Rolling Around In Guilt
July 23rd, 2008 - Written by stevek
due to last week’s server issues, we decided to repost Steve’s latest review as most didn’t get a chance to see it. Enjoy.
Rolling Stones: Rolled Gold Plus
As a general rule, Rolling Stones Best Of/Greatest Hits albums all have the same tracks: “Sympathy For The Devil”, “Under My Thumb”, “Paint It Black”, “Midnight Rambler”, “Jumping Jack Flash”, “Get Off My Cloud”, “Fighting In The Streets”, “Time Is On My Side”, “Satisfaction”, “Ruby Tuesday”, “Gimme Shelter”, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, “Let’s Spend The Night Together”, “Honky Tonk Woman”, “As Tears Go By”, and maybe “Angie”, “Out Of Time”, “I’m Free”, “Mother’s Little Helper” and “19th Nervous Breakdown”.
Surprisingly, ‘Rolled Gold Plus’ has none of them.
Well, yes it does, but you should see the look on your face!
This collection also includes other early Stones work, notably songs like “Little Red Rooster”, “I Wanna Be Your Man”, “She’s A Rainbow”, “Yesterday’s Papers”, “Dandelion” and other songs that you’ve probably never heard or heard of. Of course, if you have heard them or heard of them, you’re probably a die-hard Rolling Stones fan, you probably have all their albums, on vinyl, and you have absolutely no need of this disc.
The rest of us do, so sod off.
What makes this collection interesting is the more obscure tracks, because on them we can clearly hear that awkward time before the Rolling Stones found their hard rock niche. There’s sounds-like Beatles songs, sounds-like early Pink Floyd songs, sounds-like early Clapton songs; songs that sound like a lot of Brit-pop from the early to mid 1960s, essentially. Some of it, like “Rooster”, or “Dandelions” is really good. Some of it really, really isn’t. Really. Isn’t. But it is a fascinating aural history lesson, and, being early Rolling Stones music, it is a great listen.
This is a remastered and updated reissue of the original ‘Rolled Gold’ 1975 release, expanded to include some 40-plus songs, originally released in December and being given another go-round now. No, I can’t figure out why, either. But hey, who cares? It’s the Rolling Freakin Stones. However, “Angie” didn’t make the cut, so I just cannot justify giving this collection full marks.
Rolling Stones: Rolled Gold Plus
Universal
Steve’s Rating: 9/10
Beck: Modern Guilt
I screwed the pooch on this one and totally forgot this was coming out last week. Needless to say I’m making up for it.
First, let me say I’m a great fan of Beck’s music. However, there are a couple of albums of his that just fail to hit the mark with me.
‘Modern Guilt’ is one of them, the other is ‘Sea Change’.
Beck’s usual whimsy is here, but it’s completely overshadowed by the toned-down sounds of his trademark sampling. It’s all late-60s Brit-pop downtempo in vibe, and despite collaborating with Dangermouse, ‘Modern Guilt’ just falls short of the mark.
There’s none of the upbeat quirkiness, despite Beck’s usual sly wordplay and cutting lyrical observation and commentary. It’s a shame, too, because the songs, notably the titular “Modern Guilt” and “Walls”, really do sound good on their own. As an album, though, ‘Modern Guilt’ just doesn’t hold together, especially compared to 2006’s “The Information”, which was Beck at his best.
However, taking the songs out of the album, putting them together with everything else Beck has done and hitting the “Shuffle” button on the MP3 player yields an enjoyable mix, which leaves me really of two minds on this one; my dilemma: how can I like the songs but not the album?
Beck: Modern Guilt
Interscope
Steve’s Rating: 7/10
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