The Rolling Stones, Now! - Rolling Stones (The) (Cassette 1986)

If you're a casual Rolling Stones fan, and want to hear Start Me Up, Satisfaction, Sympathy, or Mixed Emotions; this might not be the album for you. On the other hand, I love hearing old albums of bands I love when they first started out. This one is no different. I believe this is their fourth album. They don't really sound anything like they do in later years in what you'd call their traditional sound, with their open G (among other tunings) crunch like on Start Me Up, Jumpin' Jack Flash, and Paint It Black. You can tell it's Mick singing, but it sounds like he's fronting a band that plays primarily Chuck Berry (by the way, they do Berry's You Can't Catch Me, so maybe that was the sound they were shooting for). Or maybe it's a band crossed between Berry, Creedence, and Elvis. I don't know. Something like that. The only song on this album that's constantly in any Hit's collection is Heart of Stone, which kind of has a sound like the Kinks. It's cool hearing an album of a band of the Stone's stature still young and still trying to find itself. This includes their sound, which Keith hasn't refined yet. It's an interesting piece of history in the very storied career of the Rolling Stones. If that sounds cool to you, then by all means enjoy.