Albums You Should Own Part 3

A warm welcome to the third instalment of my series that aims to help you add some top quality music to your record collection. And I mean collection, in a physical form. It's all well and good simply downloading music straight to your iPod or PC, but in my opinion, there's still a little bit of added 'cool' when you actually have the album, along with the cover and any notes etc. Something to read on the bus or train back from town, building the anticipation to a point where all you want to do when you get home is head straight for the stereo and whack on your new purchase. Ask your parents/grandparents about the wonder that was vinyl(raise the subject tactfully though, don't just go up to grandad and say "you're old, tell me about those big black round things"), and they'll no doubt go all misty-eyed and drift away on a sea of rose-tinted reminiscence. But anyway, on to the latest classic album that you simply MUST have:

Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones
Released in 1969, this is the last Stones album to feature the late Brian Jones before his final swim in July of the same year.
The album kicks off with the classic 'Gimme Shelter', easily one of the best songs written by the Jagger/Richards partnership to date. It has a sort of echoey distance about it, perhaps summing up the mood of the times, after the 'Summer of Love' in '67 and the widespread riots in '68, the world was in a dark place.
From there, you get the country blues sound of 'Country Honk' a country re-working of 'Honky Tonk Women', which, while being essentially the same song, has it's own charm.

The second side opens with another rumbling monster of a song, 'Midnight Rambler'. Again, it seems to have that distant, menacing ambience to the recording, similar to 'Gimme Shelter'. As the album draws to a close, 'Monkey Man' is a standard rock song featuring Mick Jagger screaming "I'm a monkey" (has a truer word ever been spoken?!) and 'You Can't Always Get What You Want', a choral-led intro which moves into a good old lighter-aloft sing along to close the album.

The album cover itself is quite a work of art. Items layered on top like a cake, with an actual cake topping featuring figures of the band. According to the Wikipedia page, the real cake parts were prepared by a then unknown food writer called Delia Smith. But whether that's actually true or not, only she knows!!

Well, that's that then. One more classic album to add to your collection. By the time I'm finished with you, you'll be the envy of all your friends. Either that, or you'll get bullied for not having downloaded the latest Tinny Temper crap. Can you believe he's never been to Scunthorpe??!!!!

Adios music fans. Until next time.