Maps of Music

A Bigger Bang (2005)

Where the lyrics of A Bigger Bang take you, and where it was really made.

This is the last album of original material the Rolling Stones recorded with Charlie Watts on drums, who died in 2021.

Key places

Château de Fourchette, where the songs were written (2005)

Recording site Château de Fourchette — Jagger and Richards composed the album's songs at this château in June 2004. The site is listed as a recording location for the album. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles (2005)

Recording site Ocean Way Recording — Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles is named as one of the studios where the album was recorded. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

The Village Recorder in Los Angeles (2005)

Recording site Village Recorders — The Village Recorder in Los Angeles is named as one of the studios where the album was recorded. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• A Bigger Bang: twenty-second British and twenty-fourth American studio album by the Rolling Stones
• Released 5 September 2005 through Virgin Records
• Last album of original material recorded entirely with Charlie Watts on drums before his death in 2021

Background

• Follow-up to Bridges to Babylon, released eight years earlier
• Bridges to Babylon used many producers, styles and guest musicians
• The band aimed for a basic hard rock album recalling its 1960s–1970s heyday
• Don Was brought in as a single producer, co-producing with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
• Ronnie Wood, Charlie Watts, Darryl Jones, Chuck Leavell and Matt Clifford also took part
• The follow-up tour lasted two years and became the highest-grossing tour of all time by its completion
• Shine a Light, a Martin Scorsese-directed concert film, documented the tour
• Style: stripped-down, reminiscent of Some Girls (1978), with a harder and more contemporary edge

Recording

• Songs composed by Jagger and Richards in June 2004 at a château in Pocé-sur-Cisse, France
• Writing continued at the château after they learned of Charlie Watts' throat cancer diagnosis
• Jagger played drums on early guide tracks; Watts later rerecorded all but one, keeping Jagger's beat
• Most basic tracks recorded as a trio of Jagger, Richards and Watts, with overdubs added later
• Ronnie Wood absent from many sessions, playing on ten of the sixteen tracks
• First Stones album on which Jagger plays bass guitar on some tracks
• Title reflects the band's fascination with scientific theory about the origin of the universe
• Produced by Don Was; sound engineering by Krish Sharma; mixing by Jack Joseph Puig and Dave Sardy

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1962 as an English rock band; their first stable line-up was Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts.
• Jones named the band after a Muddy Waters song; they were rooted in blues and rock and roll.
• Manager Andrew Loog Oldham encouraged them to write their own songs, and the Jagger–Richards partnership became their main creative force.

Members

• Current: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood (joined 1975).
• Former: Brian Jones (died 1969), Mick Taylor (1969–1974), Bill Wyman (1962–1993), Charlie Watts (1963–2021, died 2021).
• Steve Jordan became their drummer after Watts' death.

Career

• Hits included "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965), "Paint It Black" (1966) and "Start Me Up" (1981).
• Their 1969 Hyde Park show and Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. are key points of their career.
• Formed Rolling Stones Records in 1970, whose tongue-and-lips logo became their band logo.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989; the band has sold more than 250 million albums.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Reviews generally favourable; critics noted it did not match the standards of the Stones' classic period
• Still among the best reviewed of the band's later albums
• Touted as the best Rolling Stones album in years
• Metacritic aggregate score 73 out of 100, categorised as generally favourable
• Chosen as one of Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks of 2005
• Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the second-best album of 2005, behind Kanye West's Late Registration
• An Associated Press review called it a winner and said it proved the band still had it

Reappraisal

• Many critics and fans felt the Stones had not yet recorded a late-period album truly up to their high standards, even though every album since Steel Wheels (1989) had been similarly praised

Records

• Peaked at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and number 3 in the US
• Reached number 1 in eleven countries
• Lead single Streets of Love reached number 15 in the UK and failed to chart in the US
• Went platinum in the US and Germany, and gold in Japan
• Sold 546,000 copies in the US according to Nielsen SoundScan
• Sold 2.4 million copies worldwide as of 31 March 2006 according to EMI

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Rolling Stone ranked the album second-best of 2005, behind Kanye West's Late Registration, and Amazon.com picked it for its 2005 Top 100 Editor's Picks.
• Songs from the album have been used in television, including multiple appearances in Days of Our Lives.
• The song Sweet Neo Con criticises the conservative Christian movement in American politics.
• Dangerous Beauty is widely understood to refer to US Army Reserve Lynndie England, who was convicted over the Abu Ghraib abuse.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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