Review Summary: Life in the fast line began to take its toll. A good record, but not on par with "Exile On A Main Street".
In 1972, The Rolling Stones released their last truly classic LP, "Exile On A Main Street". It was basically a party album, energetic, but in the same time ambicious, relaxed and furiously executed. It was tribute to their roots, but also very expanding record. It can be considered almost as proto punk. This very record cemented their position of the best rock and roll band in the world.
And then came "Goat's Head Soup". Times have changed. Mick Jagger began to be friendly with jet set, and Keith Richards sank deeper and deeper into a drug addiction. Both lost the common tread, in terms that they ran away from each other. The band camped in Jamaica, there was album recorded, partly because of the famous reggae scene, and partly because of the drug friendly climate. Look at the cover, Jagger looks like a young bride, and Keef looks wasted, stoned, exhausted, in one word, f***ed up. The things would be turning from bad to worse after the death of close Richards' friend Gram Parsons. And that is exactly how this record sounds: sometimes gentle, almost MOR, too clean for The Rolling Stones and sometimes nasty, foggy and very explicit. It is almost impossible to find such a beautiful and sweet song as is "Angie" and so cynical and a bit vulgar "Star Star" on the same album. Also, you can feel the presence of various substances in the recording studio. Maybe during these recording sessions Jagger and Richards' collaboration turned out to be more competition rather than collaboration. Maybe because of censorship Jagger and Richards couldn't "tell all". Maybe this album is soundtrack for rich, decadent people, who usually get bored with everything, so they need some kicks. Did they recorded an album after one too many bottle of vodka, or something else? Maybe the band should decide what to do, a nice, elegant, slow and foggy morning record or fast, punk rock album with some more songs like "Star Star" or "Dancing With Mr. D".
The album starts with "Dancing With Mr. D.", up-tempo, funky, aggressive number filled with a great twin guitar interplay between Richards and Mick Taylor. Then comes "100 Years Ago", which starts slowly, mid tempo, turning to fast funky freak out. The band sounds a bit on autopilot on slower part, but then explodes on funky jam outro. Billy Preston shines on clavinet. "Coming Down Again" is a great, great ballad, but after those two songs, it sounds out of place. But, it is a beautiful mildly druggy song, featuring painful and destroyed Richards' vocal and Jagger's more optimistic one. "Heartbreaker" is the fast, energetic song that should be said in the same breath with "Brown Sugar", with awesome interplay between guitars and the brass section. Truly urban, neurotic, black, and funky. The best songs here are ballads: "Angie" (first single), "Winter" and "Coming Down Again". Also they recorded "Waiting On A Friend", which saw the light of the day in 1981. Maybe they should include it, and leave "Silver Train" "Hide Your Love" and/or "Can You Hear The Music" for the next time.
The band opted to fade away rather than burn out, but fading away after winning streak of 3 studio albums and one double LP, is normal. Rarely anyone managed to maintain such a high quality of the recordings like The Rolling Stones did. So don't be fooled, all the weaknesses aside, "Goat 's Head Soup" is still a great listen.
