl (with strings overdub in 1966), ‘Take It or Leave It”, “Ride On, Baby” and “Sittin’ on a Fence”
• Brian Jones, master of exotic instruments, on a Koto.

So I’ll be writing some things on the new songs, and even less on the already-reviewed songs.

Ruby Tuesday

It’s on this album to draw attention. Both released as a single and in the American edition of Between the Buttons. Still as beautiful as before.

10 / 10

Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?

Less popular than Ruby Tuesday, although on the album for draw value. Originally released on September 23, 1966 in the UK, 24th in the US, and again on Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass). Still hard rocking. With those little trumpets.

8 / 10

Let’s Spend the Night Together

I guess I should expect this: it’s not a new album. It’s a compilation of good songs. At this point, however, maybe these songs are the main draw, and the “new” songs are a “thank-you” for buying. I was thinking it’s the other way around. Originally released in 1967, and then again in America on Between the Buttons. A bit weird separating this and Ruby Tuesday in exchange for a lesser known Have You Seen Your Mother, especially since these two were double A-side and fresh. The song, of course, is still the same.

9.5 / 10

Lady Jane

My sweet dulcimer. Released on both regions of Aftermath, and again on July 2, 1966 in the US as a b-side.

8 / 10

Out of Time

Originally released on Aftermath, this song (apparently) has a different mix than Aftermath. But it’s ok, because the US never got this song on their Aftermath. So now we have two versions of this out there, but it’s fine because the original mix was two minutes longer. The one thing I didn't like about the original was that it ran too long, and here we go, The Stones do know what’s right. So guess what, I’m giving this a higher rating. Because I like it.

9.5 / 10

My Girl

Now, My Girl is a great song for soul and blues artists. I like this song from Otis Redding. I like it from The Temptations. I don’t like Phil Collins’ version of it. The Stones version is pretty good. Thanks to headphones, the strings really do seem out of place. But other than that, I think the Stones did a good job on this cover. And that’s saying something because I've always seem to hate on their soul covers. There’s enough blues on this for the Stones to make it work. Jagger doesn't overdo it, and the backing vocals just add that soul flavor to it.

8 / 10

Backstreet Girl

Released on the British Between the Buttons, and brand new to the United States. This is a song I had trouble explaining last time, but I like how the mix of soft acoustic guitar and accordion brings in ease of mind. And Jagger is just soft and wonderful.

9 / 10

Please Go Home

Coming out of Backstreet Girl we go into another Between the Buttons, new-to-US song, but this time a hard rocker with tremolo guitar and ghostly echo vocals every time the title is sung. Some say the Stones’ first taste of psychedelic rock, but I say not yet.

8.5 / 10

Mother’s Little Helper

Great idea to throw this in here to keep interest in the album. I know my interest was starting to wane. On paper though, it does seem weird to separate it from it’s single brethren on the A-side, but I think it really draws out the power of this song.

10 / 10

Take It or Leave It

British Aftermath release, and it’s only here to tie up loose ends and to remind people this existed. Because I forgot. It’s aged well, and the organ keeps the song up to par with their current product, even if it is pushed to the back. The guitar has been doing much of the same as the rest of the songs without a big guitar part. But those drums or nice. (this larger talk was brought to you because I wrote nothing on it back in Aftermath. I am sorry.)

8.5 / 10

Ride On, Baby

This song makes more sense on this album than it would on Aftermath somehow. Probably the harpsichord. And speaking of exotic instruments, here’s the Wikipedia list for Brian Jones’ instruments on this song: Harpsichord, Marimbas, Autoharp, Congas, Rickenbacker 360/12, backing vocals. For that effort alone, this song deserves more than a throwaway release on Flowers. But to fit everything together with a rocking drum beat, it’s a shame it wasn't released earlier.

9.5 / 10

Sittin’ On a Fence

Originally given to Twice as Much, which they released in 1966 for a top 40 hit. It’s a very simple song, with the lead acoustic, played by Jones, copying the vocals of Jagger while doing it’s own thing, before giving way to a harpsichord because the limit for harpsichord hasn't been crossed yet. Other than that, it’s a nice acoustic piece to end the album.

