The Rolling Stones

Anybody listening to this will be asked to show proof that they have heard the original versions of these great songs. As an intro to the Stones, Stripped is a harrowing, unapologetically digitized nightmare. As a document of the "unplugged" craze of the 1990s, it's another in a long line of classic rock greats playing their songs on tinny Ovation guitars.

Accepting--nay, embracing--the necessity of performing as a unit, they rehearsed. Ditto his responsibilities as a member of Great Britain's ruling class, Mick enunciated--except on the sole words not reproduced in the lyric booklet (that's right, lyric booklet), which go, approximately, "She was [n?]ifty, [sh?]ifty, she looked about 50." And macabre though it may seem, they all went out and cut not merely another unplugged recap, but a live album that reprises their classic material and groove in an honorably autumnal spirit--an album that might tell you something a decade from now. Muddy Waters would be proud. (Grade - A-)