Behind the album cover dreamt up by Andy Warhol with its iconic close-up crotch was a new opiate – a psychedelic whirlwind of rock’n’roll, blues, country and rhythm'n'blues. Following the influential albums Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed, on April 23rd 1971 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards revealed their hugely impressive compositions, with carnivorous guitar riffs (Brown Sugar) haunted by hard drugs (Sister Morphine). On Sticky Fingers, we find a demonic sensuality (Wild Horses), violently percussive themes (Sway) and dirty, sticky blues (You Gotta to Move). Featuring top-class musicians (Ry Cooder, Jim Dickinson, Bobby Keys, Nicky Hopkins, Paul Buckmaster...), this masterpiece is also the first 100% Rolling Stones album without Brian Jones, with stunning debuts from Mick Taylor (Can't You Hear Me Knocking). It is without a doubt among the top ten greatest records in the history of rock'n'roll. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Behind the album cover dreamt up by Andy Warhol with its iconic close-up crotch was a new opiate – a psychedelic whirlwind of rock’n’roll, blues, country and rhythm'n'blues. Following the influential albums Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed, on April 23rd 1971 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards revealed their hugely impressive compositions, with carnivorous guitar riffs (Brown Sugar) haunted by hard drugs (Sister Morphine). On Sticky Fingers, we find a demonic sensuality (Wild Horses), violently percussive themes (Sway) and dirty, sticky blues (You Gotta to Move). Featuring top-class musicians (Ry Cooder, Jim Dickinson, Bobby Keys, Nicky Hopkins, Paul Buckmaster...), this masterpiece is also the first 100% Rolling Stones album without Brian Jones, with stunning debuts from Mick Taylor (Can't You Hear Me Knocking). It is without a doubt among the top ten greatest records in the history of rock'n'roll. Plus, this sumptuous Deluxe Edition includes an extra disc full of unreleased takes and live tracks recorded on March 14, 1971 at the Roundhouse in London. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Released in September 2002, Forty Licks was the first compilation to bring together tracks from all of the Stones' different eras, and from all of the different labels they recorded for. The icing on these abundant forty tracks are four previously unreleased tracks: Don't Stop, Keys to Your Love, Stealing My Heart and Losing My Touch. There isn’t much to add beyond the tracklist, so many masterpieces follow one after the other: Street Fighting Man, Gimme Shelter, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, The Last Time, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Sympathy for the Devil, Wild Horses, Paint It, Black, Honky Tonk Women, Let's Spend the Night Together, Start Me Up, Brown Sugar, Miss You, Beast of Burden, Happy, Angie, It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It), and so on. The whole history of rock'n'roll (especially from the 60s and 70s) flashes before our ears. A magic trick lasting over two hours and forty minutes, during which the brilliant tandem Mick Jagger/Keith Richards invent a music nourished by blues, soul, country, gospel and funk. Vital! © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

How do you follow a monumental achievement like the 1972 masterpiece Exile on Main Street? The short answer is: you can't. And so if the Stones—who'd been on a massive roll of success from 1968's Beggars Banquet through Exile finally made a less than acclaimed album, who could blame them? Hence the tale of 1973's Goats Head Soup, the album forever blamed for the Stones inevitable stumble. While it's true that nothing on Goats Head Soup is on the level of Exile's many highlights ("Rip This Joint," "Tumbling Dice," "Sweet Virginia"), the album does have the Stones' finest near-ballad—the hit single "Angie"—and "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)," with Billy Preston on organ, and whose lyrics suddenly have fresh relevance ("The police in New York City/ They chased a boy right through the park/ And in a case of mistaken identity/ The put a bullet through his heart"). After that, however, it's a mixed bag. While they still can't be mistaken for top drawer Stones, much of the rest of the album—tunes like "Hide Your Love," "Winter" and "Can You Hear The Music"—is in retrospect not quite the filler they appeared to be in the wake of Exile. The last record produced by Jimmy Miller, who was key to their 1968-72 successes, Goats Head Soup was also one of the worst sounding Stones records before being remastered and reissued in 1994, 2009 and 2011 (Japan only), with the only difference between versions being censored or uncensored versions of the