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Q MagazineDec 13, 2016All thoughts of age, celebrity and stadium itineraries melt away as the Stones work their peculiar alchemy with vigour, mastery and jeu d'espit. [Feb 2017, p.114]
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Dec 13, 2016The album might be a one-off or a warm-up for a (hopefully) strong album of new material. Regardless, it’s a peak moment in the storied career of rock’s most enduring band.
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Dec 13, 2016In the end, the record feels like a copy of a copy, though produced on what may just be the world’s best copier. If nothing else, though, the record works as a pleasing re-centering for one of the greatest rock bands of all time.
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Dec 12, 2016hough the Stones are firing on all cylinders throughout Blue & Lonesome, and to a greater extent than they have in decades, they’re hamstrung by the inherent limitations of only playing Chicago blues covers; there are only so many 12- and 16-bar blues tunes you can string together in a row.
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Dec 7, 2016While the rockers establish the theme, it’s the slow numbers that really drive the point home.
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Dec 7, 2016On its own modest terms, Blue & Lonesome offers promising proof the Stones can still be a band instead of a brand.
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Dec 5, 2016Throughout, the sound on Blue & Lonesome captures the clatter of a largely live band loyally rendering the music of their heroes. Despite the title, and against the odds, it is an album full of joy.
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Dec 2, 2016While the band's attempts to recapture their old glory have typically felt like attempts to give fans what they've wanted from them--and the idea that of a bunch of old white men tying their authenticity to their black cultural forbears feels something like an ugly metaphor for this mess of a year--this is the Stones making music for themselves.
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Dec 2, 2016Blue & Lonesome is as defiant a statement in its own way as any earlier landmark. Stones co-founder Ian Stewart should be beaming wherever he is, as his boys finally realise the potential he spotted at those first rehearsals 54 years ago.
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Dec 2, 2016By going back to the music that producer Don Was calls the “fountainhead of everything they do”, however, they sound younger than they have in decades. Blue & Lonesome is proof that old dogs don’t always have need of new tricks.
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Dec 2, 2016It's artistically satisfying because it's the Rolling Stones allowing themselves to simply lay back and play for sheer enjoyment. It's a rare thing that will likely seem all the more valuable over the years.
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Dec 2, 2016The Jagger on Blue & Lonesome is 73, three years older than Waters was when he died in 1983, and Richards is 72, Watts 75 and guitarist Ronnie Wood 69. In a sense, the Stones have become their elders, and their seasoning as a first-rate blues band is evident.
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Dec 2, 2016There is a lovely, childish innocence to how much fun you can hear them having on this record, revisiting the music that once made them dream of making music their life’s work.
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Dec 2, 2016Made on impulse, as a much-needed break during other studio work, Blue and Lonesome is a monument to muscle memory. Solos are brief and tight, evoking the honed-punch effect of the original recordings.
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Nov 30, 2016What impresses most about Blue & Lonesome is Mick Jagger, who really animates these songs.
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Nov 30, 2016If it’s a stopgap between albums, so be it, but I’d wager Blue And Lonesome will stand out as more honest, more rousing and more representative of The Rolling Stones as septuagenarians than anything that might follow.
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Nov 28, 2016Blue & Lonesome captures the Rolling Stones--The Greatest Urban Blues Band In The World--in their element, doing what they do best. You’ll only wish they did it more.
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Nov 28, 2016An unqualified yes: it’s more than OK, which is not something you can say about many Stones albums over the last 30 years.
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MojoNov 22, 2016It's disappointing that there aren't one or two more inspiring moments, especially when there's a roughly equivalent number of duds. [Jan 2017, p.92]
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Nov 22, 2016It may not be the kind of definitive album statement that will rock the music world to its foundations but it more than demonstrate that the world’s greatest and longest serving rock band have still got what it takes.
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UncutNov 22, 2016Blue & Lonesome feels like a major reassessment from a band, returning to the source and in doing so reminding us why they mattered in the first place. [Jan 2017, p.26]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 51 out of 66
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Mixed: 6 out of 66
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Negative: 9 out of 66
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Dec 8, 2016
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Dec 8, 2016
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Dec 3, 2016