Rolling Stones - 'Forty Licks' (Virgin)
5/5
By: Toby L
As long-awaited as an ointment that prevents ageing rockers from looking quite so ancient, this is, fittingly, the Rolling Stones' quintessential hits-collection, 'Forty Licks' - a double-CD compendium that looks back to the past with a hearty, defiant teary-eyed smirk and evaluates the seminal act's four decades in music.
Yes, that's right - forty years. Admittedly, such a career will only fall into the laps of the Gods when it comes to the varying levels of inspiration from album to album (or, at least, the associated illegal-substances around at the time), but when the 'Stones have it, boy, do they have it.
Kicking off matters is the tumultuous time-warp of 'Street Fighting Man' and 'Gimme Shelter', but it's mid-way through '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' that proceedings truly get underway, the swanky, charged-up guitars and Jagger's blurts of the track's title hurtling at you with the same impact they did all those seasons ago. Particularly, where the first disc on this compilation peaks is within the slightly moodier moments, where RS' preference for brooding, mid-pace blues serves to the muddy ideals of spirited, rousing rock 'n' roll; so, despite that dodgy choir intro, 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' still glides along with heart-warming aplomb; the brooding, up-tempo 'Under My Thumb' is compelling; and the Kinks-esque 'Mother's Little Helper' is possessive of a key-line of 'What a drag it is getting old'.
Really, by the time all this has passed - not to utter the inclusion of 'Sympathy For The Devil', 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' and epic 'Let's Spend The Night Together' - with the opening emergence of 'Start Me Up', 'Brown Sugar' and timeless 'Miss You' on CD-2, it seems that the energy is going to be rewardingly contained. In fact, we soon enter the aloof mid-to-post-early days of the group, with the more recent material such as 'Love Is Strong' and 'Anybody Seen My Baby?' perplexingly slotting in sublimely alongside the classic likes of 'Angie' and 'It's Only Rock 'N' Roll'. There's even a dashing of new stuff for the die-hards - 'Don't Stop', 'Keys To Love', 'Stealing My Heart' and 'Losing My Touch', each as valid as you can find, as produced by their latest collaborator Don Was.
And then it ends. So you press play again, and relive the rock-legacy, absorbing the fruits of a group so influential that they defy convention and are as fresh today as they were when they first burst onto the scene (unlike their looks). Honestly, go buy it, and provide yourself with a vital teaching in the field of alternative-music history.
Artists in this article: Rolling Stones
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