When will those clouds all disappear?

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

11/09/20 : Goats Head Soup - The Rolling Stones


My first thought was "oh - I didn't know they'd released a new album".  And my second thought was "and the reason for that is that this isn't a new album".  So I'm slow, but that not slow - and who would call an album Goats Head Soup these days?  It's from 1973 and follows a run of albums which are viewed by a certain set of their fans as their masterpieces - Beggars Banquet (which was my favourite), Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Streeet (which is viewed by many as their masterpiece, but I thought was a bit of a mess).  However, the fact that I've reviewed all of them as part of the Rolling Stone exercise but not this one suggests we're in for something similar, but not quite as good.

And yeah, I think I can go with that - from what I can remember of their classic albums, it reminded me most of Exile On Main Street.  There are some decent enough tracks on there but they feel like they needed a bit more guidance and discipline to tighten them up.  I certainly struggle to imagine the re-release was bought or listened to much by many new fans - it feels very much from a certain era and it's not even top notch stuff from that era for me, I'm afraid.

We're at #1 with a new entry again - it managed three weeks before disappearing from view (which was two more than I was expecting).  The only other new entry in the top ten is Declan McKenna at #2 - and he only managed two weeks on the chart before dropping out, so the oldies definitely won this battle.  Interestingly, the next new entry was Billy Ocean at #14, who at 70 years old (and he's a mighty distinguished looking septuagenarian) is still putting out new music (and his latest was released a mere 44 years after his debut).

Back to GHS, Wikipedia has the expectedly chatty amount (216 milliPeppers) most of which talks about how this was made during their tax exile period and how, well, it's just not as good as their previous stuff, is it?  It got to #1 in most places first time around, but the re-release only made it to the top here and in Austria (that well known Rolling Stones fanbase).

"Customers also listened to Lou Reed, The Animals, Clapton and Cream - all names from back then, but not necessarily the names I was expecting to see.  I found this to be a curious museum piece, but nothing more than that - there are far better albums out there from there showcasing this era so I won't be revisiting this.

04/10/20 - Surprisingly bearable
16/10/20 - A very enjoyable album

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