The Rolling Stones – Living In A Ghost Town

To date The Rolling Stones have released 30 studio albums. There’s a nice round symmetry to the number 30, a more than acceptable end point to hang one’s legacy on. Having said that, reportedly the Stones have been picking away at their 31st for the last five years now. They haven’t had an album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang, leaving fans in the lurch for some fifteen years now. Less than a year into beginning work on their latest album the Stones managed to take some time out for a straight up blues album of cover songs, 2016’s Blue & Lonesome. Fast forward four years to the spring of 2020 when, on April 23, the Stones released “Living In A Ghost Town”, their first original material since 2012’s “Doom and Gloom” and “One More Shot”.

Recording of the song began in February of 2019 and recommenced in May of the same year. It would be almost a year later, in April 2020 that the band returned to the song with Mick Jagger altering some lyrics to reflect the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. While lacking in the sheer audaciousness of its predecessor “Doom And Gloom”, the last truly impactful Stones single, “Living In A Ghost Town” fits very nicely into the Stone’s oeuvre. Mick is in fine voice and the prominent keyboard work is very reminiscent of “Miss You” from the Some Girls album. Truth be told the latest Stones single would not sound the least bit out of place on the aforementioned 42 year old Stones record from 1978. While perhaps not the last great Stones single fans have been waiting for “Living In A Ghost Town” will have to do for now. Whether the Glimmer Twins manage to come up with a full album’s worth of classic Stone’s material befitting a proper swansong before its too late only time can tell. And this time around, sadly, time may not be on their side.

8/10