infamous last track, the Chuck Berry-styled rave up, "Star Star." Here the entire record is available for the first time in a much-improved 96kHz/24-bit hi-res mix. Among the included outtakes is a ripping instrumental take of "Dancing with Mr. D"—Mick Taylor playing slide is truly revelatory and "Scarlet" (with Jimmy Page on guitar) which while promising sounds unfinished. Also part of the reissue is the extraordinary Brussels Affair, a 1973 live show broadcast on French and American radio. Unquestionably essential, the pace of this greatest hits set has Mick Jagger out of breath the entire way. Mick Taylor has never played better and Charlie Watts, yes, the band's stone-faced metronome, turns in one of his most frantic performances. It’s the persuasive exclamation point on an overdue reappraisal of one of the Stones most maligned albums. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

Pay attention to the "raw" designation in RAW: That Little Ol' Band from Texas, the 2022 album that purports to be the soundtrack to the 2019 documentary That Little Ol' Band from Texas. Within the movie is a segment capturing ZZ Top playing a show at Gruene Hall, famously hailed as "the oldest continually run dance hall in Texas." That set is presented here on RAW: That Little Ol' Band from Texas, an album that winds up being a more valuable document than expected thanks to the fact that it captures the classic lineup of ZZ Top playing a bunch of down-and-dirty blues just a few years before the passing of bassist of Dusty Hill in 2021. While the group doesn't sound as spry as they did in the 1970s or '80s -- the rhythms are a little heavier, the growl in Billy Gibbons' voice is quite gravelly -- it's enjoyable to hear how they're playing as a band of old pros. They've performed these songs countless times -- it's not all the hits, but as they run through "Just Got Paid," "Heard it on the X," "La Grange," "Tush, "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide," and "Legs," it feels like they are -- but there's still energy and a palpable joy in how they launch into a groove or extend themselves in a jam and it's still a wonder to hear Gibbons solo.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Early in March 1977, the Rolling Stones played a pair of surprise shows at the El Mocambo, a 300-seat club in Toronto. The purpose of the gigs, the only concerts they played in 1977, was to generate source material for a live album that turned out to be Love You Live. Only four tracks from the El Mocambo performances showed up on Love You Live, amounting to a side of blues covers on that double-LP. A full album's worth of El Mocambo recordings circulated as a bootleg for years, but the overdue 2022 official release contains the entirety of the second night's show along with three bonus tracks from the first night, amounting to a whopping 23 tracks. Such an exhaustive portrait is welcome as Live at the El Mocambo does represent a bit of an odd moment for the Stones: it captures them caught between the over-sized jam session Black and Blue and the audacious revitalization of Some Girls, a period where Ron Wood was just getting his sea legs. Wood encouraged the group to play a bunch of blues standards and they agreed, balancing these chestnuts with some of their own oldies ("Let's Spend the Night Together," "Brown Sugar," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Honky Tonk Women"), a good chunk of Black and Blue and It's Only Rock N Roll, plus "Worried About You," a ballad that sat on the shelf until Tattoo You. This means Live at the El Mocambo presents the Stones as something between a hard-working club band and conquering heroes hawking their latest ware; the set list is very much of its time, lacking such warhorses as "Satisfaction" and "Street Fighting Man," and it's better for it. The Stones often sound as if they're enjoying hunkering down on a smaller stage, giving enthusiastic performances that avoid sloppiness. It adds up to a gas, a record that belongs alongside Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! and Brussels Affair as among the best official live Stones albums.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

