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Critics poke fun at Mick Jagger’s Superheavy
Jagger’s reggae has improved, but his rapping on supergroup’s new album will haunt you to the grave
PEOPLE are forever knocking Mick Jagger, writes the Times's Will Hodgkinson. "It has become a national pastime." Unfortunately for Jagger, Hodgkinson has no intention of bucking the trend in his two-star review of Superheavy, the eponymous debut album from the Rolling Stones frontman's new supergroup.
Superheavy is a collaboration between Jagger, soul singer Joss Stone, Eurythmics singer Dave Stewart, Indian film soundtrack composer A R Rahman and reggae singer and son of Bob, Damian Marley.
Hodgkinson wants to like the album, but sadly, the "empty" Superheavy "isn't much more than the sound of middle-aged geezers and a young woman whom they fancy getting trapped inside a recording studio".
"The album consists of all kinds of well-played, well-sung themes and ideas that are bereft of a soul. Beautiful People sounds like the kind of pop-reggae best enjoyed on a yacht off the coast of Jamaica, a safe distance from the slums of Kingston".
The Independent is similarly dismissive of Superheavy. Andy Gill also awards the album two stars, saying: "The sad fact about supergroups is that they are rarely the result of any musical imperative… the assembled talents cast around for a style of their own without ever unearthing the natural chemistry on which great bands rely."
Alexis Petridis, in the Guardian, is a little more generous, awarding Jagger and co three stars. But this might chiefly be because, on an album supposedly inspired by the noisy soundsystems of Jamaica, where Dave Stewart now lives, Jagger has "finally discovered a way of singing reggae that doesn't involve lapsing into the here-come-de-Lilt-man voice found on the Stones' 70s excursions into the genre".
Unfortunately, Jagger has taken to rapping – a "sound you fear will haunt you to the grave".
Petridis likes some moments, such as when Rahman's string arrangements "collide" with the rhythms of Marley's backing band. But at its worst, Petridis is struck by Superheavy's "sense of star-studded pointlessness". ·
