On the record: Rolling Stones get their hits out

Nov 30 2009 By Polly Weeks

What's hot and what's not in this week's new releases.

Rock'n'roll legends the Rolling Stones confirmed their status as one of the world's greatest live acts with 1970's Get Your Ya-Yas Out - now it's reissued with a bundle of rarities. Elsewhere, Bristol's very own Tricky returns with a remix album. The Rolling Stones - Get Your Ya-Yas Out: 40th Anniversary Deluxe

"I have no doubt that it's the best concert ever put on record." So said legendary music writer Lester Bangs of this album, which captured The Rolling Stones at their live best in 1970. It's now time for a 40th anniversary edition, which features the original concert plus previously unreleased extra tracks, a CD of the support acts and a DVD of concert footage. For all their studio brilliance around this time - their trio of albums beginning with 1969's Let It Bleed, 1971's Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street from the following year - it's live where the Stones really shone, a fact proved here. If you see Mick Jagger prancing around on-stage these days, it's hard to imagine him being this vital, but get the album and it'll soon become clear they were once the best band on the planet.

Rating: 9/10

(Review by Andy Welch)

Steve Conte & The Crazy Truth - Steve Conte & The Crazy Truth

As the sticker on the album's front cover boasts, Steve Conte is currently lead guitarist with reformed proto-punks the New York Dolls. One look at his CV, however, will tell you he has chameleonic skills, having been a session player for everyone from Chuck Berry to Simon And Garfunkel. Naturally, this album, the band's debut, contains Conte's slick, efficient guitar playing and a subtlety not normally associated with such prolific session musicians. Stylistically, garage rock and blues rule here, but there are hints of Latin rhythms and an almost Tom Waits-esque dark, bar-room mood on some tracks. Strumpet-Hearted Monkey Girl is the album's highlight, for the title if nothing else.

Rating: 7/10

(Review by Andy Welch)

Seal - Hits

The velvet-voiced soul singer releases a 'best of' which comes complete with new single I Am Your Man. The song highlights just why Seal is such a successful musician. Together with previous hits such as Kiss From A Rose, Killer and Crazy, it shows his music hasn't dated at all. Here he also covers soul classics including A Change Is Gonna Come and It's A Man's Man's Man's World. While this release is clearly targeted towards listeners above the age of 25, younger ones who are keen on groups such as JLS and NeYo will do well to give it a try.

Rating: 8/10

(Review by Polly Weeks)

The Band Of The Coldstream Guards - Heroes

To get the most out of this bracing compilation, you really need to be 55-plus and pretty keen on mid-20th century war films like The Dambusters and The Great Escape, where the Germans were always left floundering by Roger Moore, Robert Shaw, Richard Todd, Michael Caine and rest of the gang. However, thanks to the Coldstream Guards director Graham Jones, the 'boom boom' is here delicately balanced by some softer tones and slower passages too, notably in I Vow to Thee My Country and the marvellous tones of Sunset, which are the highlight of so many military rituals. You can't listen to this tape without a huge sense of pride in our armed forces, which is no bad reason to buy it in a dark Christmas overly-dominated by grim tidings from Afghanistan.

Rating: 7/10

(Review by Jeremy Gates)

Tricky - Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew

From trip-hop experimentalists Portishead to rising dubstep star Joker, Bristol has a reputation for producing forward-thinking, often downright beguiling musicians. Right at the forefront of this breeding ground for the sonically adventurous is Tricky, who has made his name twisting rock, hip-hop and ambient noise into glorious new shapes. His latest release, a collaboration with dancehall production wizards South Rakkas Crew, sees the sounds of the West Country and south US coast collide. Florida-based duo SRK have unleashed their glitch-inflected, bass-trembling sound on cuts from Tricky's last album West Knowle Boy, reworking the tracks from the ground up to create that rarest of things - a remix album that can stand up on its own merits.

Rating: 7/10

(Review by Simon Harker)

Little Johnny England - Tournament Of Shadows

Folk band Little Johnny England are celebrating their 10th anniversary with the release of their sixth studio album. Full of traditional folk songs, it will leave their fans satisfied. Despite having already put out a retrospective album this year, there's not a hint of tiredness on this offering. The band chop and change styles throughout the album, which keeps the listener entertained. The up-tempo Welcome To The Sparrow Club and the relaxed Random Acts Of Kindness are both strong tracks. If you're not a fan of melodeons (a type of button accordion) then you'd best give this album a wide berth, as it is the prominent instrument here and is slightly irritating.

