The Rolling Stones

Following the less than great Emotional Rescue, Tattoo You finds the Stones back in form. They turn out one of their finest late-period records, considered by many to be their last great album. The band was settling into the arena rock formula that marks their most recent work, but they met with a success they no longer seem capable of reproducing.

For too many years it's seemed almost impossible for the Rolling Stones to make an album
that hasn't involved – at least partially – the problem of being the Rolling Stones. This
difficulty dogged them throughout the Seventies–it's part of the responsibility of having
lasted so long, I guess–and they responded to both it and their audience's need for
constant redefinition with snideness (who wants to be told that "It's Only Rock 'n... More >

There's no denying it, unfortunately--this is a damn good record, a great band showing off its mastery, like Muddy Waters (just as a for instance) getting it up one more once. But where Some Girls had impact as a Rolling Stones record, a major statement by artists with something to state, the satisfactions here are stylistic--harmonies, fills, momentum. And the lead singer isn't getting any less mean-spirited as he pushes forty. (Grade - A-)