There has been recently a critical revision of Goats Head Soup to class it with the previous 4 Stones studio albums Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street in other words the bedrock upon which The Rolling Stones claim to be the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll band in the World is based. The fact is that is praising this album too much although it does have many fine tracks it doesn't have the musical extravagance of Exile On Main Street or the focus of Sticky Fingers the band at this time were somewhat distracted Keith Richards was in the grip of a heroin addiction and was taking Mick Taylor with him, Mick Jagger meanwhile was courting the social elite with his new wife Bianca this led to an album that starts well but about half way through starts to drift into a sort Stones by numbers album.
As I have said the album begins well with the excellent Dancing With Mr D and continues with tracks such as Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo [Heartbreaker] and the wonderfully dissolute ballad Angie [ the albums hit single] but after Angie the album starts to meander finishing with the blunt Star Star. This album has been remixed and the sound is much stronger than previous versions giving the songs more oomph making it a better listening experience, also there is an extra disc of rarities including a track called Scarlet that feature Jimmy Page who would appear on a Stones album 13 years after this with One Hit [To The Body] on Dirty Work, there are couple instrumentals but what makes the extra disc well worth a listen are the 3 tracks mixed by legendary producer/engineer Glyn Johns who was an expert at achieving a sort of live feel to studio tracks and these 3 tracks have a loose swagger missing on the released mix of the album ironically engineered by John's brother Andy! So not the best Stones album but far from the worst.
By: Slippykid