9 / 10

107.5 / 120

Now time for my only complaint: this album is a US only release (until 2002.) That means that despite the catching up it attempts to do, it creates more missing songs for the UK.

But let’s look past that, like we've been doing for the rest of these albums that differ between US and UK. For a compilation album, it’s a must have. The Stones more recent hits, mixed in with “new” releases and semi-hits (Songs that weren't really hits per say, but songs that were delicately put together and that have enough power to hold up.) Tie this up with Big Hits and you've got a fantastic set of Stone songs, and enough to cover the entire Stones catalogue up to this point without buying actual albums.

And why wasn't You Better Move On not on here.

(Album) Got Live If You Want It!

Got Live If You Want It!

Released
December 10, 1966

But recorded all over the place

     This album has a lot going against it. Enough going against it that I’ll have to separate my anger into a number of areas.

     First: The name of the album has already been used. By them. Nineteen months ago. Any relation to the previous album, a live EP, is just in name and the idea of “live.” This is not a case of small differences between a UK and a US release; both are different albums, with somewhat similar album art. It’s a serious case of laziness on the part of the US side of Stones record releases. Let’s not get hasty though; it’s not the Rolling Stones’ fault, it’s their record company.

     Second: Overdubs. There’s enough here to split into two.

                One: Studio overdubs. They fix the problems and make a live album seem pointless. At least for me. In my opinion, a live album only works if it’s, you know, live. Fixing a live album is to ruin its raw magic, and create a sort of pseudo-music. If you really want perfection, we have studio albums for that.

                Two: Audience overdubs on studio tracks. No. No, that’s wrong in so many levels. Trickery is wrong. Passing these tracks as live, to the unsuspecting buyer, is very wrong. Those are tracks that could be used on a real album. Instead, you’re going to go ahead and put crowd noise over it and ruin the magic that could be an album track. The worst part is that at least one of those songs that are studio tracks sound pretty good. It’s a shame they had to ruin it just to put out a “live” album. They said they had live, and they aren't even delivering.

     Third: Even The Rolling Stones don’t agree with this album. They didn't want it, and have since disowned the album. When even the band themselves hate an album, what does that say about it? Nothing good at all.

     Fourth: Not a big problem, and maybe not a problem at all, but the large jumps of time between recording of the songs. Ranging from mid-1965 to late 1966, and even 1963 for the songs recorded in studio. The problem with this is that it doesn't properly represent the Stones’ live repertoire. Some of the songs have since been dropped from the live setlist. This is easily looked past, as the album didn't promise a full live concert of live songs in any sort of chronological order. They also promised live songs and they only partly succeeded on that promise.

     I think I've pushed out enough anger into these paragraphs to actually listen to this album now. I feel like I wrote more here than I could about the songs themselves.

Under My Thumb

·          Recorded: October 1, 1966 (or October 7, 1966, as the re-release states)

·          Overdubs: Possibly Lead vocal.

     This songs turned into a hard rocker, instead of the soft, beautiful songs I used to know. However, it somehow works live. They did a very good job with this, with Charlie Watts giving 110%.

8.75 / 10

Get Off of My Cloud

·          Recorded: October 1, 1966

·          Overdubs: Lead vocals, and Backing vocals by Jagger & Richards.

     Average performance, nothing too flashy. Comparable to the studio version, just faster. However, I’ll stick to the vocals at the studio version.

7.5 / 10

Lady Jane

·         Recorded: October 7, 1966

·         Overdubs: Lead vocal, and guitar by Richards.

     Unlike Under My Thumb, this stays quiet, which is very rare for rock concerts of this time. Luckily, Jagger was able to hold off his signature crazy energy to stay soft with this song. Also, they overdubbed both lead vocals and guitar, which pretty much makes this pointless, but I promised myself I wouldn’t talk about stuff like that here.

