ROLLING STONES
Foreign Tongues (Polydor)
Rolling Stones fans should love this record. The band sounds huge and hungry, full of energy and a crazy amount of vitality for a trio all around 80 years old – albeit with slightly younger fellows making up the rest of the ensemble.
Opening track Rough And Twisted shows how much the Stones owe to Dylan, with sharp lyrics over a ZZ Top type groove. And, like Dylan’s 21st-century output, the Stones seem to have found an effortless place within the blues that just works. It’s a shame then, that it takes until the last track, Beautiful Delilah, for them to get back to basics.
In between, there’s a lot to like, with the Mr Charm chant coming from nowhere and Macca being given plenty of room as guest bassist on Covered in You. But too many times you wish someone had been brave enough to turn these sprawling 14 tracks into a lean set of songs. After all, no one needs to hear one of the great rock’n’roll bands covering Amy Winehouse’s You Know I’m No Good.
words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES
