Released - 1966, on London/Decca Records (now ABKCO Records). Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham.

Personnel:

Mick Jagger - Lead Vocals,  Percussion.
Brian Jones - Lead, Rhythm & Acoustic Guitars, Dulcimer, Sitar, Marimbas, Tamboura, Bells, Sax, Harmonica, Piano, Organ, Harpsichord
Keith Richards - Lead, Rhythm & Acoustic Guitars, Backing Vocals.
Bill Wyman - Bass, Bells, Percussion, Organ and Piano.
Charlie Watts - Drums, Percussion, Marimbas.

Additional Personnel - Ian Stewart & Jack Nitzche.

(Click on song for lyrics and song personnel)

ITS NOT EASY

  5.7

I AM WAITING

  7.7

  7.9

  7.0

  7.1

REVIEW

The first Stones album comprised entirely of Jagger/Richards songs.

Most of the tunes are strong and this has to go down as containing Brian Jones' best work. He plays several different instruments on this LP besides guitar. Most interesting is his heavy metal sounding sitar on "Paint It Black". Nobody up to this time had ever played a sitar as the lead instrument for a hard rock song, yet it turned out sounding so great that the song is still today considered one of the Stones all time best ever.

Brian also added a fine sounding dulcimer to both "Lady Jane" and "I Am Waiting", yet another sound that you never heard on any rock songs till Brian made it so; and although he had played around with the marimbas on a couple of songs before "Under My Thumb" was recorded, that instrument is what made this song a hit.

Bill Wyman also played several instruments on this album, as Bill said later on that Brian would get him to experiment in the studio with all of these different sounds. Also on Aftermath, Charlie Watts adds some fine drumming along with other percussion work.

This is one album that Keith Richards seem to take a back seat to and not stepping out front with his guitar too much. Really, not a whole lot from Keef on here, other than his fine backing vocals.Once again, Mick Jagger's vocals are top notched.

-- Keno, 1998

*Old Ratings vs. New Ratings

The oldest ratings that you see here are from back in 1998 when I first rated the album for this site. Since time does change one's point of view, I decided to listen to and rate the album again, doing so in late 2005. In April, 2018, 20 years after the first ratings were made, I rated all of the songs for a third time. Also note that I did not look at the old ratings from 1998 until after I placed my new ratings here in both 2005 and 2018.

To add your own review go here.

To read others reviews about this album, go here.

To see how Aftermath's songs were voted on by fans, go here.

To buy the US remastered AFTERMATH, just click on: Aftermath - US

To buy the remastered British version of AFTERMATH, just click on: Aftermath - UK

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