8.5 / 10

Not Fade Away

·         Recorded: October 7, 1966

·         Overdubs: Lead vocal

A very weird transition from the last song. A quick song and quick performance, which just makes this song sound like a time killer. But, it was a fast performance and everyone stayed in line, and for that I thank them.

8/10

I've Been Loving You Too Long

·         Recorded: May 11-12, 1965

·         Overdubs: It’s a studio track, so audience.

     When The Stones gets blues right, they hit it dead on. This is a beautiful blues rock ballad with touches of electric, which sounds like a Bob Dylan fan’s nightmare. I’m going to ignore the fact that this isn’t even live.

9/10

Fortune Teller

·         Recorded: July 9, 1963 + 1966 overdubs

·         Overdubs: It’s a studio track, so audience.

     I probably could care less about this “performance” of the song. Maybe it’s the audience. Maybe not. I’ve always been pretty hard on early Stones for some reason.

6/10

The Last Time

·         Recorded: October 1, 1966

·         Overdubs: Lead vocal, backing vocals by Jagger & Richards, and possibly a tambourine.

     They kinda did satisfaction before this song, or maybe it was Valleri by The Monkees. You know, two years before it was released by The Monkees. Then it randomly cut into The Last Time. I really life the feel of this song. It’s rushed, but it adds some extra power to it.

7.5/10

19^th Nervous Breakdown

·         October 1, 1966

·         Overdubs: Lead vocal ON TOP OF the original vocals, backing vocal by Jagger & Richards.

     Well, the rhythm started out pretty shaky. Their fast speed is finally catching up to them. It does go back to normal, though, so the whole song isn’t ruined and awkward. You can’t blame them, it’s hard to hear certain instruments right now, so it was impossible to hear anything when you’re there. Some fancy bass work, and hard rocking drums. However, even disregarding the rhythm mistake, the extra speed added onto this song hurts it in my opinion. Also, the volume of drums really hurts this song the most, as although I like drums, I also like to hear other instruments.

6/10

Time Is on My Side

·         Recorded: March 5 – 7, 1965

·         Overdubs: Lead vocal over the original.

     Unfortunately, the guitar is soft in the mix, even during the guitar solo. It’s not lost, just I’d prefer it louder. I’ll be fair with this; I didn't like the performance, but they kept themselves well.

7/10

I’m Alright

·         Recorded: March 5 – 7, 1965

·         Overdubs: Lead vocal over the original

     A screeching guitar that tries to reach the surface of the mix. Good performance, although Jagger is a bit lacking in my opinion.

7/10

Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?

·         Recorded: October 7, 1966

·         Overdubs: According to the Internet, this is most likely another studio track. We’ll keep that in mind.

     It’s loud. It’s an average performance, nothing bad about it, but I can’t really pick out anything. I can say that there’s a nice bass on this song.

7.25/10

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

·         Recorded: October 7, 1966

·         Overdubs: Lead vocal, Backing vocal by Richards

     It’s a hard rocking song, and I’m surprised they didn't rush this song too much. It’s straight ahead, and a very good closer. However, a fade out? Really?

8/10

                The album is full of fixing up. If the album’s goal was to make money, then maybe it succeeded. If the production’s goal was to fix an album up out of scraps, they succeeded. More than likely, this album sounded better than the raw concert. What I heard sounded pretty good.

                But it’s anything but a live album. An overdub to fix sound issues? I can look past that. Editing to create a Frankenstein of an album? You keep your hands off. Back then, maybe all the fans didn't care, but everything here is just plain wrong. The worst is the usage of studio recordings, with audience overdubs to fool us. That’s not right.

     A live album is supposed to bring the live experience into your home. This is not that. In case you didn't realize by now, I hate everything behind this album.

     However, the performances themselves sound really good. The mix has the drums dominating, which works well until about halfway through, where they even start to drown out the guitar. Vocals range from average and uninspired to very good. In my opinion, the b-side of the album is the weak point.

