This is the 1971 album from legendary rock band, The Rolling Stones, and history lesson, the first album to be released without their infamous manager, Allen Klein. Once Klein was out of the picture, the Stones were free to release whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, risqué covers and all. And this is the result: an album which is considered to be the greatest Rolling Stones album and one of the greatest albums of all time, garnering praise from various publications and a 1994 induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame. To the former statement, I say…sure. I don’t have anything else to compare it to because it’s the first Stones record that I have listened to in any meaningful detail. To the latter, I say sure as well, as that’s pretty damn broad. But I feel it’s a touch overrated… Production is what comes to mind when I think of the rock trope that I don’t like in albums. Other than that, it’s a nice, balanced sound. But the selling points of this record are composition and lyrics. Composition for its return to a bluesy sound that makes this record a touch more interesting and more poignant. Speaking of poignancy, I was quite pleasantly surprised about the emotional depth of the lyrics. It speaks about the anxieties and shortcomings of the band and the rock-n-roll attitude that they were caught up in with their fame. It seems to be a more personal record compared to the massive singles I’ve heard from the Stones that everyone knows and loves. I feel it gets a bit cliché fitting into that bluesy, slow rock ballad camp, but I like it. I really like the blues style of this record. It’s old and dusty to my zoomer ears, like an ancient tome in rock music’s history, but it’s pretty enjoyable, often because of that.
PRODUCTION
Production is fine, but there are a couple things to go over that aren’t the best. Instruments sound great, although I wish they could be a bit punchier. We must go over the dreaded vocal trope. Mick Jagger and his own backup vocals are mixed really low when the guitars are blowing up. I feel like this is probably to make this album sound heavier, but still, the singer is the melody, therefore, in my opinion, they should sit on top of the mix. I’d tell you an example of this, but it’s everywhere. But beyond that, sound quality and mixing is pretty good. You can clearly hear very smooth bass keeping everyone together. Drums cut through the mix rather nicely, just enough to add some bite, but not overpowering, like on Bitch, for example. The piano in the back of Sister Morphine is really subtle and it’s really haunting in the back of this already dark song.
Panning makes things a little more interesting, but it’s definitely not as involved. They often use a lot of that hardpan on this record, where they pick an instrument and pick a side for it to stick to for the rest of the album, except for the very beginning with the echoing guitars on Brown Sugar. There is lots of echo to make this album sound larger. Reverb is often used, particularly with vocals. I love how it’s used for greater effect on Sister Morphine, with the line “I’m trying to score”. It’s super cool. This record doesn’t have much pizazz, but maybe it doesn’t want to have that pizazz. This record seems a little more stripped down than its contemporaries and less high gloss. This album is a grittier, no-nonsense one, and that really shines through in production.
COMPOSITION
Composition is almost what you’d expect for a classic rock album, but with more of a blues flair. Guitars are light, but have enough body to carry the song. Electric guitars are nice and punchy on Brown Sugar. The solo on Can’t You Hear Me Knocking is awesome! Acoustic guitars are nice and jangly on Wild Horses. Piano is usually a rhythmic tool to add more of a treble flair to this song, which remind me of Billy Joel. Organs have that gospel feel with adds to the blues aesthetic, especially that solo on I Got The Blues. Man, it swings hard! Bass is not just helping out guitars but adding a noticeable wrinkle to this album. Sway is a great example of how the bass is super important. Strings are added here to give a little more of an orchestral presence. It’s like the Stones saying “Hey, we may not have our manager anymore, but we still have a budget” …and they use it well! Drums are nice and punchy, keeping in the background when they need to be, but always there to add more of a punch. Those snares in particular sound great. Saxophones are really nice. They have some nice blend on I Got the Blues. Sax solos add more of that blues feeling that I really like from this record. It makes Sticky Fingers unique and it’s a ton of fun to listen to. Again, both solos on Can’t You Hear Me Knocking are awesome. This has kind of that firehouse style blues kind of vibe to it. Like this is being played at a lively pub with red brickwork on the inside to add some character. This is a very charming vibe and therefore, makes this album very charming.
Structure of this album isn’t anything to write home about. I want to say, “it’s a commercial rock record from one of the biggest bands in the world, don’t expect too much from it”, but there are albums that have been legendarily successful with really tight structure that came both before and after this. There aren’t any transitions from track to track. The bangers and ballads are placed around the record in a way that kind of balances it out, but there’s really no rhyme or reason outside of that. This is a more “collection of songs” type of record. The songs themselves are structured with the common blues rock form, with a little more emphasis on the blues in spots, for example, You Gotta Move is a cover of a gospel song turned blues song. I will say, Can’t You Hear Me Knockin is a different song where all these solos come to play in the second half’s instrumental jam session, which has been done before, but certainly not done to death. It’s not necessarily amazing, but it’s definitely not terrible. Just a bit cliché, but even with that, the Stones manage to make this album unique and fun to listen to.
