The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed (CD 1999)

The last Stones studio album of the '60s finds the band, for perhaps the first time, accurately reflecting the spirit of its age. The erstwhile bad boy outsiders of rock now found themselves firmly in the centre of the social and political post-'68 whirlwind, and faced up to the challenge magnificently. The band's confident climb to its artistic peak was begun by BEGGAR'S BANQUET, but LET IT BLEED is a quantum leap even from that musical milestone.
The album's opener, "Gimme Shelter", with its insinuating guitar introduction, leads us decisively out of Flower Power and into a world where rape and murder are "just a shot away", and the Devil of BANQUET is very much alive and taking names. There's a nod to seminal influence Robert Johnson, whose "Love in Vain" is a mandolin-accompanied highlight. The climax arrives in the formof "You Can't Always Get What You Want", bearing referencesto the fallout of the Swinging London era. LET IT BLEED finds the Stones brimming with musical confidence and artistic inspiration.

The Stones 1969 album Let It Bleed is considered as one of the 'key' Stones albums, however as a whole it is far from a masterpiece. The country style tracks are rather uninspired, and while I'm aware that You Can't Always Get What You Want is lauded by many fans, for me it smacks of being just a pub singalong with a silly pretentious intro.

However the highlights of Let It Bleed really are something else entirely - Gimme Shelter and Midnight Rambler are unquestionably two of the greatest Stones songs, the former arguably among the best of all time with its fantastic driving beat and scorching female vocal in the middle. Meanwhile Midnight Rambler creates a real atmosphere of intent, a wonderfully crafted song with some especially nasty lyrics.

Elsewhere Monkey Man and Live With Me are the other enjoyable tracks of this inconsistent album, but Let It Bleed gains four stars on the strength of the tracks listed above, and no collection can be complete without these great songs.

- I also agree with the note on the sleeve, this has to be played LOUD!

I don't quite know where this album sits in the all time list of 'Greatesrt albums of all time' ... But it must surely be up there.. Compilation albums also have so much to answer for, in that they tend to devalue and take the sheen away from the fact, that the songs were originally recorded as part of an album in their own right, and not merely as tracks for a 'Best Of' or 'Greatst Hits'.. This is because 'Let it Bleed' could almost be viewed as a mini 'Best Of' in it's own right. Every track is just seething with musical perfection... The Stones at the tail end of the sixties. Doing what they do better than probably anyone else.. From the opening blast of 'Gimme Shelter', to the re-write of 'Honky Tonk Woman' as 'Country Honk', 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' or the immense 'Midnight Rambler'... One of the Stones best love songs 'Love In Vain' also makes appearance. As well as one of Keith Richard's finest vocal performances in 'You Got The Silver' (brought out for an airing on the recent 'Shine A Light' movie and cd..)
Is 'Let It Bleed' the best ever Stones album, perhaps. It's certainly brilliant, and still sounds as vibrant and fresh as when originally issued forty years ago. ++++++++++