                Everything was performed at a faster pace, which brings a new spin to some and hurt others. It’s a hit or miss. Even through this, the band keeps together (except for the beginning of 19^th Nervous Breakdown), despite the odds being stacked against them.

                Finally, despite the editing attempts to make this album as perfect as possible, there are random cuts that sound unnatural, and as I said, the drums dominate too much.

                And finally, if you’re going to promote this as a pure live album, don’t have Mick Jagger overdub his vocals on top of himself. Having two Jagger’s is not live.

                I will hate this album for the foreseeable future. A pity, because the performances themselves are very nice and rose far above my expectations at times.

     Suddenly the songs’ individual ratings don’t matter, because I’m giving the album a 30/100.

The performances themselves I give an 86/100.

And finally, if you do count the songs’ ratings, It would be 75%, which is just a little too low for me.

*Partial-Review* Aftermath (US)

Aftermath (US)

Released
June 20, 1966

Paint It Black

(Jagger / Richards (and Bill Wyman uncredited!)

So for the US version of Aftermath, we get a bit shorter, stereo version of the previous single Paint it Black, released a month earlier. One thing I noticed about the stereo mix is that I hear the bass near the end a lot better, with it being beautiful.

10 / 10

The exclusion of Out of Time, Take It or Leave It, What to Do, and Mother’s Little Helper

So here’s the original scores for these songs:

·         Out of Time – 8.25

·         Take It or Leave It – 8.5

·         What to Do – 7.5

·         Mother’s Little Helper – 10 / 10

In my opinion, there were more filler that could’ve been taken out that wouldn’t be missed as much. I also understand the removal of Mother’s Little Helper; they would release that as an American single later, and they did get Paint It Black on this. Other than that, the exclusions made sense if they were going to replace them with something. But they just removed 10 minutes worth of music for whatever reason. So the total album gets the score by way of songs’ scores of 90.95 / 110, but I’ll add a little bonus for putting Goin’ Home at the end of the album because it’s nicer there, so the final score is

91.25 / 110

Or a slightly larger score than the UK version of Aftermath, and I’ll just say both albums are technically the same, but I’d go with the UK version just for the extra amount of songs and the better Paint It Black B-side.

*Review* (Single) Paint It Black / Stupid Girl

*This is part of my ongoing, personal project of listening to every Rolling Stones material released, posted onto this blog for everyone to read and for opinions to flourish. The rating doesn't mean much, because I hate ratings, but might as well.*

Paint It Black / Stupid Girl

Paint It Black

(Jagger / Richards (and Bill Wyman!)

So what can I even pick out of this to talk about? The sitar? The guitar? The fact that everything fits so nicely together to make what could be The Stones first venture into psychedelic rock? Everything is just so nice: the demanding drum, the beautiful sitar provided by the man of exotic instruments Brian Jones, and what could be the best use of Mick Jagger’s voice on all their records, in this dark psychedelic masterpiece.

10 / 10

Stupid Girl

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

*Copied from Aftermath (UK)*

This song made me chuckle at first for how it sounded, and then I chuckled for how the lyrics are written. And then I chuckled again about the lyrics themselves. It’s a harsh song, but the lyrics are written so silly, and then sung with the amount of passion not associated with harsh, and it’s funny. At the same time, there’s probably some emotion Jagger put into this. Some truth that we should probably know with all that touring with crazy fans.

As a B-side to such a song as Paint It Black, the only thing it has in common is the psychedelic rock ties (an organ on this and a sitar on the other.)

8.75 / 10

18.75 / 20

Oh yeah, it’s a brilliant single. Even when the B-side doesn't fit the mood much, both sides provide excellent music.

*Review* Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) [US]

Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) [US]

Released
March 28, 1966

Here’s where things start to get interesting. A compilation album: now how would I even start to review this? I won’t do this song by song, but instead talk about it as a whole because that, in my mind, works a lot better. And if you don’t like that, hunt for the songs: I’ve reviewed every song on here before.