By the mid-'90s, most urban R&B had become rather predictable, working on similar combinations of soul and hip-hop, or relying on vocal theatrics on slow, seductive numbers. With his debut album, Brown Sugar, the 21-year-old D'Angelo crashed down some of those barriers. D'Angelo concentrates on classic versions of soul and R&B, but unlike most of his contemporaries, he doesn't cut and paste older songs with hip-hop beats; instead, he attacks the forms with a hip-hop attitude, breathing new life into traditional forms. Not all of his music works -- there are several songs that sound incomplete, relying more on sound than structure. But when he does have a good song -- like the hit "Brown Sugar," Smokey Robinson's "Cruisin'," or the bluesy "Shit, Damn, Motherfucker," among several others -- D'Angelo's wild talents are evident. Brown Sugar might not be consistently brilliant, but it is one of the most exciting debuts of 1995, giving a good sense of how deep D'Angelo's talents run.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Released in time for the 21st anniversary of the Rolling Stones' 1995 live album Stripped, Eagle Rock's Totally Stripped package focuses on the visual element. At its simplest, it's a CD/DVD set, with the DVD containing a documentary following the Stones through studio sessions and rehearsals for their club shows in London, Amsterdam, and Paris, while a super deluxe set contains Blu-rays of the full concerts of each of these gigs. In each incarnation, the CD cherry-picks highlights from these live shows, presenting 13 previously unheard performances plus recycling a "Street Fighting Man" initially released on Stripped. That 1995 album didn't rely strictly on hits: the Stones emphasized their roots, covering Buddy Holly, Willie Dixon, and Robert Johnson, while also finding space for country-rock and such rarely played '60s gems as "The Spider and the Fly" and "I'm Free." Comparatively, the CD on Totally Stripped plays it fairly straight, concentrating on hits and live staples. The curve balls are "Faraway Eyes," the Voodoo Lounge single "I Go Wild," and a cover of "Like a Rolling Stone" that was designed as the emphasis track for the Stripped project. So, there may not be a lot of surprises here, but this particular disc retains the same appeal as the original album. Moving from stadiums to theaters reinvigorated the Stones, letting them reconnect with their lithe essence. Charlie Watts drives these performances, giving them a big, hard swing; Keith Richards and Ron Wood weave their guitars with audible glee; and Mick Jagger doesn't toss off the songs, he sings them with the precision his words deserve. The Stones wound up touring for another 20-plus years but this marks a point when they begin to ease into their veteran status, getting more out of revisiting the old tunes than pushing the new ones.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

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ZZ Top's First Album may not be perfectly polished, but it does establish their sound, attitude, and quirks. Simply put, it's a dirty little blues-rock record, filled with fuzzy guitars, barrelhouse rhythms, dirty jokes, and Texan slang. They have a good, ballsy sound that hits at gut level, and if the record's not entirely satisfying, it's because they're still learning how to craft records -- which means that they're still learning pacing as much as they're learning how to assemble a set of indelible material. Too much of this record glides by on its sound, without offering any true substance, but the tracks that really work -- "(Somebody Else Been) Shaking Your Tree," "Backdoor Love Affair," "Brown Sugar," and "Goin' Down to Mexico," among them -- show that from their very first record on, ZZ Top was that lil' ol' blues band from Texas.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Released in time for the 21st anniversary of the Rolling Stones' 1995 live album Stripped, Eagle Rock's Totally Stripped package focuses on the visual element. At its simplest, it's a CD/DVD set, with the DVD containing a documentary following the Stones through studio sessions and rehearsals for their club shows in London, Amsterdam, and Paris, while a super deluxe set contains Blu-rays of the full concerts of each of these gigs. In each incarnation, the CD cherry-picks highlights from these live shows, presenting 13 previously unheard performances plus recycling a "Street Fighting Man" initially released on Stripped. That 1995 album didn't rely strictly on hits: the Stones emphasized their roots, covering Buddy Holly, Willie Dixon, and Robert Johnson, while also finding space for country-rock and such rarely played '60s gems as "The Spider and the Fly" and "I'm Free." Comparatively, the CD on Totally Stripped plays it fairly straight, concentrating on hits and live staples. The curve balls are "Faraway Eyes," the Voodoo Lounge single "I Go Wild," and a cover of "Like a Rolling Stone" that was designed as the emphasis track for the Stripped project. So, there may not be a lot of surprises here, but this particular disc retains the same appeal as the original album. Moving from stadiums to theaters reinvigorated the Stones, letting them reconnect with their lithe essence. Charlie Watts drives these performances, giving them a big, hard swing; Keith Richards and Ron Wood weave their guitars with audible glee; and Mick Jagger doesn't toss off the songs, he sings them with the precision his words deserve. The Stones wound up touring for another 20-plus years but this marks a point when they begin to ease into their veteran status, getting more out of revisiting the old tunes than pushing the new ones.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

