Text "Better than thought" (Riccardo d'Ancona)

First must be noted the kind of musicians Mick Jagger choose for his long awaited effort: there are many soloists, with lots of keyboards, but leading guitar is six pieces of nine Jeff Beck, while there is no sign of sax or brass. That leads to the assumption that, maybe, on the last Stones albums horns have been entered just to fill the gaps with lead guitar?! The bass approach is rather full, with moving lines, very meaty, well coupled with metronomic drums (Charlie could've been on this very easily), perhaps Mick's words are rhyming the easiest way like this...

About lyrics, well, they're not enlightening, it must be said, the weakest part of the work. We all hope it was a personal subject this LP was on, just to leave the Stones space for more wide adventures, also lyrically. Mick's vocals are great, as usual, with the range of speak / whisper / cry / growl words put together within lines of music. The most traumatic track is surely "Lonely at the top", completely changed from the song we all know; it has lost that "ethereal" quality the Stones gave it, acquiring meanwhile a striking movement due to the rhythmics of bass and drums together. The most satisfying Mick Jagger vocals are, for me, "Turn the girl loose" and "She's the boss", but musically "1/2 a loaf" and "Lucky in love" are very good tracks. "Running out of luck" reminds me sometimes of a Stones track never released, but can't remember its name. Production has been divided between Mick Jagger and Bill Lasweel and Nile Rodgers. The Bill Laswell tracks are the toughest ones, with more drums results and, I think, a better guitar sound, while the Nile Rodgers tracks are surely a great advantage for bass lines and funkiest. Songtexts are inserted in the LP and one can note that, while all lyrics have Mick Jagger imprimatur, on three tracks there's a musical partner: "Lonely at the top" is twin Keith, while "Lucky in love" and "She's the boss" is Carlos Alomar (David Bowie-man) who wrote the music, but didn't play (Jeff's just better, Mick said!).

What more can be said? It is the first of two solo projects Mick Jagger is supposed to give to CBS and undoubtedly it is better than thought. The only things I'm dissatisfied with are: no mention on the thanks of "you know who", and the usual feeling about material: do you think Mick Jagger will leave his best lyrics to himself or give 'em to the Stones? That has fucked up the Faces with Rod Stewart and we all hope it won't be the Stones to suffer for this. Maybe the best solutions will be to release new stuff as soon as it has been written (both for Stones and Mick Jagger solo LPs) and not let it laying for ages. Also I'm positive about the nearness in time of Mick's solo and the Stones release (supposed), this will avoid maybe, stupid break-up rumours.

I must say, the more I listen to the record, the more I like it! Songs are really good, but also CBS must be thanked for great package. Wonderful colours on cover, lovely inside foil with songtexts and a fabulous pressing of the record (I have a USA copy). Also great are the 12" mix versions of "Just another night" (with some sax here)!

Publication

1985.04.16

Charlie is good tonight nr. 2