Deluxe Exile: comments

It's great, amazing and gorgeous - of course it is. But as always it's impossible to be 100% positive - the greatest album ever is rereleased with 10 additional bonus tracks (with ADTL single it makes it 11) and they rock, each one of them, but all in all, and compared with well-known 18 Exile songs, they somehow fade. Or maybe I'm not in the mood? That's like another new album and I know I'm going to listen to those ones often.

1. "Pass the Wine (Sophia Loren)" - at first I even didn't like it. Catchy, groovy - maybe. I just wasn't amazed, it wasn't loud enough. But then I read the lyrics (they're good!) and the refrain that goes something like "I'm glad to be alive and kicking, I'm glad to see my heart's still ticking, pass me the wine, boy, let's make some love". And I listened again and now I love everything about this song :) Lyrics, groove, Mick Taylor's fills, horns that rush to the front from time to time, harmonica, the fact that it's quite long for a song like that (almost 5 minutes). Maybe it's Keith that should get his thing louder? Harder? I don't know. Taylor should've jam more in the end and Jagger should let him improvise and stop singing :) Tenor saxophone fills in the end are great, too... In overall, it's a finished song. Well-produced. Prime stuff. Stones at their best, even if it's lacking some hooks. Could be the best song on the disk, but there are even more interesting and unexpected ones.

2. "Plundered My Soul" - discussed before. Weak lyrics and the overall sound is more recent than from 1971. But it's good!

3. "I'm Not Singifying" - I've known this tune before in a version with Keith on great rhythm guitar and loved it! Dirty and mean blues. This version is different, being led by Nicky Hopkins' piano. Oh man I miss Keith's work there! But it's improved, really. Harmonica and horns in the end make the song great for me. Vocals are so-so, Mick Taylor's fills are not that divine and a blues song without a strong solo isn't a good blues song. On the other hand, last minute... Otis would've been proud!

4. "Following the River" - heartbreaking ballad, the kind I don't like. But it's really deep :) Convincing Jagger's vocal, newly recorded of course, but... strings! Strings! Aww come on. Two songs with strings that work for me are this one and "Moonlight Mile", but it's ten times less inspired. "You always saw the best in me" line really blows me though :)

5. "Dancing in the Light" - not a rocker, but close. Up-tempo, positive, happy song. :) Kind of "nanananana na nana": you love to sing it but you never know the words. Most prominent guitarist is Mick Taylor here, Keith's work is somewhere there hidden behind him. One of the best here. Certainly above average Stones level :)

6. "So Divine (Alladin Sane)" - one of my favorites. Awesome lyrics, awesome riff, awesome melody and vocal, and even the lazy solo by Taylor is something I'd love to hear more often from him. The instrumental of this is something that you've got to smoke to, this is far less hypnotizing. "You think your love is so divine / you pour it out like it was heaven-scented wine / You think your love is all I crave / Well, I've got better things to do than be your slave" :)

7. "Loving Cup" - the well-known drunk version with vocals very similar, but overdubbed. Shame. Same great phrasing, though :) Keith's guitar is electric and way more prominent than in the released version. I like it more. Slow and sexy :) It would be the best song on the bonus Exile disk, but it's not - I've already heard that many times! The line "I'm the man who brings you roses when you ain't got none, nothin" always cheers me up :)

8. "Soul Survivor" - another alternate take. Keith sings, this time, and the lyrics are clearly not yet developed - he sings random phrases ("well I just can't fuck it! et cetera!"). Musically it's the same track as the one released before except a little bit of horns added here and there and closing piano parts. So it's a let down. Great we have a Keith track, he sings great, but it's not very interesting one.

9. "Good Time Women" - the only one that was probably untouched. Mick's vocals are from the real Exile Sessions. And we've all heard it before! It's good. Slightly worse than "Tumbling Dice" :)

10. "Title 5" - closing track. Great because it's different. 1:47 of a jam between Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards, going back to the roots of the Stones - it's hard rhythm & blues! You don't hear them play like this at all. :)

And Japanese bonus track to the bonus tracks (^^) and worldwide single not included on the regular album: alternate "All Down the Line". A rocker this disc lacks. :)

2 songs we already heard, 9 new ones but 5 of them with very minor changes. It makes it only 4 songs that are completely new out of 11. Damn it, it's the new Rolling Stones album :)