SIR Mick Jagger may have added an eighth child to his collection this month at 73, but at least old age has caught up with the perennial hipster in one way.
The Rolling Stones are finally acting their age by making the kind of record they should have made years ago instead of prolonging the braggadocio and self-parody. Actually Blue & Lonesome is the kind of record they did make more than half a century ago, before Jagger and Richards found Satisfaction.
Glory be, their first studio album since 2005's flaccid A Bigger Bang tips a hat to their roots on a collection of vintage Chicago blues, recorded in only three days last year near Eel Pie Island where they had first gigged in pubs and clubs.
Such quick work, playing live and spontaneously with no overdubs, gives the album a wonderful urgency and exuberance, and all the best of the Stones is here, especially Keith Richards's strutting guitar and not only Jagger's most authentic vocal swagger but his rarely used harmonica skills too.
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