Sticky Fingers [Original recording remastered, Original recording reissued]

The Rolling Stones | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 5, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered, Original recording reissued
• Label: UMe
• ASIN: B001WCN23W
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #604 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #24 in Music > Music Deals > Box Sets at 30% Off
  • #29 in Music > Rock > Blues Rock
  • #61 in Music > Hard Rock & Metal

Editorial Reviews

Digitally remastered edition of the Rock 'N' Roll veterans' 1971 album, originally the first album for their own Rolling Stones Records imprint. Though the album was pieced together from various sessions, it remains one of their most iconic albums. 10 tracks including 'Brown Sugar', 'Bitch' and 'Wild Horses'.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Re-mastering is crap, October 5, 2009

By 

G. Fazio "Makyo" (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sticky Fingers (Audio CD)

I have to agree with the other comments about the re-mastering here. I was quite surprised how hot it sounded. "Wild Horses" in particular, sounded like it was distorting at times. I checked my levels, and it wasn't my gear, so just out of curiousity, I opened the file in Logic to see what the waveform looked like. I knew without checking that it must have been a recent digital re-master, because it's hot as all hell, and clipping significantly on the choruses. Made me realise that for old 60s/70s music, I should really be looking for the 80s/90s cd versions I guess, or analogue. Really kind of sad, given that the 70s were so obsessed with recording quality, that all that love and care is being lost just for loudness, which you can get by turning up your amp or iPod anyway. Really don't get it... I thought the "loudness war" was limited to recent releases, quite saddened to see it's even being applied to re-masters of old music.

Great music, possibly The Stones' best album, but this is not the version to buy.

215 of 230 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Music 5, Re-master 0, May 22, 2009

By 

BrownFIngersDavis (Lancaster, SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sticky Fingers (Audio CD)

I don't know why the previous posters are impressed with this re-master. Sticky Fingers is my personal favorite Stones album, and if you don't have it, get it, but I recommend you seek out the 1994 re-master on Virgin Records. This re-master distributed by UMD has compressed the top end, probably to hide tape hiss, and boosted the instruments up louder to near distortion levels. On headphones certain higher pitched sounds like the piano on Moonlight Mile are eardrum piercing, and the organ solo on I Got the Blues is particularly horrid sounding on headphones or open speakers. On open speakers, the overall poor quality is even more apparent. While certain sounds, particularly opening guitar riffs, stand out more than before, once the entire band kicks in, the compression leads to a dull thuddy sound, particularly in the drums. The one song that overall sounds better than before is ironically my least favorite - Sister Morphine. It now has a menacing quality that has been missing from previous CD masters, but it opens with a clumsy fade-in on the guitar, again probably to mask tape hiss. Perhaps the most disappointing part of this re-master is that one of my favorite moments in this album - the sudden surprising swell of strings near the end of Sway - is completely buried now.
Some have complained about a high end "harshness" to the Virgin re-masters but to me those are more open and crisp. If that's your taste, that's what you want. If you prefer a more bassy limited sound, you might prefer the new re-masters. As for me I will stick with what I have and not purchase any more UMD re-masters.

95 of 105 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Loudness War Victim, July 5, 2009

By 

Rod Stone (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sticky Fingers (Audio CD)

Why the Stones felt the need to compress these new remasters to make them so much louder is beyond me. This CD has a dynamic range of about 8db. Everything has been compressed to make the average volume louder. Try the new Rod Stewart remasters of A Night on the Town and Atlantic Crossing, which were not compressed to increase the volume, to see what might have been with these new Stones remasterings. I actually like the EQ choices Stephen Marcussen made in the remastering of this and the other Stones remasters, but the lack of dynamic range and compression ruin it. No bonus tracks and a loudness war remastering make this one a loser for me. Stick with the Ludwig remasters from '94 or the original CBS/Columbia CDs (the latter of which are unfairly maligned IMHO). Let's not reward this type of remastering.