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For most of their career, the Rolling Stones have engaged in a tug of war, pulling their music toward the rough edges of libido-rock at one moment and yanking it in the direction of straightforward pop the next. This time around, they've chosen to concentrate on spit rather than polish, giving A Bigger Bang -- their first studio recording since 1997's Bridges to Babylon -- a welcome dose of sweaty energy. Songs like the harmonica-drenched blues strut "Back of My Hand" hark back to the band's earliest days interpreting Willie Dixon and Howlin' Wolf classics, while others -- most notably the ready-to-rumble riff-fest "Rough Justice" -- feel like Mick, Keith, and company have re-Exiled themselves on Main Street. They seem well aware of the fact that naysayers will launch slings and arrows their way for continuing their long, strange trip past the four-decade mark -- and address it cleverly on the honky-tonk smirk-fest "Oh No, Not You Again." That tune, however, is about the only concession to age on A Bigger Bang. Jagger seems hell-bent on proving he's still able to carry off the sneering guttersnipe role he played for "Street Fighting Man," and does so with alacrity on the much-discussed "Sweet Neo Con," one of the Stones' rare forays into social commentary. He's a little less believable as the lithe lothario -- "She Saw Me Coming" is the aural equivalent of Harrison Ford continuing to play leading-man roles opposite 20-something ingénues -- but that's really a small speed bump under the wheels of this musical machine. The machine has been chopped and channeled for maximum efficiency -- with emphasis on the revivified collaborative spark between Jagger and Richards -- on A Bigger Bang, which ultimately delivers exactly what its title promises.
CONDITION: NEW
TRACK LISTING
1. Rough Justice
2. Let Me Down Slow
3. It Won't Take Long
4. Rain Fall Down
5. Streets of Love
6. Back of My Hand
7. She Saw Me Coming
8. Biggest Mistake
9. This Place Is Empty
10. Oh No, Not You Again
11. Dangerous Beauty
12. Laugh, I Nearly Died
13. Sweet Neo Con
14. Look What the Cat Dragged In
15. Driving Too Fast
16. Infamy
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