Track Listing

1. Sad Sad Sad
2. Mixed Emotions
3. Terrifying
4. Hold On To Your Hat
5. Hearts For Sale
6. Blinded By Love
7. Rock And A Hard Place
8. Can't Be Seen
9. Almost Hear You Sigh
10. Continental Drift
11. Break The Spell
12. Slipping Away

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17337 in Music
• Released on: 2009-07-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 61 minutes

CD Description
The release of Steel Wheels in 1989 followed the group’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and coincided with their eagerly-awaited return to the live arena. Recorded at Air Studios in Montserrat and Olympic in London, it made the Top 3 in Britain and in the States. It contains classic tracks like the US Top 5 single "Mixed Emotions" as well as "Rock And A Hard Place", which boasts a trademark riff as infectious as any they’ve come up with. The incredibly atmospheric "Almost Hear You Sigh" also charted while Richards often reprises the ballad "Slipping Away" in concert.

Customer Reviews

Solid
It's almost as if Mick Jagger and Keith Richards sat down and wrote the songs for this album thinking "what is it that people want from a Stones album?".
They apparently decided that people want both the rockers, the ballads, and perhaps a bit of modest experimentalism ("Contineal Drift"), and that's what "Steel Wheels" provides.

It opens with two excellent, tough rockers, "Sad, Sad, Sad" and "Mixed Emotions", followed by the somewhat less remarkable "Terrifying" and "Hold On To Your Hat", and the nice, bluesy "Hearts For Sale".

"Blinded By Love" is a lovely melody, a folkish, acoustic ballad with Phil Beer (who worked with the Fairport Convention, Mike Oldfield and the Albion Band among others) playing mandolin.
Then comes one of the six (!) singles that were lifted off "Steel Wheels", and perhaps the best-known (although it was not the most succesful): the ever-so-slightly disco-influenced rocker "Rock And A Hard Place".

Keith Richards gets off the groovy, muscular rocker "Can't Be Seen", which sounds like something off one of his solo albums (and if I'm not mistaken, Richards himself is playing the lead guitar).

The fine, soulful ballad, "Almost Hear You Sigh", is actually a Keith Richards-number as well, although Mick Jagger sings it. Richards is playing a classical Velasquez guitar, and suddenly breaks into a magnificent, if too short, classical guitar solo.

And finally, after the very African-sounding "Continental Drift" and the so-so "Break The Spell", another ballad, this time with the lead vocal done by Keith Richards himself. "Slipping Away" is one of the best songs Richards has penned, lyrically and musically, and one of the best vocal tracks he and his whiskey-soaked pipes have laid down as well.

"Steel Wheels" feels a lot like Keith Richards' album, probably in part because Richards already had some more or less finished material to work with, and his influence means that "Steel Wheels" rocks with a lot more sincerity than the two or three records that preceded it.
It has a few lesser tracks, but nothing is terrible, and there is a lot of good stuff here as well - dense, powerful rock n' roll from the only band who can seriously lay claim to the title "the World's greatest rock band".

Pure rock, Pure stones
I feel this album once again proves the stones are the best, it shows off there rock roots that will remain forever and never be forgotten. Tracks like mixed emotions and sad sad sad just state the hardcore the stones have and then tracks like blinded by love and almost hear you sigh state the sensitive side and soft side they also maintain, and cant be seen is a good track but the best keef song on the album and possibly ever made is slipping away. So this is a MUST have stones album for anytrue fan.

Excellent!
Another typically underrated 80s Stones album. The singles, Rock And A Hard Place and Mixed Emotions are fantastic and the rest of the album sees the boys rocking with barely a ballad in sight. A return to raucous form! I must say this is one of my favourite Stones albums (and yes, I do have them all) as the songwriting is strong the whole way through. Many a Stones album is guilty of having a fair bit of filler but this one has two songs tops.