Fans of Sticky Fingers-era Stones, will get a rush off Scott Bondy's album-long homage to Richards, which culminates in the track "Me & Keith"giving you a sense of this band's self-conscious sense of humor. On "Hey, Come On," he offers that "this song goes out to no one but me/but I'll try just to sing a little harder." Like a less scruffy and more focused
Royal Trux, these bluesy tunes appropriate Richard's cutting reverbed guitar sound, and the result is hotter than anything the Stones have done in twenty years. They even ante up their own heroin paean, "Junk for Fashion," which blurs the line between statement and ironic admission. The bonus on this already fascinating guitar album is Anne Marie Griffin, whose bluesy southern twang provides essential contrast to indie-guitar-band voice of Bondy-who sounds like in addition to Richards, he's accidentally channeled
Thurston Moore's vocals. Producer Dave Fridmann (
Mercury Rev) gives the album a rich open sound that still showcases the band's hefty punch. While tracks like "Hey, Come On" (which sounds like
the Byrds if they did new wave), and the slower, somber, Band-ish "The Song That Ended Your Career" offer momentary diversions, the meat of the album is in tracks like the throbbing "Hot Blood," the "Bitch"-flavored lust of "Shaped Like A Gun," and the album-ender, "Kiss Yourself," with it's rock'n'roll epithet, "let's just pretend that we're real." ~ Chris Parker