Pick the best Rolling Stones album from THESE FOUR:

Well, I admit I tried to get to 12 myself and failed. Bizarrely, the best tracks from the VL sessions were left off the album, including four great B-sides and a host of cuts on the Voodoo Brew and Voodoo Stew boxes such as Honest Man.

 

Monitor mixes from the Steel Wheels sessions leaked a few years ago, and most of the songs sounded FAR better before being glossed up. As is, Voodoo Lounge by a nose.

 

C'mon, don't be cruel

If you didn't know the date of this pensive tune, which appeared as the B-side of "Saint of Me," from 1997's Bridges to Babylon, you might think it hails from the Stones' mid-1960s psychedelic-pop phase. It's a reflective moment of a song, a fragile little melody supported by solemn strings. It's also the rare Stones track to feature leads by both Jagger, who sings most of the song, and Richards, who enters like an apparition from the deep mists to deliver the closing lines of the bridge.
(c) Tom Moon

 

"Voodoo Brew" (grey market Voodoo Lounge songs, raw, before Don Was took the nice Rock & Roll edge off of them...)
Worth seeking out.

 

"Hold On To Your Hat" (Steel Wheels) is one of the best songs the Stones ever did (imo).

 

If STRIPPED had been listed, I'd have chosen that.

 

Steel Wheels was a great return to form after 2 weak and boring records. Then came the brilliant Mick's Wandering Spirit. Then something happened and they jumped the shark in 1994 never to recover. The last 2 albums particulary are a joke.

 

Bridges To Babylon is my favorite from this list. Very diverse, love the flirtations with reggae and electro-dance/trance music. I think some of the dislike stems from the fact it brings out the best of Keith and Mick more as separate entities than a unified front.

 

Mine too, I already posted (#20) , but I just wanted to restate my love for what I think is their modern day classic. Aside from Sweet Neocon (lyrics notwithstanding), I love every track on this record.

Rough Justice, It Won't Take Long, Oh Not Not You Again, She Saw Me Coming....are songs to me that shine in any period for The Stones

You're in "my" majority!

 

I listened to side one of Steel Wheels over the weekend and enjoyed it so much that I put on side 2 ... I always like this record ... A lot of highlights and surprises ... The remaining three I need to get better acquainted with.

 

I don't really like any of those four. By that time their best was behind them and they should have called it a day.

 

If the those albums were not by the Rolling Stones...I would've still enjoyed them as albums that work on their own if they were by someone else. You have to divorce yourself from the Stones canon if you really want to give these albums a chance. Comparing new music to a bunch of albums written 30 or 40 years ago is pretty ridiculous.

 

I could not agree with you more. This is exactly how I feel. I stated in an earlier post how it seems unfair when comparing The Rolling Stones to The Beatles or Led Zeppelin, or Pink Floyd even.

I love and respect the work of all these bands. However, The Stones really "put themselves out there" in a way the others just haven't, by shutting it down long ago. So often I hear "The Stones last great album was Exile" or "they lost me after Tattoo You", etc, etc...

It almost seems that in some cases people get conditioned to believe that when The Stones were last in the mix (as far as studio output is concerned) with the popularity and air play of music from "their generation" ......that its only possible that those records and prior ones could be great.....that when FM radio stopped playing the new stuff, and when the records stopped selling at the highest of levels, that they must not be great.

If Led Zeppelin and The Beatles kept making records into the Millennium, how would they be viewed? We'll never know. It's crazy to think that FM radio wouldn't play anything past Let It Be or Presence, but I'm guessing that the path of those bands would at the least, resemble The Stones to some degree.

I'm listening to "A Bigger Bang" right now. Beyond the point you make, "Oh No Not You Again" stacks up alongside a song like "Shattered" IMO, yet "Shattered" was all over the airwaves when it came out, shows up now and again on FM and XM radio, was part of a mega selling album in a time when bands of that genre were thriving, and could easily show up on a Stones set list.

There's probably no chance we'll ever hear a song from A Bigger Bang in concert again. There wasn't much airplay of those songs when the record came out, and I haven't heard any of those songs on the radio since. It's a bit sad to me.

This is just my opinion, but as I hear "Laugh I Nearly Died" blaring in the background as I write this.....I feel like the world of opinion is just so wrong. I love this record. If you have this record in your collection, give it another listen soon. Listen to it closely. If you don't have it, get it and give it a go. If I get slammed here for this, that's ok, it won't taint my love a bit.

 

Voodoo Lounge is the best of the four IMO, although it doesn't match a lot of their earlier work.

 

I agree it's worth seeking out, but how is Voodoo Brew grey market. What is it's semi-legality?

 

I don't believe it's an official release, that's what I meant. Never liked Voodoo Lounge, but Voodoo Brew is something else.

 

Agreed all around.

The Stones have given us the classic albums....we really don't need anything else from them. Literally everything that came after "Tattoo You" is a bonus. Extra credit, if you will. I'm glad they kept on writing and recording music because they have put out some great songs from 1983 to 2012. Sure there wasn't one album that was a hands-down classic but every album since "Undercover" contained at least 2 or 3 great songs on it. Every album was consistently inconsistent yet there were a few gems on each. If one were to collect all the good stuff and put them into one album---that'd be something extremely worthy of comparison to their older stuff. Unfortunately, all the good stuff is spread over many, many records. Regardless, the Stones took chances and churned out a few clunkers but also a few winners in the last 30 years. It's just a shame that no one wants to give them the time of day just because they weren't radio hits.

We've had a few threads on this board about the Stones' best work since '81 and it's pretty clear that people have A LOT of great things to say about this period.

Rolling Stones Compilations that cover from 1980 onwards

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...-cover-from-1980-onwards.297028/#post-8087933

Best Stones album tracks post Tattoo You?

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/best-stones-album-tracks-post-tattoo-you.110081/

 

Fine way of putting it!

By the way, has anyone told you what a fine avatar you have?

 

Actually BTB is my least favorite on that list. VL is my #1 with ABB a strong # 2. & #3 SW is still very good.

BTB is a patch work of stuff that is spotty. IMO Some songs are excellent though. I recently got a copy on Vinyl to complete my collection of later their day records.

There are some really great tracks on ABB. Love that they released that so late in their legacy.

 

One way to look at decades long lasting artists is to enter their world. Don't look at the big picture that involves others and enjoy the imaginary jukebox/IPod of just that one artist.
Hit random.
This works especially well with artists where their songs outweigh the album concept.
The Rolling Stones are full on amazing start to finish.
Time is on their side and time will tell.

 

Just some great posts here, that put a smile on my face

Makes me proud to be a member of this forum. If it truly is, and I believe this more and more as I grow older, that its the "small things in life" that makes one happy , and participating in a forum like this is one of those small things, then as I write this, I'm experiencing "happy"!

"Howlinrock", in post #118 I gave my first ever avatar compliment. While I'm on the subject......great nickname and avatar both!

 

voodoo lounge all the way, some really nice songs on it, ABB isn't too good imo, whereas Steel Wheels has its moments

 

"A Bigger Bang" - back to raw guitars.
I like more tracks on it than the other albums listed. However there is nothing on there as strong as "Love Is Strong" and "You Got Me Rocking".

 

I would bet that The Rolling Stones would agree here. Just a hunch, interesting that "You Got Me Rocking" was one of the couple of tunes played live at the 121212 show I saw in December.

Those are both great songs, "You Got Me Rocking", as it was played together with "JJF" reminds me of that song, not a an attempt at being like it, but in a great way, naturally reminiscent of it.

 

I guess Steel Wheels is the best. All four have good songs but all four desperately need editing.