Consumer Guide Album

The Rolling Stones: Rewind (1971-1984) [Rolling Stones, 1984]
Disinclined though I am to increase their wealth or validate what is at bottom their corporate farewell to WEA distribution, I can't deny the songwriting on this compilation. By now the Jagger-Richards book is deeper than Johnny Mercer's, Willie Dixon's, like that--the first ever lyric sheet, at one level a token of their utter loss of principle, is pure pleasure (and convinces me "Tumbling Dice" is forever Linda's, too). Surrounded by three of their all-time best ("Miss You," "Brown Sugar," "Start Me Up"), even the political profit-taking of "Undercover (of the Night)" accrues artistic dignity. Song for song, a stronger album than anything they released in the period, and while for concept I'll take not just the eternal Exile but the casual Some Girls, it flows and maybe coheres. A-