A Bigger Bang was released in the United States on September 6, 2005. To date this is the last Rolling Stones studio album. It reached the number three position on the American charts and sold over a million copies in this country alone. This release proved there is still some life left in the old dog.

The Rolling Stones retreated to Mick Jagger’s house in France and set up shop in his personal studio to record this album. Mick, Charlie and Keith form the basic core for A Bigger Bang. Regular bassist Darryl Jones plays on most of the tracks and keyboardist Chuck Leavell also makes several appearances. Ronnie Wood only contributes to about half the songs. There is basically no one else. Mick plays some bass, harmonica and even an effective slide guitar. This back to a basics, stripped down affair works well as it returns the Stones to their rock ‘n’ roll roots.

This was a good effort for the Stones as they proved they can still sound fresh and make energetic rock ‘n’ roll 45 years after their birth. I can’t help but think that what separates this album and a number of other good Rolling Stones albums are just the lack of a classic or signature song to provide a foundation from which to launch the rest of the tracks. When I listen to the album as a whole, it is mostly excellent, yet if I start separating the songs into their individual parts it does not fare as well.

The Stones would leave on another massive world tour in support of this release and it would be anything but a basic stripped down affair. Rather, it would fill stadiums and arenas for over two years and gross close to a half billion dollars. The highlight of the tour would be a free concert in Brazil that would draw close to a million fans.