Everything around the time of Between the Buttons’ release feels like a reaction to a year of shifting sounds. Bob Dylan going electric, The Beatles’ foray into psychedelic rock fusion and back out, and the tones of classics in the scene of bursting mods and rockers left The Rolling Stones stuck for where to go. Each member sounds like they want to pursue a completely different sound on Between the Buttons and yet it works so feverishly well. Brian Jones could not care for his guitar work here and instead brushes up on a few kazoo and organ spots as The ‘Stones find themselves trying to follow up the power of Aftermath all the while skirting around a collection of sounds and genre movements. Trying to figure out their next steps is no cause for concern, and Between the Buttons remains an electrified piece of work from the group. Unsure of itself, sure, but certain of some new direction.
This frenetic need for further instrumentation, for leftfield choices in the face of everything from Pet Sounds to Highway 61 Revisited, clearly affected Jones. But this instrumental scrutiny, the fixation on finding those odd instrumental sections, would be the album’s undoing. Between the Buttons, while frequently enjoyable and almost liberating at times off the back of how heavy the tone of Aftermath felt, is unfocused. Those harmonious influences can be heard on opener Let’s Spend the Night Together, with the upbeat piano tones and this promise of feel-good moments, days where you can take as much time as you need, come through. Yesterday’s Papers is the first sign of struggle from The Rolling Stones. A light and unremarkable track where those Pet Sounds influences continue to grow, the indifference to the past and news of the previous day roaring through. Those harmonies have a sickly-sweet nature to them, and with Jones meddling with any instrument he can get his hands on, Between the Buttons has an instrumentally volatile sound to it.
Where the transatlantic rivalry of The Beach Boys and The Beatles raged on, The Rolling Stones here sound like the younger brother trying to get a cut of the action. It is hard to take Between the Buttons all too seriously when they are lifting from the psychedelic sounds before them. Pieces like Cool, Calm and Collected hit on a disturbingly underwhelming whimsy. It never feels anywhere close to fleshed-out and instead sounds, as most of these songs do, like The Rolling Stones are late to a party which was already wrapped up. They find their way back on All Sold Out, a rather ironic title given it is the one track on Between the Buttons not chasing the sounds of another band. But this experimentation, in hindsight, helped The Rolling Stones get back to what they did best, or rather what they would make their own.
Discomfort breeds a volatility which is not utilised as well as it should be here. They find their way back with Miss Amanda Jones and from there, things can only get better. But it is too little, too late, for an experimental shockwave which feels relatively fresh and feral in the hands of Mick Jagger and the band, but in the wider playing field of what was around at the time, is just another psychedelic number. Between the Buttons is remarkable in places but it ultimately falls short of those blistering highs other bands and artists of the time were unmistakably making. Somewhere in here is the birth of what we now know as The Stones’ style, but to get there they sink behind more influential bands of the time, albeit briefly.
