Daily News from New York, New York • 26

26 Tuesday, May 18, 2010 DAILY NEWS NYDailyNews.com Digging up some new Stones Jim Farber t's smart to be skeptical about any "never-before-heard" songs suddenly surfacing from a classic. Sloppy seconds, anyone? The question becomes even more nagging in the case of a new, tricked-out version of the Rolling Stones' drop-dead brilliant double disk from 1972, "Exile on Main Street." It includes no fewer than eight tracks left off the dream release, along with two potentially fishy "alternative" takes. In truth, the original set had several songs you could have given a skip Just Want to See His Face" and "Ventilator Blues" leap to mind). More, since the Stones have released no shortage of slack releases in the 38 years since "Exile" appeared, wouldn't any prime castoffs have already been snatched up for one of those? Unsurprisingly, you won't find a suppressed "Happy" or "Bitch" among the disinterred tracks here. But that sets the bar impossibly high.

If these recordings, it still feels like 1972 takes," the second run at "Soul Survivor," features looser, and funnier, vocals from Keith than the Mick-fronted main version. And the take on "Loving Cup" lasts a minute longer than the official one, offering freer guitar solos that you wish went on longer still. The result of all this excavation won't make you question any of the Stones' original editorial decisions. But it will make you glad they gave us this peek into their thought process and their test-runs. Given the heady mood of that time, it's small wonder their scraps beat most band's feasts.

jfarbernydailynews.com "Midnight Rambler." In "Plundered My Soul," Jagger's vocals have so much sweat, they give the already orgasmic backup female vocalists new reason to wail. The guitar riff in "So Divine" plays off the sitar-like sound of "Paint It Black," tying the Stones to an earlier pop era, while the ballad "Follow the River" has the rootsy feel of prime Leon Russell. There's a bit of recycle and filler along the way. "Good Time Women" is just "Tumbling Dice" sped up. And "Title 5" turns out to be one minute, 47 seconds of a surf-guitar raveup.

But they're both still a blast. Of the questionable "alternative again, back when Mick and Keith still seemed dangerous and beautiful. (If you want to eyeball footage from the time, get "Stones in Exile," a simultaneously released DVD documentary about the album's mangy making.) The fresh songs from these sessions reek of funky sex. Richards' riff in "Pass the Wine" couldn't be more deliriously skanky, while Jagger's harmonica solo exudes all the outlaw heat of his riff in no life-altering compositions turn up, the essential ambience and vibe of the cuts the mood and play of them have more than enough verve to stoke any true fan. Listening to even the weakest of the "new" songs instantly casts the mind back to the heroin-chic, revolu-tion-in-the-air freedom and cool of the Stones at their swaggering peak.

Though some modern vocal enhancements have been added to THE ROLLING STONES "Exile on Main Street" (Universal Records) Tracey Thorn's 'Opposite' attracts Thorn brings stunning and beauty to her new CD. (which includes her husband, Ben Watt), her solo songs avoid the jazz of the group's early days as well as the arty dance beats of their later ones. While Thorn released her first solo work early in her career, lyrics. They're Sondheim-ian in their specificity, surprise and naturally their romantic resignation. Thorn's lyrics have a dramaturge's feel for character and place.

In "Kentish Town," she imagines the younger lives of her parents with a i IRACEV "31 IHORH I a LOVE r. 1 OPPOSITE she only established afull adult voice of her own on her first non-EBTG CD, 2007's "Now and Then." It leaned closer to pop and offered the kind of personal lyrics you'd expect from a work released under someone's own name. On "Love," Thorn ups the candor considerably, with heartbreaking results. The defining track, "Oh, the Divorces'" which chill. In "Hormones," she offers a mother-daughter play where the kid comes into her sexuality just as the mom loses hers.

Even a cliche situation like the lonely "Singles Bar" comes to morbid life in her hands. If all this sounds nothing but dreary, Thorn's observational tone provides a calming perspective. As a singer and writer, she's hat's the opposite of love? Not hate, according to Tracey Thorn, who begs the question with the title of her ravishing new CD. It's marriage. On "Love and Its Opposite," the third solo album from the blithe singer from Everything but the Girl, Thorn deals with the gnawing numbness of long-lived-in relationships, the bonds that tie so tight they choke.

In every new song from this 47-year-old married mother of three, relationships bring betrayal or boredom. Either they're something to fear getting into (see: the title track) or to dread ending if only for a crippling fear about what to do without them. In other words, it's a full-on midlife love crisis we're witnessing here, like some female answer to Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years," told with equal measures of sophistication, beauty and precision. Should we expect anything less from Thorn, given the literacy and clarity of her work with EBTG? Yet, unlike her songs with that classic duo TRACEY THORN "Love and Its Opposite" (Merge Records) at once warmly involved and coolly analytical. Her magnificently nuanced voice has both beauty and distance in it.

And if it's any consolation to her, in middle age she's found more artistry and beauty in that voice than ever. Jim Farber opens the CD, views breakups as just a matter of the other shoe dropping: a dead inevitability. It's a spare, autumnal chamber piece, with just piano, cello, violin and the richest, tawniest vocal of Thorn's career (which is saying something). The song also includes her greatest.