I'll make this review quick.

Look, I'll write a review on 'Tattoo You' eventually on one of the earlier pressings. It's a stellar album, it really is. It's The Rolling Stones outtakes album, but these outtakes are so great, one has to wonder why they weren't included on the albums they were recorded for ('Waiting on a Friend,' for example, would fit perfectly on 1973's 'Goats Head Soup,' which it was recorded for).

So as you can see, the two-star review is not for the music. That's an EASY five stars. The two stars are for the botched remastering. The mix is distorted and compressed and the volume is turned *way* up. It's a mess. It's almost hard to listen to and stomach. I don't know what the Stones were thinking authorizing this, but it is a disaster. An absolute disaster.

Overall, if you see this in stores, MAKE SURE you are either buying the 1990 Columbia pressing or the 1994 Virgin remaster as opposed to the 2009 Universal (or Polydor) pressing. This is a great album, but avoid all of the 2009 remasters. I bought 'Still Life (American Concert 1981),' 'Dirty Work,' and this one to test and see what they sounded like. It did not sound good on either my iPod or my speakers, and all of them sounded just terrible.

If you have the 1990 Columbia pressings and/or the 1994 Virgin remasters, hold on to those. Both of them (yes, even the Columbia remasters from when CDs were first being released) sound miles better than this over-compressed, distorted nightmare of a remaster.

Great album. Make sure you buy it, but avoid this copy of it like the plague.
I'll make this review quick. Look, I'll write a review on 'Tattoo You' eventually on one of the earlier pressings. It's a stellar album, it really is. It's The Rolling Stones outtakes album, but these outtakes are so great, one has to wonder why they weren't included on the albums they were recorded for ('Waiting on a Friend,' for example, would fit perfectly on 1973's 'Goats Head Soup,' which it was recorded for). So as you can see, the two-star review is not for the music. That's an EASY five stars. The two stars are for the botched remastering. The mix is distorted and compressed and the volume is turned *way* up. It's a mess. It's almost hard to listen to and stomach. I don't know what the Stones were thinking authorizing this, but it is a disaster. An absolute disaster. Overall, if you see this in stores, MAKE SURE you are either buying the 1990 Columbia pressing or the 1994 Virgin remaster as opposed to the 2009 Universal (or Polydor) pressing. This is a great album, but avoid all of the 2009 remasters. I bought 'Still Life (American Concert 1981),' 'Dirty Work,' and this one to test and see what they sounded like. It did not sound good on either my iPod or my speakers, and all of them sounded just terrible. If you have the 1990 Columbia pressings and/or the 1994 Virgin remasters, hold on to those. Both of them (yes, even the Columbia remasters from when CDs were first being released) sound miles better than this over-compressed, distorted nightmare of a remaster. Great album. Make sure you buy it, but avoid this copy of it like the plague.