One thing I’ll just say is that I have the 2006 remastered version, so I have stereo mixes of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Time Is on My Side, It's All Over Now, and Heart of Stone. At any other time that would be fantastic, but I’m supposed to pretend I’m a little Stones fan from the 60’s and there was no stereo mixes. Oh well.

Also I find it funny the US got this first.

·         (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – 10 / 10

·         The Last Time – 8.5 / 10

·         As Tears Go By – 10 / 10

·         Time is On My Side – 8 / 10

·         It’s All Over Now – 7.8 / 10

·         Tell Me – 8 / 10

·         19^th Nervous Breakdown – 10 / 10

·         Heart of Stone – 8.5 / 10

·         Get Off of My Cloud – 9 / 10

·         Not Fade Away – 7 / 10

·         Good Times, Bad Times – 7.8 / 10

·         Play with Fire – 8 / 10

Three out of the twelve songs are covers, and one song was by Jagger / Richards and Andrew Oldham. That backs up my feelings on the Stones own songs vs. the Stones covers. They seemed to ignore EPs, because You Better Move On isn’t here and that disappoints me, because Good Times, Bad Times made it. Not to say it’s a bad song, but it’s not as good as quite a few songs that were glossed over. If You Need Me would’ve been a good song, and Route 66 if they were trying to include older pieces as well. Other than that, you have the standard songs you’d expect; Satisfaction, As Tears Go By, Time is On My Side, songs we still know today that haven’t been pushed to obscurity by the bigger songs.

The album contains the majority of what is needed on a Stones Greatest Hits album at this time, and while it’s definitely missing some songs that would’ve made it better, it’s still a great album.

102.6 / 120

I think that brings this to be the highest rated 12-song album from the Stones, but we’re not going to count it. But we’ll keep it in mind in case things get ugly, which I don’t expect it to do.

*Review* (Single) 19th Nervous Breakdown / Sad Day

*This is part of my ongoing, personal project of listening to every Rolling Stones material released, posted onto this blog for everyone to read and for opinions to flourish. The rating doesn't mean much, because I hate ratings, but might as well.*

(Single) 19th Nervous Breakdown / Sad Day

19th Nervous Breakdown

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

(Copied from previous single) I love rocking pieces. I honestly can’t find anything to pick at on this song. All I can say is, “oh my, that bass.”

10/10

Sad Day

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

There’s a slight piano in here that reminded me of the upcoming album Their Satanic Majesties Request, but I can’t talk about that yet. Other than that it’s an alright song with nothing too good about it and nothing bad about it at all.

7.5/10

17.5 / 20

So 19^th Nervous Breakdown is a fantastic rocking song, and Sad Day is an alright song. Unlike the previous single that the UK got, however, Sad Day pretty much will never see love. I like it when there’s new songs as that brings the fans who want to collect everything, but if I had to choice I’d pick the single with As Tears Go By as the B-side, because that’s just fantastic as a B-side and, although you shouldn’t need to put that on a B-side, it makes for a fantastic single.

*Review* ELO - The Electric Light Orchestra (No Answer)

*I'm not a professional music connoisseur, and as such everything here is opinion-based and usually made during my first listen to a song / album.*

I’m going to take a break from the regular reviews of The Rolling Stones to take a look at the one art rock band that I personally think tops them all, Electric Light Orchestra. Of course, not all of their stuff is art rock. It’s Symphonic Rock, hard rock, but a lot of their early stuff (post-The Idle Race, although a lot of their stuff was Psychedelic which is a form of art rock at times.) has that beautiful artsy sound.

And Luckily, ELO doesn't have differences (that I can see immediately) between US and UK albums besides their unfortunate name mistakes.

The Electric Light Orchestra (No Answer)

Released
December 1971

10538 Overture

This is a pretty big hit for ELO in the UK, and coming from the first song of their first album no less. No love in the US it seems though. The song uses some beautifully placed Cello love, but keeps the same structure throughout, and repeats most of it’s phrases with changes within the lines of different brass parts. Most people would be so confused to hear such a hard-and-heavy hit that relies of string and brass instruments. My one and only problem is that it perhaps goes on too long, since the song is mostly the same until the end.

