The Lowdown: Legendry rockers release first ever career-spanning best of collection.

What can really be said about the Rolling Stones that hasn't been said already. The longest running and possibly greatest rock'n'roll band ever, and they're still touring the world as we speak. Few other artists had such a cultural impact on the 20th Century, maybe just Dylan and the Beatles are on a par. Few other artists can boast such a back catalogue from which to choose a best of. The Stones have had best of collections before, but amazingly this is the first to span their full career, due to a switch in record companies in the early 70s. Previous best of releases Hot Rocks and Jump Back covered the periods 64-71 and 72 onwards respectively. This is a two-disc collection featuring, obviously, forty tracks, 36 classics and 4 new songs.

When you delve into the history book provided by the Stones recorded output it becomes apparent that once all the myth and public swagger portrayed by the bands iconic members is stripped away, what is left behind is nothing less than explosive epoch defining rock music. The first disc covers the bands 60s London era, the Stones in their purist British R'n'B heyday. Brilliant songs abound. Really early numbers such as Satisfaction and Get Off Of My Cloud show that unlike the Beatles, the Stones didn't start out as a pop band, they had a much darker more purist blues influence from the off. By the mid sixties the Stones had developed a psychedelic edge which is portrayed beautifully in the melancholic classic Paint it Black. The song moves from delicacy to anger with ease, and shows a new maturity and will to experiment creep into the Stones' sound. By the end of the Sixties, they couldn't be stopped and with the arrival of Mick Taylor on lead guitar, after the accidental drowning of original member Brian Jones, the band entered their most creative period. Witness here the barroom blues brilliance of Honky Tonk Women, or the grand sweep of You Can't Always Get What You Want, complete with full boys choir.

By the second disc the Stones had become the biggest band in the world, and could arguably still lay claim to that title today. The sound slowly shifted throughout the 70s into what would later become described as Stadium Rock, but at the time the Stones were really inventing the idiom, not contributing to it. Mick Taylor stayed until 74 and during his six years with the band they recorded a string of classic albums. The tracks from those albums here are among the best they ever recorded. Brown Sugar is strident rock music based around a swaggering blues riff from Richards, Jagger's sneering lyric is all attitude and the whole thing is lifted in the middle by a joyous Sax solo. Happy and Tumbling Dice, both from the classic Exile On Main Street album, show the band in their most relaxed form, a shambolic genius cutting through the perfectly careless country blues sound. Angie is a truly great tough love ballad, lead by Jagger's brilliant lyric, the musical accompaniment is inspired, acoustic guitars and strings catching the mood of the song perfectly.

Ron Wood joined from The Faces in 75 and the bands music took on a more straight ahead rock form, though the change is slight. During this period they weren't afraid to experiment with the genres of the time and covered punk (Shattered), disco (Miss You) and electro-pop (Undercover of the Night). All are great numbers, Undercover especially has remained a classic, its mix of stuttering vocal, and produced drum and bass rhythms still sound strange, so too Richards snaking guitar line weaving in and out of the song. In the 80s and 90s the Stones settled into a familiar groove and although maybe no longer capable of releasing consistently great albums, they still produced some top rate singles. Its maybe noteworthy that of those songs its minor hit You Got Me Rocking that is the most infectious and best received live. The song is just so straightforward and catchy, and manages to capture some of the innocence and magic of a much younger and more innocent Rolling Stones.

Of the new numbers, two are unremarkable, two worth mention. Losing my Touch is an effective low down blues ballad sung in a beautifully haggard voice by Keith Richards. Don't Stop is the best of them and adds to their list of hits. It fits in nicely with other lead off singles from recent albums such as Love is Strong, but as is expected of the Stones these days, covers no new ground. Then the Stones aren't around to cover new ground, they exist to show the rest of the world how it should be done, what rock'n'roll is all about. They are perhaps our purist still surviving link to the original essence of the art form. The proof is here.

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