Cosmic America

The Rolling Stones were back in 1981 with a brand new album --- except this was unlike any "Brand New Album" they'd ever released as a band, since almost none of it was actually brand new. Instead, the Stones and their engineering team combed the vaults and found a bunch of half-finished tracks, put lyrics and modern production on them, and released them to the public. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right?Except it was great. Tattoo You is broadly viewed as the last truly awesome Rolling Stones album, and time has arguably been kinder to it than even the initial reviews were. Similar to mix of rock, balladry, and groove that they perfected on Some Girls, this mix of songs sounds surprisingly coherent, despite most of them not coming from the same recording session (or even the same group of musicians, in many cases). We go track-by-track through the grooves on this album, from the archetypal riffage of Start Me Up all the way to the dreamy songscaping of Waiting on a Friend.