I’ve been trying to figure out why this doesn’t quite work for me. There’s a stiffness to it – the band don’t seem comfortable with this jaunty a sound. The riff’s a good one, full of bounce, but maybe not good enough to carry a song virtually by itself, and certainly not without some more variety in the dynamics (sure enough the instrumental break brings the track to life). The monotony of the riff then ends up highlighting the problems with Jagger’s vocals – every line in every verse has its final words bluntly emphasised, which puts too much stress on the rhymes and not enough on their content. It’s rather like listening to a non-rapper try to rap, they usually make the same “wow I’m rhyming!” mistake.
The chorus is great, though, Jagger at his most viperish – so manipulative. “This could be the last time, maybe the last time, I don’t know”. The tease! There will be many, many more times to come – it’s just that they’ll happen when and if Mick wants. Maybe that’s my problem with the song – musically it’s a jangly crowd-pleaser, verbally it’s a cold power-play.
Score: 6
[Logged in users can award their own score]