By 1988, it looked like the Rolling Stones were essentially history. Their previous studio album, Dirty Work<\/i>, was regarded by many as one of their worst albums. Worse yet, the \u201cGlimmer Twins\u201d\u2014Mick Jagger and Keith Richards\u2014were completely at odds with each other.<\/p>\n
So, Talk Is Cheap<\/i>, Richards\u2019s first solo album of his career, could be seen as the ultimate \u201cfuck you\u201d to Jagger. With thinly veiled potshots toward Jagger, Richards and an all-star backing band created what some reviewers called the best Rolling Stones record they\u2019d heard in a long time.<\/p>\n
Make no mistake, Richards is just as much the Stones as Jagger, so anything he does is going to sound a lot like his main band. But Richards did succeed in creating a solid album that, at times, dares to break away from the sound he had been known for\u2014and the results spoke for themselves. (This review is based on the original release, not the reissue containing six bonus tracks.)<\/p>\n
At times, Richards does indeed sound like he\u2019s channeling his other band, crafting songs that, had they been on albums like Dirty Work<\/i> or Undercover<\/i>, would have made them significantly better. Just listen to \u201cTake It So Hard,\u201d and try to question whether or not Richards is truly the soul of the Stones. It\u2019s not a copy of the Stones, but it is Richards\u2019s style, and the two just cannot be separated\u2014which isn\u2019t a bad thing.<\/p>\n
Other tracks like \u201cYou Don\u2019t Move Me\u201d (a definite call-out to Jagger), \u201cWhip It Up\u201d and \u201cI Could Have Stood You Up\u201d all provide more than adequate answers to the question, \u201cCan Keith Richards succeed on his own?\u201d In case you need the clue, the answer is: Oh, hell yeah.<\/p>\n
Yet Richards isn\u2019t afraid to try out different musical styles on Talk Is Cheap<\/i>. The opening track \u201cBig Enough,\u201d featuring Bootsy Collins on bass, lays down a solid funk line that might throw the listener off a bit at the start, but Richards proves if you hang with the track, it is well worth the effort. Likewise, \u201cStruggle\u201d goes in a different direction genre-wise, and while it isn\u2019t as successful, is still a good track nonetheless.<\/p>\n
If anything, Talk Is Cheap<\/i> hints at what would happen with the Stones upon their patching up of differences\u2014\u201creunion\u201d is not the correct word, though one could see how it could apply\u2014on tracks like\u00a0 \u201cRockawhile\u201d and \u201cLocked Away.\u201d It definitely adds fuel to the speculation that Richards knew what direction the music he was playing should go, even if it put him at odds with his bandmates. If there is any misstep Richards makes, it would have to be \u201cMake No Mistake,\u201d a track that just doesn\u2019t connect with this listener.<\/p>\n
In the end, Talk Is Cheap<\/i> proves to be a solid effort from a musical legend, and the title is extremely apropos. Richards lets the music do all of the talking\u2026 and is speaks volumes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10786],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46465","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-keith-richards","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46465","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46465"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46465"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}