There's absolutely no
reason why anyone should be saying what I'm about to say, but let's spare a
thought for a Mick Jagger ballad. I'm not even talking about
"Angie" (God help us all, but I won't hear anyone knocking that
tune), I'm talking about a Mick Jagger ballad in the 90s.
Cheesy overproduced
heartfelt romantic balladry. May well have been suited for MTV for all I care.
Things like the bloody "Angel In My Heart" which I first heard on
some dodgy and downbeat Stones/Jagger compilation
a thousand years ago. Sitting side by side with Richards's "Slipping
Away" and Jagger's equally fantastic "Evening Gown". Those
fucking tunes.
I could listen to
"New Faces" for days on end. Nobody can resist a harpsichord, and the
middle eight tugs at my heartstrings like they cannot snap. That opening piano
of "Out Of Tears" that sounds like you've lost the last shred of
taste and where the hell is your Sticky
Fingers? The power chorus of "Blinded By Rainbows" that erupts in
the sort of poetry that make you think of every reason why you are supposed to
hate Aerosmith?
There's no question
that he went too far on "Always Suffering" which is a bit too fucking
much even for a drunken night in, but the falsetto of "Already Over
Me" is a thing of beauty that you fail to copy (embarrassingly) when
singing along.
Mick Jagger's ballads
in the 90s had zero regard for your taste, which is something you should
quietly admire. Love the moon, love the goddamn eclipse.
