The Rolling Stones are back. The Cockroaches, sorry. El Mocambo strikes again. Good luck getting your hands on this one. At least, for now. Not Mr. Charm, not Foreign Languages, but both felt like credible guesses in the two weeks where fans were left wondering what the Mick Jagger-fronted group had in store as their next single. Three years on from Hackney Diamonds and, despite the lacklustre effort heard on the band’s first album without Charlie Watts, it sounds like The Rolling Stones is back in better form. Rough and Twisted picks up not where the band left off with Hackney Diamonds, but where they were during their blues rock best. Jagger and company have not lost a step in the years between their greatest efforts, and, whether it’s the recency bias or a nod to the final years of the band, this truly does feel like a masterstroke from The Rolling Stones.
Richards is given his time to shine in the early moments. He and Wood are in magnificent form here, the pair seeming to relish this chance to head back into blues rock territory. Wailing guitar work, hammering out some beautiful fretwork that thuds and jumps as much as the veteran frontman. Richards and Wood offer some sensational work here, stomping blues rock brilliance from the pair, which is the perfect foil for Jagger’s sensational vocal strength. He, like the two long-serving guitarists, has not missed a step when it comes to quality. Jagger has protected his instrument just as much as the guitarists backing him. His wordplay is just as strong as those glory days, the deaf and blind and dumb legend jutting his elbows through an utterly staggering call to arms. It’s a cry to be turned in the right direction, and it sounds as though the band has pursued the right path. This is a trio who can still be reckoned with. Where the latest Paul McCartney song was a disarming experience, a chance to hear the toll of touring and decades of work on his voice, Jagger sounds as refreshed and thrilled by the blues-rock influence as he did in the 1960s. It’s utterly staggering.
Just unbelievable work the whole way through. You could throw this track onto some of the band’s earliest albums and it’d not sound out of place. Instrumentally, that is. Jagger and the band have, of course, wizened with age, but they’re still in touch with that freewheeling spirit that marks the very best of their works. Some gutsy instrumental breaks, harmonica included, towards the end of the song, are a magnificent moment. Jagger sings of a rough, twisted road, and his sentiment goes far deeper than just travelling on. The sheer fact that some of The Rolling Stones are on this road, taking the bumps and knocks that contemporary musicians are attempting to deal with, is staggering. They may not be on the road (not yet anyway), but the band sounds raring to go. Good. They’re at their best when they sound fired up, as they did on that El Mocambo live show all those years ago.
The Cockroaches as a moniker is a smart move from the band. It’s not as though it was going to be a washout of a song, but if it were, they could simply suggest it’s a band that sounds like Jagger and company. The Masked Marauders strike again. The Rolling Stones are back and are in fighting form. Rough and Twisted blows the band’s efforts from this century out of the water. A Bigger Bang has some sentimental value, as does Hackney Diamonds. What both lack is the genuine thrill. The Rolling Stones’ post-Tattoo You period banks on nostalgia, and so too does their modern-day output. This is different. It’s a return to what they do best, but an innovation all the same. They’re moved by the same influences as their 1960s heyday, but here is a chance to hear the band play around with the fact that they’ve done it all. What does a group have to prove when they’ve achieved it all? Quite a lot, by the sounds of it. This is a fiery powerhouse from the band, and it may go down as one of their best.
