180 – The Rolling Stones – Now!

This is The Rolling Stones' third US album (which means it is cobbled together from a UK release and odds & ends) and features mostly blues covers. The band is a vibrant blues band that sounds good, but hasn't really established themselves as much more than a covers band. The original songs are weak and there aren't any famous Richard riffs created yet, but they don't really detract from the stellar covers. Maybe it is just my being a Gen Xer, but when I think authentic blues, it involves an old black man and not a white British teenager. I've heard several of these songs performed by the original blues artists while doing the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums list. What strikes me as the difference in how Mick adds a certain ruffian feel that a teenager slinking around on stage singing about his red rooster and other blues lyrics just feels different than coming from a wearied older man.

It is a good collection of the Rolling Stones' blues cover era. Not one I can see adding to my rotation of music, though.

Songs I Knew I Liked: None

Songs I Now Like: “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” and “What a Shame”

Songs I Don't Want to Ever Hear Again: None in particular

179 – ABBA – The Definitive Collection

Quick Disclaimer - ABBA – The Definitive Collection was released a dozen years ago; a two-disc set of ABBA singles. It seems that it is now out of print and has been replaced by ABBA – The Essential Collection which is basically the same other than a handful of songs that were swapped out and moving the placement of “Thank You For the Music” in the track listing. This version is more chronologically correct. Since the Rolling Stone list of Top 500 Albums contains lots of greatest hits collections that seem haphazardly selected, I've listened to the Essential collection as if it was the Definitive one on the list.

I have a soft spot for ABBA. “Dancing Queen” was one of the first “adult” songs I fell in love with as a child. But, that nostalgia cannot save my ears from the first few songs in this collection. The four songs before “Waterloo” will never be missed by me if I never hear them again. We then hit the singles collected on Gold with some tracks that missed that album (such as “Eagle”) sprinkled in there.

As an owner of Gold, I appreciate that while it is one CD crammed with ABBA songs, there are some notable songs missing. But there are plenty of other singles that aren't on Gold that are correctly left off of a collection of only the top singles. When this album was originally put on the Rolling Stone list, it had the name The Definitive Collection and that is what it is. If you want a definitive collection of ABBA's singles...this is it. However, with the name change to The Essential Collection, my opinion changes. All of these songs are not essential. If we are going to have greatest hits or singles collections in the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums list, there needs to be a good reason why one collection is included and not another. The collection with the most songs on it isn't necessarily the best collection. If ABBA was to have a singles collection on this list, it should be Gold with it's tighter collection of hits that fills up one full CD than this more thorough 2 CD collection.

Songs I Knew I Liked: “Waterloo,” “S.O.S.,” “Mamma Mia,” “Dancing Queen,” “Money, Money, Money,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” “The Name of the Game,” “Take a Chance on Me,” “Eagle,” “Does Your Mother Know,” “Voulez-Vous,” “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight),” “Super Trouper,” and “Lay All Your Love On Me”

Songs I Now Like: “The Visitors”

Songs I Don't Want to Ever Hear Again: The first four tracks (especially “People Need Love”) and “Happy New Year”