*Review* Aftermath (UK)

Aftermath (UK)

Released
April 15, 1966

Mother's Little Helper

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Let me start this album by saying Jesus. This is a big departure from normal Stones, and of course that means we have arrived at popular Stones. Properties of popular Stones include an amazing guitar, and vocals that can fit (hopefully). And this song, the song to start off this album, the song that gives you the first impression of what’s to come, is mighty fine.

10/10

Stupid Girl

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

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.

8.75 / 10

Lady Jane

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

All this feels very baroque rock to me. Maybe it’s the harpsichord that Brian Jones so carefully inserts into this, and the other out-of-the-ordinary instrument he played, the Dulcimer. If you need a unique sound, pick up a unique instrument. I feel like I should like this more than I do, but all I can really do right now is appreciate it. Maybe it’ll grow on me later.

8 / 10

Under My Thumb

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

I honestly did not like this song before, because all I heard it from was live. And each live version didn’t do this justice by far. One of the reasons I like it is that Jagger could’ve pushed this song to be harder and faster if he wanted to, like a rock and roll song, but he didn’t. The slight marimba keeps this song at a beautiful light tone. I really want to give this a perfect ten, but I just don’t feel like Jagger’s voice deserves it, and for that, I truly am sorry. I just think someone else could do it better, perhaps. I don’t know actually, my brain is just so split on what to do on this song.

Also, this is a good time to say this, but what is up with Jagger and women?

9.65 / 10

Doncha Bother Me

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

The one thing I learned, if I had to pick, is that despite how awkward Charlie Watts looks in a lot of Stones material, he is very underrated. The drums on this sound so fun. This is Jagger’s homage to his roots of blues rock, which he loves. And, unlike his cover of blues rock songs, his own blues rock songs are pretty good. Unfortunately, this is another song that if I sit down and really focus in, I can’t seem to decide if I really like his voicework, or if I don’t particularly care for it. There’s enough rock here to pretty much cancel that out though.

8.75 / 10

Goin' Home

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Jesus Christ, this is eleven minutes of blues. Jam blues. If you want some background, this is the first song from a rock and roll group to extend past Bob Dylan’s record of six minutes a song, and then apparently, although not properly cited on Wikipedia, was an inspiration for The Doors to extend The End to abnormal lengths. Except The End was more fun to listen to. Because I listen to too much Beatles, I’m going to relate this to Beatles: It’s like the difference between Dig It on the Let It Be album and the full jam version. Do you really want to listen to that much? I don’t. Bill Wymen and his bass was pretty enjoyable in this song, and Jagger was pretty nice. Other than that, it’s just eleven minutes of blues and Jagger improvising lines and random noises every once in a while. I do appreciate that they stayed on track throughout the whole song, and it starts to really pick about two minutes before the end. And Jagger’s talking to little girls telling them to touch him.

7.30 / 10

Flight 505

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Oh I want to like this. I want to like that beautiful fuzz bass. But I really don’t care for Jagger’s part in this. And they really need to bring that piano up a bit in the mix, because I want to hear piano in my rock-and-roll. And once again, Charlie Watts drumming is excellent.

7.25 / 10

High and Dry

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

I want to give some more praise to Watts here, but he’s really only doing one thing here.  I also cannot think of anything to say here, except I imagine The Stones bouncing up and down to this song like an old cartoon.

7.25 / 10

Out of Time

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Brian Jones really loves his marimba. There’s a limit of how many times you can use that instrument, and you really are pushing it. It’s a nice song, but I think it went on a bit too long. It could’ve worked as a three and a half minute song, and maybe even four if you needed it to be longer. I also like Jagger’s voice work (maybe I should explain something: I’m targeting Jagger’s voice a lot because it was the main reason I didn’t care about The Stones. It’s a distinct voice that many people love, but not really me. I don’t love it, but it can work in places.)

8.25 / 10

It's Not Easy

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

This song tricks you to think it’s going to be a slow song with that beginning, but nope. I hear that organ, don’t try to hide it, because it sounds nice. In fact, everything sounds nice here and it does well within perfectly acceptable times UNLIKE OUT OF TIME.

8.75 / 10

I Am Waiting

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

I think this song surprised me continuously, because until the song was over I just had “I” written down. Either that or I was memorized listening to it. This song’s quite lovely, and I have no complaints.

9.25 / 10

Take It or Leave It

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Why do they insist on pushing the organ down to be the quietest instrument? That disappoints me. There’s quite a unique range of instruments on this. And that’s all I have to say about that.

8.5 / 10

Think

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

I’m running out of things to say about these later songs, and I’ll give my opinion why during the summary. I really have nothing to pick out of this song, good or bad.

6 / 10

What To Do

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

A fun song with some nice harmonizing here and there, and some fun surf-rock like “bow bow bow” things. I don’t particularly agree with this being the last song on the album, it just seemed to blend in with everything else on the B-side.

7.5 / 10

115.2 / 140

Quick summary: excellent album, fantastic album, everyone should at least listen to the front side of this.

Long summary: Sit down, we’re going to have quite a lengthy talk. There was a lot going for this album. The beginning was full of great songs. Even Goin’ Home, while I didn’t completely 100% agree with it, was nice to some extent, and it paved the way for future bands. The B-side, however, felt like filler. It felt like so much filler to me, and it’s a shame. The A-side completely dominated. But let’s not hate on this album anymore, let’s go to the good things in life. This album was completely made by Jagger / Richards, and oh boy does it show. That’s a great thing, because when they make songs they can do it better than when they cover, especially when it comes to blues rock. The B-side, while not as good as the A-side, was still enjoyable at times and should not be overlooked by any means. Does this album deserve the reputation it has? Eh, maybe it’s a tiny bit overrated in the Stones catalogue, but it’s still a fine album nerveless. Would I recommend this album? Yes. To anybody, really, although I won’t be mad at all if they don’t like it.

*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* (Single) 19th Nervous Breakdown / As Tears Go By

*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 / As Tears Go By

Oh boy, after a hiatus, I’m back. We finally step into what I personally think was the peak of The Rolling Stones. I’ll probably do some research to see if I’m right.

19th Nervous Breakdown

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

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

As Tears Go By

(Jagger, Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham)

*Copied from the previous single, where this was the A-side.* A very beautiful song. Very beautiful indeed. And there’s orchestration to this, and you can’t complain about that. And Jagger doesn’t push his voice, because if he did the song would be ruined.

10/10

20/20

Fun fact: this is a beautiful single, and so far the only single to receive a perfect score. Ladies and gentlemen, this is beautiful. The UK got a great deal on this baby.