This two-LP set is both a lot more and a bit less than what it seems. It is seven years' worth of mostly very high-charting -- and all influential and important -- songs, leaving out some singles in favor of well-known album tracks, and in the process, giving an overview not just of the Rolling Stones' hits but of their evolving image. One hears them change from loud R&B-inspired rockers covering others' songs ("Time Is on My Side") into originators in their own right ("Satisfaction"); then into tastemakers and style-setters with a particularly decadent air ("Get Off of My Cloud," "19th Nervous Breakdown"), and finally into self-actualized rebel-poets ("Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Midnight Rambler") and Shaman-like symbols of chaos. On its initial release, Hot Rocks sold well, not only as a unique compilation but also as a panorama of the '60s. The only flaw was that it didn't give a good look at the Stones' full musical history, ignoring their early blues and psychedelic eras. There are also some anomalies in Hot Rocks' history for the collector -- the very first pressings included an outtake of "Brown Sugar" featuring Eric Clapton that was promptly replaced. This is an exciting assembly of material.© Bruce Eder /TiVo

Warner's 2013 box set The Complete Studio Albums 1970-1990 rounds up the ten albums ZZ Top recorded for Warner Bros over the course of 20 years: 1971's ZZ Top's First Album, 1972's Rio Grande Mud, 1973's Tres Hombres, 1975's Fandango!, 1976's Tejas, 1979's Deguello, 1981's El Loco, 1983's Eliminator, 1985's Afterburner, and 1990's Recycler. Each album is packaged as a mini LP containing the original artwork, but the real news is that the original LP mixes for ZZ Top's First Album, Rio Grande Mud, and Tejas are presented on CD for the first time, a move that will please all hardcore fans. That said, the whole package is quite attractive, and not just from a packaging perspective: this is the prime of ZZ Top, available in one place at a very attractive price (a retail of $59.98, which may be discounted to around $40 by some retailers).© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Behind the album cover dreamt up by Andy Warhol with its iconic close-up crotch was a new opiate – a psychedelic whirlwind of rock’n’roll, blues, country and rhythm'n'blues. Following the influential albums Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed, on April 23rd 1971 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards revealed their hugely impressive compositions, with carnivorous guitar riffs (Brown Sugar) haunted by hard drugs (Sister Morphine). On Sticky Fingers, we find a demonic sensuality (Wild Horses), violently percussive themes (Sway) and dirty, sticky blues (You Gotta to Move). Featuring top-class musicians (Ry Cooder, Jim Dickinson, Bobby Keys, Nicky Hopkins, Paul Buckmaster...), this masterpiece is also the first 100% Rolling Stones album without Brian Jones, with stunning debuts from Mick Taylor (Can't You Hear Me Knocking). It is without a doubt among the top ten greatest records in the history of rock'n'roll. Plus, this sumptuous Deluxe Edition includes an extra disc full of unreleased takes and live tracks recorded on March 14, 1971 at the Roundhouse in London. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Behind the album cover dreamt up by Andy Warhol with its iconic close-up crotch was a new opiate – a psychedelic whirlwind of rock’n’roll, blues, country and rhythm'n'blues. Following the influential albums Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed, on April 23rd 1971 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards revealed their hugely impressive compositions, with carnivorous guitar riffs (Brown Sugar) haunted by hard drugs (Sister Morphine). On Sticky Fingers, we find a demonic sensuality (Wild Horses), violently percussive themes (Sway) and dirty, sticky blues (You Gotta to Move). Featuring top-class musicians (Ry Cooder, Jim Dickinson, Bobby Keys, Nicky Hopkins, Paul Buckmaster...), this masterpiece is also the first 100% Rolling Stones album without Brian Jones, with stunning debuts from Mick Taylor (Can't You Hear Me Knocking). It is without a doubt among the top ten greatest records in the history of rock'n'roll. Plus, this sumptuous Deluxe Edition includes an extra disc full of unreleased takes and live tracks recorded on March 14, 1971 at the Roundhouse in London. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz