This is part of Creative Loafing Tampa's new issue, The Year In Music. See and listen to the rest of our top albums here.
The Rolling Stones, Blue & Lonesome (Polydor) More than half a century after their debut album, the Rolling Stones have once again given people under the age of 30 a reason to consume a new album. Sure, modern young folks are more distracted than they’ve ever been, but Blue & Lonesome is the perfect reason for millennials to slow down and listen. It’s an album of covers (Buddy Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter and Willie Dixon all get the treatment on the 42-minute effort), and a harmonica-soaked, lick-filled history lesson explaining why Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones got together in the first place. The irony here is that most anyone curious about these Stones will probably never put their hands on a physical copy of the LP, opting instead for a liner notes-free stream of the band’s sonic love letter to the American bluesmen who paved the way for another bunch of Brits to change the course of history forever. —Ray Roa
This article appears in Dec 15-22, 2016.