8.75 /10

Look At Me Now

This has a strange demo feel, like McCartney’s first album; and by that I mean the vocals seem to have been recorded first, alone, and then the instrumentation was thoughtfully placed around it. Quite a bit of contrast from the hard rock hit from before, but that’s about it.

7/10

Nellie Takes Her Bow

You can really tell the difference between a Lynne composition and a Wood composition so far. Lynne seems to be more about making everything neat, and Roy just does what he thinks I guess. A slower song like Look At Me Now, but that’s exactly what Lynne wants you to think. About 2:20 into the song, we start to change, and that’s the beauty of some of these lesser known ELO song; they’re very much like full orchestra pieces having several movements. The change isn't drastic though, as it’s still slow, but it does take on a violin solo. Also, Lynne adds some sort of vocal effect that I really don’t know if I like or not. I feel like a bit more could have been put into this song, but as is it’s pretty nice with nice backing vocals to accompany everything else. (Also, I thought it was bow, as in violin bow. I mean, try putting the pieces together, it’s EL Orchestra)

7.75 / 10

The Battle of Marston Moor (July 2nd, 1644)

Wikipedia has a nice word to describe this song: Baroque-and-Roll. A Roy composition that is very story-heavy, but at the same time uses the available orchestration to a great extent. He really was going for less of a song and more for a story, and like I said, art. It’s hard not to expect art pieces from a band like this. This is also the longest song on the album, clocking in at just over 6 minutes, and maybe it isn't worth it. Art’s fun and all, but the listeners have to be in it as well. I imagine Roy was very happy making this, because a lot of work goes into things like this, more so than Mick Jagger and his filler albums. It’s a weird piece that has some weird transitions between it’s movements, but it does have that nasty ending note. Nasty in a good way.

6.75 / 10

First Movement (Jumping Biz)

Very interesting. It’s hard to explain all of these pieces, but this is something different. It’s very upbeat, but not too much. It’s like an intro to a movie. I think I enjoy this piece, because it’s fun and short. A song like this wouldn't work long (see the song right before this, although that was more art than this song.)

7.75 / 10

Mr. Radio

No, it’s not Mr. Blue Sky yet. Go away. It can be easily compared to this song though. It’s a combination of Mr. Blue Sky and Telephone Line. It’s a nice, simple story as well, mixed in with some of the most beautiful composed orchestration on the album. But you know, behind the story, and the orchestra, it’s just a good song. Nothing more, nothing less. (Although guilty pleasure to the use of backwards violins at the end)

8/10

Manhattan Rumble (49th Street Massacre)

For a second I thought it was going to start the beginning of The Wall; those piano notes are either exactly the same or close to Outside the Wall. The feeling of the song definitely matches the 49th Street Massacre part, with it’s dark and demanding piano and beating drums and the cellos make their stand. Halfway through the song we get something a bit different, but still manages to keep a dark and creepy atmosphere. Oh, and there’s wind instruments, that’s a bit weird. This song is almost fun, and I actually smiled at around the 3 minute mark when the high-pitched background vocals started (probably for the song reason though). So far, this album really tries its best to be art.

6.75/10

Queen of the Hours

Lynne gets his third written song in a row, and it’s more of what I like. More music and less art, but it’s still pretty much art (but pretend it isn't so I can stop saying the word art for a bit.) Something I’m going to note here is that a lot of the song blend in together, and not in the way that one track overlaps into the other track, but they all start to sound the same (besides 10538 Overture.) That’s not the best thing to do. Nothing much to say about this song except that it has a nice length.

7.5/10

Whisper in the Night

Wood ends this album with something beautiful. We go back to the slow lyrical style of the album with this song, and it’s very lyrical. And one of my #1 guilty pleasures appear on this song, although only for a short amount of time, a slide guitar solo (a soft one). Other than that, though, it’s alright. Very soft, very beautiful, but very much the same as the rest of the album.

