I promise you one thing — you will not be bored by this set of tunes. It is quite the rocky ride listening to this hits package, but that is just part of the fun and thrill of it all. <\/p>\n
Rhino Records has long been a champion of underrated music artists, and Mick Jagger as a solo performer is certainly no exception. More than anything, The Very Best Of Mick Jagger<\/i> succeeds in capitalizing on producer Rick Rubin\u2019s current popularity — five of the 17 tracks <\/i>are produced by him. Unfortunately, only two of stand out as being all that memorable: \u201cSweet Thing\u201d from 1993\u2019s Wandering Spirit <\/i>and the spanking brand new \u201cCheckin\u2019 Up On My Baby.\u201d The latter brings the ongoing Jagger\/Rubin partnership to a whole new level, especially with its blazing blues harmonica opening. <\/p>\n
While focusing so heavily on the Rubin material doesn\u2019t exactly pay off, the remaining tracks certainly make up for it. Everything, that is, except the embarrassing ballads. The sad fact of the matter is, Mick Jagger needs to be kept as far away from slow songs as possible. His larger-than-life personality is one that is virtually impossible to be taken seriously, so the dismal foray into country (\u201cEvening Gown,\u201d) the detour into cheap-sounding reggae (\u201cYou Got To Walk (And Don\u2019t Look Back)\u201d) and the clumsy misfire \u201cOld Habits Die Hard\u201d each deserve to be put out of their misery. They certainly do not belong on any greatest hits package, no less Mick Jagger. <\/p>\n
So what, might you ask, does work on this long-awaited hits compilation by Mr. Big Lips himself? \u201cLet\u2019s Work,\u201d for starters. I admit, I\u2019m a little guilty for admitting to liking this song, but it does rival another Dave Stewart production, \u201cDon\u2019t Come Around Here No More\u201d by Tom Petty, for sheer entertainment value. What can I say, I\u2019m a sucker for big hooks and rhythmic festive fare. Hell, I also like the Mick Jagger\/David Bowie remake of \u201cDancing In The Street,\u201d which brings back the Live Aid summer of 1985 so vividly in all of its gaudy splendor. And, although it does suffer from over-production, the recent \u201cJoy\u201d is helped along by none other than Bono and Pete Townshend. Can\u2019t go wrong there. <\/p>\n
Elsewhere on this pleasantly surprising hits collection, you will find Mick singing in his \u201cMiss You\u201d falsetto on \u201cSweet Thing,\u201d tempting club DJs with another irresistible new track \u201cCharmed Life\u201d and dusting off the sadly forgotten hit single \u201cJust Another Night,\u201d reminding us of where it all began once Mick went solo. Unfortunately, the follow-up \u201cLonely At The Top\u201d is nowhere to be found, which almost makes me wish I owned She\u2019s The Boss<\/i>. Almost. <\/p>\n
The two standouts that make this a must-own are the John Lennon-produced \u201cToo Many Cooks\u201d and the Performance <\/i>classic \u201cMemo From Turner,\u201d both of which transport the listener back to the down and dirty early 70s. Mick was always at his best whenever he dared to venture into gritty, urban music territory. For \u201cToo Many Cooks\u201d to have been unreleased to this day is something of a surprise. For it to be the funky soul classic that it turns out to be makes it even more of an undiscovered treasure worth finding. <\/p>\n
Now that this puppy has been let out and can finally see the light of day, maybe the critics out there will stop taking potshots at Jagger’s solo career and instead measure it on its own merits, instead of the merits of the Stones. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":29012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6345],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-40522","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mick-jagger","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40522"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40522"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}