The Rolling Stones - Shine A Light

Live album tie-in with Scorsese flick

If you’re getting all started up over Scorsese’s forthcoming Shine A Light documentary, then this might worry you slightly. Recorded over two Beacon Theater, New York 2006 shows, Shine A Light the album covers the best and the worst of the Stones live at this point in time.

For a band that really shouldn’t be allowed to mature, nor, contradictorily, be allowed to carry on going without doing so, opening with Jumping Jack Flash they sound, for the first time to these ears, to have actually struck the right balance between getting on while remaining relevant. Three songs in, however, She Was Hot settles into a chugging, pseudo-honky- tonk trudge and we’re quickly in bar band territory. Close your eyes during these moments (they rear their head often), and you’re almost listening to a generic covers band as fronted by Phil Cornwell’s Jagger impression.

It’s the Stones live in 2006, what else would happen? The best songs stand up because they’re great songs, the worst do the above. With any luck the flick will be a stormer, something of a No Direction Home-meets-The Last Waltz, but even the mighty Scorsese may have a bit of trouble with tools that sometimes blunt themselves.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

Universal | tbc

Reviewed by Jason Draper
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