This album is quite divisive amongst some Stones fans. For some reason it was the first and only Stones album I had (as an original album, I had numerous on cassette!), as a young’un.
I liked it back then, and I still like it now. It’s a bit of mixed bag. But then all of their albums are. Like practically all Stones albums (once they’d turned from a covers band to an originals group) there are two great tracks: She’s A Rainbow and 2,000 Light Years From Home, on this occasion.
Then there are a number that are just ok, but that’s The Stones for you. Even the repeated Why Don’t We Sing This Song motif, which is the most dated and of its time, isn’t all that bad.
I’m not sure if I’m remembering aright, but I believe I saw a Jean Luc Godard movie either by or about or featuring The Stones, from around this era. It might even have included stuff from the album? The memories are a bit hazy!
The whole whacked out late-‘60s psychedelic vibe does both look (that cover!) and sound rather dated and silly now. But for some it may retain certain charms? I feel like I can kind of have my cake and eat it, with this disc: it really is quite silly in places. But I really rather like it, nevertheless.
All told? Well, yes, it’s a bit of an oddity in their catalogue, but not that big of an aberration, as some would have you believe. I like it enough that, having lost or got rid of my original copy, many moons ago, I’ve recently re-acquired it.