For those of us who thought that rock ‘n’ roll died, we can rest easy that it has returned in the form of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
A Bigger Bang is the first studio album by The Rolling Stones since 1997’s Bridge to Babylon, and it could not have come at a better time.
Making music for nearly four decades, the British rock sensation was once hailed as the “World’s Greatest Rock Band,” producing such hits as “Satisfaction,” “Start Me Up” and “Jumping Jack Flash.”
However, years of drug abuse and quarrelling among band members had left them wondering what could possibly be next.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have responded by co-writing A Bigger Bang, combining their classic rock with an emphatic blend of blues and sweet soft rock.
I found the album to be a perfect response to today’s boring rock scene, which has become watered down with lackluster guitar riffs and songwriters with no talent.
Kicking off the album with a bang, the rock driven “Rough Justice” hardly reveals that Mick Jagger is 63, the age of many of our grandparents.
“It Won’t Take Long” reminds me of the old Stones, when Jagger promises to forget a former lover with lyrics like: “And it won’t take long to forget you/You know I am never wrong/It’ll all be over by Christmas/And it won’t take long.”
The finest moment of the album comes with the song “Streets of Love,” a soft, slow, melodic tune that could serve as an anthem for the broken-hearted. This song is moving on several different levels. Not only can you hear the pain in Jagger’s aching voice, but the lyrics conjure up feelings of love and loss that are incredibly real. For example: “While lovers laugh and music plays/I stumble by and I hide my pain/The lamps are lit, the moon is gone/I think I crossed the Rubicon.”
The Rolling Stones also show some versatility on this album, leaving their rock roots for some elements of Chicago-esque blues in the song “Back of My Hand.” Using the slide guitar and some blues harmonica, Jagger creates a song that would make BB King and Buddy Guy want to jam.
Perhaps the biggest surprise from the new Stones came in the song, “Sweet Neo Con.” The Stones show off their political side with a song that criticizes the Bush administration with lyrics about Halliburton, the war in Iraq, and the price of gasoline. Not a typically political person, Jagger unapologetically offers up his opinions with sarcasm in this edgy rock ballad.
The only weak part of this album comes at the end, where the last two songs are nothing too special. However, this does not take away from the brilliance of the album as a whole. It is clear that The Rolling Stones have not sold out for anyone and continue to make the kind of music that put them on the map in the first place. I think it is amazing that this band, which has been around forever, can still create an energized, upbeat, powerful record that shows that rock, is in fact, still alive and well.
Mikaela Brown 
Sophia Hunter 
Jayme Fisher