The Rolling Stones
A Bigger Bang

THE REVIEW

Already being here, in 2005, to review a new Rolling Stones album, is quite a thrill. It is for those who love rock and its history, it is for those who love the power and the whines of Jagger's voice, it is for those who love the sharp riffs of Richards' guitar, and for those who love the sound of Watts' drums, always there, just a step away from oblivion, from absence. And here they are, coming back periodically to remind us that time is essentially a fiction. And they tell us this with their usual album, with the horrible cover and the divine content. Yes...: because the Stones are part of the classic music of the late twentieth century, and I urge you to distrust those who deny it.

But let's get to the album itself, in concrete terms. The parallel, if you want to be daring, is with “Pezzi” by Francesco De Gregori. Neither of these albums are truly masterpieces of composition (the respective protagonists didn't put much effort), they are deliberately lacking in post-production, they sound "raw," not too polished, both with a feeling of "first take" that hasn't been heard in so, so many years. Some songs, here as there, are very good, others are more modest but still sound great. The evaluation of such albums should be done – forgive the Latin, and I accept all the insults that will follow... – hic et nunc, not in absolute terms, as if we were in the seventies or even earlier.

“Wild Horses”, like “Alice” are unrepeatable moments, historically before musically. Today we must evaluate great artists who, instead of retreating to a comfortable little island to sunbathe and live off their income, have decided to continue to challenge themselves, facing both the stage and studio fatigue, and, most importantly, the Olympian challenges of the blank paper and pen to write something upon it. And they must do so without the "hunger" of their twenties.
In this perspective, albums like the ones mentioned, or even like “Devils And Dust” by the Boss, can be comfortably considered masterpieces.
Going down a bit, but the dissection of the album track by track is very subjective, often useless and always tedious…, I can tell you what I think are the best moments of this "Bigger Bang". Certainly the single, a classic Jagger ballad as there are many in his solo albums, but with the inclusion of an ultrastones chorus, in falsetto, worthy of the best moments. Just like Richards' ballad, "This Place Is Empty", is objectively beautiful (with an unusual lineup: Jagger on slide guitar and backing vocals, and Keith practically doing everything else except the drums…). Then highly commendable is the verve of “Let Me Down Slow” and the polemical force of “Sweet Neocon”, although certainly not the best track on the album.

I'll stop here: the rest is pure Rolling Stones, unmissable for those who love rock, and thus the Stones, or the Stones, and thus rock. Noteworthy, not without melancholy, is that these four grandpas, even when trying little, are infinitely better (from every point of view: compositional, interpretative, harmonic, etc...) than all the young imitators who, alas, they happen to have. Jovanotti and Oasis, maybe, in twenty years might understand something about De Gregori and the Stones, by listening again to the albums of this year, but by then, for them, it will certainly be too late.