8/10

68.25 / 90

In Conclusion

I love ELO, I love Lynne, and as a violin player I love orchestration. I have a great appreciation for everything that was attempted here and their other albums (and Lynne’s producer work on everything from his albums to his fellow Wilburys’ albums.) I would not recommend this album to many people. This is an album for specific tastes, and people who just like ELO. I can forgive them for this being their first album, but both Lynne and Wood has had experience with albums (Wood has four with The Move and a single with Acid Gallery, and Lynne has possibly six with both The Move and The Idle Race.) There’s something here for sure, but is it music? Yes it’s music, of course it’s music. Just not the type of music that will ever be accepted like regular rock.

I'm not saying I'm glad they decided to rock more later, but I'm implying it. I love me some baroque, but maybe not a lot of baroque that wants you to know its baroque. Forced Baroque, perhaps?

*Review* Out of Our Heads (US)

Out Of Our Heads (US)

Released
July 30, 1965

Mercy Mercy

(Don Covay and Ronnie Miller)

So everything they’ve done to this song I agree with. The guitar is strong and Jagger’s voice fits perfectly. Not only does it fit, but he seems to be more confident with his voice. For the overall song, it’s a great rocking song that is hopefully a great opener to an equally great album.

9/10

Hitch Hike

(Marvin Gaye, Clarence Paul, Mickey Stevenson)

They have to stop using songs from recording sessions a year earlier, or at least that’s what it sounds like. A nice song, although I can’t say much about it. Songs like these, however, make me really appreciate Charlie Watts, which is something I wasn’t really expecting to come out of this.

7.5/10

The Last Time

(Jagger / Richards)

This was a single, with B-side Play with Fire. I still stand by everything I’ve said in the single review. To sum it up: It sounds The Monkees could play it, great song, Jagger works here, guitar solo was alright.

8.5/10

That’s How Strong My Love Is

(Roosevelt Jamison)

Jagger is pretty strong here. When you mix Soul with this rock sound the Rolling Stones are good at, it makes for a good combination. My only problem is not with The Stones themselves, but the guitar is too loud and covers Jagger’s voice at the end. Even if that was intended, I don’t like it.

8/10

Good Times

(Sam Cooke)

A good cover, but it’s almost funny to hear The Stones cover this. It works, but I just didn’t really expect it. Also, there seems to be a female backup vocalist on here, but none is credited.

7/10

I’m Alright

(Nanker Phelge)

Pretty weird choice to use a live song on an official album. But now I get to rate it, as the Got Live If You Want It! EP was pretty much un-ratable because of the overall album. Sure there’s energy, and sure there’s a fun yet simple bass, but that’s about it. I just don’t know if I like the song’s inclusion on tis album. Alright. Alright. Alright.

7/10

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

(Jagger / Richards)

Girl reaction.

10/10

Cry to Me

(Bert Russell)

This is a bit of Soul/Blues Stones trying to escape, buried beneath layers of Rock. It’s a nice guitar, but I can’t really say much for anything else. Jagger’s voice works here better than most of his normal attempt of blues, but meh.

7/10

The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man

(Nanker Phelge)

A fun song that doesn’t bring much to the table, but it’s good.

8.5/10

Play With Fire

(Nanker Phelge)

So I’ve heard better slower songs in this style from the Stones. It’s good. Not fantastic, though. Just good. But high score because of its niceness.

8/10

The Spider and The Fly

(Jagger / Richards)

Huh. Blues Rock. I want to like this song, but Jagger kinda pushes me away from this. But this might be the Stones best attempt at a blues song.

7/10

One More Try

Nice ending to the album. But that’s about it, since it wouldn’t make sense anywhere else.

7.5/10

95 / 120

Pretty good album as they slide out of their soul-blues skin, which might be their album so far. While certain songs really shine, others are forgettable.