Shine a Light (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

iTunes Review

Recorded over two nights — October 29 and November 1, 2006 — at New York City’s Beacon Theatre for a live video shoot with Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese, this 22-track live album captures a fully fortified Rolling Stones running through select highlights from the band’s 45 year career. Back-up singers, an active horn section, and keyboard reinforcements give every song a wide-screen attack that covers all angles. Singer Mick Jagger is in fine shout and uses the occasion to bring out legendary bluesman Buddy Guy for his blues vamp “Champagne and Reefer”, while also making room for the White Stripes’ Jack White to jam out on the Exile on Main Street cut “Loving Cup”, and Christina Aguilera to camp it up for the once-shocking “Live With Me”. The show’s most recent tune, “She Was Hot” from 1983’s Undercover, is turned back into an R&B romp. 1978’s Some Girls is amply represented with the title track, a near punkish “Shattered”, “Just My Imagination”, and “Faraway Eyes”. The band keeps the sound tough, veering towards actual heavy metal for “Satisfaction” and adding a terse chunky edge to “Connection” and “Paint It, Black”. Didn’t they once sing “What a drag it is getting old”? Wouldn’t know it from here.