Rating: 6/10

(Review by Polly Weeks)

Various Artists - 101 Dinner Party Songs

Divided onto five discs (Pre-Dinner, Starters, Main Course, Dessert and After-Dinner) this is quite a bizarre album. In order to get the dinner party underway, guests are treated to songs including UB40's Red Red Wine, Fishing For A Dream by Turin Breaks and Thelonious Monk's Straight No Chaser. The eclectic nature continues on Starters, with Robbie Williams, Peggy Lee and Judy Garland just three of the 21 artists chosen as a backdrop to your prawn cocktail. Then the tempo drops to that of a dinner party where you're being dumped, as Coldplay's Trouble sits alongside George Michael's I Can't Make You Love Me and Massive Attack's Teardrop. Dessert includes Royksopp, Sigur Ros and The Beach Boys, and there's a dance-party atmosphere to After Dinner. Incredibly strange, but altogether it somehow works.

Rating: 7/10

(Review by Polly Weeks)

Emily Maguire - Believer

This is the third album from England-born, Australia- based Emily Maguire. It's a contemporary country-folk offering, and in places it's beautiful - for example, Lighthouse Man shows a great depth to her voice. But elsewhere it's just repetitive and lacklustre. The problem Maguire faces is that her work is not as strong as already-established artists such as KT Tunstall and Indigo Girls, who inhabit the same musical milieu. Annoyingly, she has a very good voice, but it just doesn't seem like it's been put to particularly good use, and as such Believer ends up very much an MOR offering. A shame. If this was a school report it would read: "Obviously talented but needs to apply herself."

Rating: 5/10

(Review by Polly Weeks)

James Brown - Live At The Garden (Expanded Edition)

The late Godfather of Soul's expanded and re-released live album documents an electrifying 1967 performance - though it was not actually recorded at Madison Square Garden but rather at an upscale New Jersey club called The Latin Casino more accustomed to hosting crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Having recently released tracks like Papa's Got A Brand New Bag, and being backed by a band that would record Cold Sweat just a few months later, here James Brown is captured in the process of creating funk. The intensity of the performances is almost manic, and the audience is well up for it. With extensive liner notes, photos and an entire disc's worth of extra live material, this is a must for fans

Rating: 9/10

(Review by Steve Kerr)

Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress

Apart from some suitably arresting looks and the most passive-aggressive vocal this side of St Vincent's Annie Clark, Jesca Hoop has one very obvious thing going for her: her CV includes a stint as nanny to the children of the legendary Tom Waits. It is not obvious exactly why that should be relevant - you wouldn't necessarily want to hear an album by Mick Jagger's hairdresser or Bob Dylan's landscape gardener - but here she displays all the leftfield sensibilities and musical detours one would expect from a confidant of Waits. Elbow's Guy Garvey also lends a hand on the impressive Murder Of Birds, but Hoop's personality stands up well on its own.

Rating: 7/10

(Review by Rory Dollard)

Singles by Polly Weeks

Lily Allen - Who'd Have Known

The video depicts the Londonite stalking Elton John, while the song is a romantic track about a couple who haven't officially stated they are together.

Thirty Seconds To Mars - Kings And Queens

Lead singer and Hollywood star Jared Leto is a hit with the ladies, and this anthemic emo-pop tune will be just as popular with the band's younger fanbase.

Pixie Lott - Cry Me Out

It's been quite a year for newcomer Pixie Lott. Having become one of 2009's pop success stories, she now releases this early Nineties-sounding pop ballad.

On the road

Upcoming tours

Scandinavian popstars Alphabeat have just been announced as Lady Gaga's support on her upcoming UK Monster Ball tour, starting on February 18 at Manchester's MEN Arena. See www.myspace.com/thisisalphabeat for full details.

Fronted by Hollywood actor Jared Leto, LA rockers Thirty Seconds To Mars start their UK tour at Nottingham Trent's FM Arena on February 19 and end up eight days later at Glasgow's SECC. Visit www.thirtysecondstomars.com for full listings.