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The Rolling Stones: Some Girls (Deluxe Edition)

Universal

Even though they tracked it in Paris, Some Girls often gets tagged as The Rolling Stones’ New York album—and rightfully so. Sure, Mick Jagger peppers the disco breakdown of “Miss You” with whispered asides about Central Park after dark, and he gives a rousing shout to Second Avenue in “Shattered,” but it goes much deeper than that. In the late ‘70s, the Big Apple (“Don’t mind the maggots!”), from CBGB to Studio 54, was hedonism personified—a dirty-sexy Babylon of inspiration tailor-made for The Rolling Stones’ insatiable appetites, creative and otherwise. More than 30 years later, Some Girls remains one of the all-time sweat-inducing Stones jaunts, clearly deserving of the same retrospective treatment that Exile on Main Street received last year. Packaged with newly unearthed images by the late fashion photographer Helmut Newton and an eloquent stage-setting essay by longtime Rolling Stone contributor Anthony DeCurtis, the deluxe set also includes reworked outtakes, mixed by Don Was, from the original sessions. That means that Keith Richards’ deft riffage on “Keep Up Blues” and his slinky interplay with Ron Wood on “Do You Think I Really Care” sounds crisper than any previous bootleg, and Mick turns back the clock to sing the raunchy “So Young” like it’s 1978 all over again. Hard enough and tough enough? Absolutely.