LYRICS
Lyrics are the thing that really draws me into this record. The bluesy vibes are sold here just as much as they are in composition, and it shows in Mick Jagger’s performance. He has a variety of voices: most are good, some are laughable. There’s this rock, trebly thing he does on Brown Sugar and a good chunk of the record which is nice and punchy. Can You Hear Me Knocking is pretty fun, especially when you put the harmonies in. Harmonies throughout the record, especially in the front half are pretty damn good. But he can get really sad and slow on Sway and the closer, Moonlight Mile, which screams classic rock to me. It’s a very cheesy sound, but not necessarily bad. There’s some low blues crooning on You Gotta Move, which I really like. It has that “dirt under the fingernails” feeling that’s really heavy. There’s country twang on Dead Flowers, which I can’t help but recoil at because it’s such a jarring change from that rock/blues sound we were getting from Jagger. It seems really fake. There’s some of that on Moonlight Mile, but more infused with the blues rock vibe I like. This is a classic rock singer in every sense of the word, warts and all. It’s got a character to it that any fan of classic rock can enjoy.
Lyrics themselves are pretty interesting. Like I said, little to no hard concept or soft concept for that matter, like I was led to believe when I researched this. There are songs that touch on drugs, but not all of them. When they do touch on drugs, you often get honest depictions of the rock and roll lifestyle. Sister Morphine is amazingly sad. It’s like the prototype to The Weeknd’s After Hours. Can You Hear Me Knocking is just plain fun, even if it is about crippling addiction, or love…kind of like After Hours, come to think of it. Speaking of drugs, when this album talks about how the Stones are talking about their rock and roll lifestyle, you can tell it’s from the heart and you can tell they’re miserable. Even if we’ve heard this before, you can tell they mean what they say on songs like Sway and Sister Morphine. I really like that unflinching honesty that makes me feel empathy towards the Stones as people. Brown Sugar is interesting to talk about because it basically describes having sex with slaves, and kind of makes light of an awful situation, which is a bit problematic. However, I will say that it’s kind of a rebellious song given that it’s a song about a white man lusting after a black woman, a thing which was likely not accepted at the time when race mixing was likely still pretty controversial. This album has a few rock cliches though, but they’re told in a way that is very unique to the style of this album and I really like that. Bitch, for example, is a very Sticky Fingers way to talk about love and I am here for it. There are also a few sappier songs about love such as Wild Horses and Dead Flowers, which are again, clichés, but definitely fits the vibe of this record. Overall, while this record does not wow me as a collective from a lyrical standpoint, this is a pretty solid record from track to track. The vibe is a stripped-down blues/classic rock, and I like it.
CONCLUSION
Overall, Sticky Fingers is a solid record. It’s maybe just a tad overrated in “Greatest Album” talks, but I could see it contending for best Stones album. Mixing is nice and clear from an instrumental standpoint although vocal mixing is the biggest cause for concern for me since Jagger is often buried in the instruments like many rock albums do. Composition is almost what you’d expect for a classic rock album, but with more of a blues flair. There are no “Paint It, Black” s on the record and that’s ok. Every instrument shows up to the party to add that blues concert vibe. Structure is very common without much reason as to why the songs are placed where they are. Song structure is pretty common in rock and blues, even if the jam session songs are less common. I wish there was a little more cohesion, but that lack of a unifying thread doesn’t really harm the charming aesthetic I get from this record. Mick Jagger sells the blues rock vibe that I really like about this record, although his deviation from the blues sound is where problems arise. Lyrics are pretty good, ranging from cliché and boring to absolutely amazing tracks. It’s a bit spotty from a narrative standpoint, but the songs on Sticky Fingers really show up. It’s a very fun album for Stones fans, blues fans and classic rock fans to enjoy. The blues vibe is why this record is so much fun to listen to. I eat it up like the cheeseburger I’d get at the sports bar where this is playing. This screams classic rock, boomer energy, but that’s definitely not a bad thing. This slaps! It’s a great record and a great birthday present from my relatives!
I’m giving this one a Decent 7/10.
FAVOURITE TRACKS: Sway, Wild Horses, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, You Gotta Move, Bitch, I Got The Blues, Sister Morphine, Moonlight Mile
LEAST FAVOURITE TRACK: Dead Flowers
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