7/10

If there is one band you can expect to still be touring long after the first nuke is dropped, it is The Rolling Stones. Just Keith Richards and a dozen cockroaches wandering the earth, continuing the legacy of their incredible achievements to date. But releasing new music hasn't been much of an urgency from the band of late. Despite heading out on the road many times in recent years, this is their first studio album in eleven years, and their first to be filled with only covers. And while you can probably guess that their creative spark left them many years ago, their tenacity and charisma remains as strong as ever on this new release.

Going far back to their roots and inspirations, 'Blue & Lonesome' is probably the most spiritually blues record they have ever released. While the black working songs of the early 20th century were always an influence to their sound, this album treats itself as their tribute to those that offered the most to their core direction. And while some tracks may seem a little out of character to their usual work, the sheer passion of performance within each track shows you that these guys really love this music.

It may seem like a curtain call on their recording careers but given how they are verging on becoming the longest-serving band in history, you can probably expect more of this work in the near future. It seems to have reopened something in the group and probably won't be the last we hear of them yet.