The Rolling Stones - "Out of Our Heads"

Whenever I fear that I haven't matured enough as a person over the last twenty years, I always remember that sometime when I was in my late teens, I recklessly sold my vinyl copy of "Out of Our Heads". Then I know that I am wiser now. I didn't even sell it with the purpose of making a large sum of money out of the classic English edition. At the time ABCKO had just reissued onto CD the American versions of their London/Decca catalogue which largely improved the quality of sound of their mono releases - but otherwise rearranged the tracklist with little regard for the original UK version. I went for them. But some three years ago, I redeemed myself by getting a copy of the original mono recording which had just been reissued on CD with digipak and singles and alternate versions as bonustracks. Smashing!
"Out of Our Heads" is a great rock'n roll album and my favourite Stones' album outside of the golden 1968-72 years. At the time, Jagger and Richards were coming out as fine songwriters on their own as well as refining their take on rhythm'n blues standards and extending their covers' palete to soul. "Heads" kicks off with "She Said Yeah", one of their most raucous (and underappreciated) cover versions. One minute and a half into the album and you are already into air guitar mandatory mode. Even better is "Mercy Mercy" which has a fuzz driven riff fuelling Jagger's raw delivery. Great song. Whereas previous Stones albums were mainly focused on blues and rhythm'n blues, "Heads" has two excellent soul covers, Russell's "Cry to Me" and Jamison's "That's How Strong My Love Is". Although the band sounds great, it is Jagger who steals the show, particularly in these two tracks where the raw energy in his vocals commands the listeners attention. Jagger and Richards' own penned songs, "Heart of Stone", "I'm Free" and Gotta Get Away" are excellent although slightly losing in comparision with the singles they were putting out - an unfair comparision with them being "Satisfaction", "The Last Time" and "Get Off My Cloud"!
"Heads" is where the Stones' growing wiseness is still balanced with their reverence for tradition. Sleaziness, misogyny, heroin and the devil were still a couple of years away from them. It was only rock'n roll then and it was so good they didn't have to tell us that they liked it.
Favourite album cover ever as well and that's why you get the large image size.