The Rolling Stones – Goats Head Soup (2020 Deluxe) (1973/2020) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

How do you follow a monumental achievement like the 1972 masterpiece Exile on Main Street? The short answer is: you can’t. And so if the Stones—who’d been on a massive roll of success from 1968’s Beggars Banquet through Exile finally made a less than acclaimed album, who could blame them? Hence the tale of 1973’s Goats Head Soup, the album forever blamed for the Stones inevitable stumble. While it’s true that nothing on Goats Head Soup is on the level of Exile’s many highlights (“Rip This Joint,” “Tumbling Dice,” “Sweet Virginia”), the album does have the Stones’ finest near-ballad—the hit single “Angie”—and “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker),” with Billy Preston on organ, and whose lyrics suddenly have fresh relevance (“The police in New York City/ They chased a boy right through the park/ And in a case of mistaken identity/ The put a bullet through his heart”). After that, however, it’s a mixed bag. While they still can’t be mistaken for top drawer Stones, much of the rest of the album—tunes like “Hide Your Love,” “Winter” and “Can You Hear The Music”—is in retrospect not quite the filler they appeared to be in the wake of Exile.

The last record produced by Jimmy Miller, who was key to their 1968-72 successes, Goats Head Soup was also one of the worst sounding Stones records before being remastered and reissued in 1994, 2009 and 2011 (Japan only), with the only difference between versions being censored or uncensored versions of the infamous last track, the Chuck Berry-styled rave up, “Star Star.” Here the entire record is available for the first time in a much-improved 96kHz/24-bit hi-res mix. Among the included outtakes is a ripping instrumental take of “Dancing with Mr. D”—Mick Taylor playing slide is truly revelatory and “Scarlet” (with Jimmy Page on guitar) which while promising sounds unfinished. Also part of the reissue is the extraordinary Brussels Affair, a 1973 live show broadcast on French and American radio. Unquestionably essential, the pace of this greatest hits set has Mick Jagger out of breath the entire way. Mick Taylor has never played better and Charlie Watts, yes, the band’s stone-faced metronome, turns in one of his most frantic performances. It’s the persuasive exclamation point on an overdue reappraisal of one of the Stones most maligned albums. – Robert Baird

Tracklist

1. The Rolling Stones – Dancing With Mr D (2020)
2. The Rolling Stones – 100 Years Ago (2020)
3. The Rolling Stones – Coming Down Again (2020)
4. The Rolling Stones – Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) (2020)
5. The Rolling Stones – Angie (2020)
6. The Rolling Stones – Silver Train (2020)
7. The Rolling Stones – Hide Your Love (2020)
8. The Rolling Stones – Winter (2020)
9. The Rolling Stones – Can You Hear The Music (2020)
10. The Rolling Stones – Star Star (2020)
11. The Rolling Stones – Scarlet
12. The Rolling Stones – All The Rage
13. The Rolling Stones – Criss Cross
14. The Rolling Stones – 100 Years Ago (Piano Demo)
15. The Rolling Stones – Dancing With Mr D (Instrumental)
16. The Rolling Stones – Heartbreaker (Instrumental)
17. The Rolling Stones – Hide Your Love (Alternate Mix)
18. The Rolling Stones – Dancing With Mr D
19. The Rolling Stones – Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
20. The Rolling Stones – Silver Train
21. The Rolling Stones – Scarlet (The War On Drugs Remix)
22. The Rolling Stones – Scarlet (The Killers & Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
23. The Rolling Stones – Brown Sugar (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
24. The Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
25. The Rolling Stones – Happy (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
26. The Rolling Stones – Tumbling Dice (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
27. The Rolling Stones – Star Star (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
28. The Rolling Stones – Dancing With Mr D (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
29. The Rolling Stones – Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
30. The Rolling Stones – Angie (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
31. The Rolling Stones – You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
32. The Rolling Stones – Midnight Rambler (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
33. The Rolling Stones – Honky Tonk Women (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
34. The Rolling Stones – All Down The Line (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
35. The Rolling Stones – Rip This Joint (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
36. The Rolling Stones – Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)
37. The Rolling Stones – Street Fighting Man (Live / Forest National Arena, Brussels / 17/10/73)