KEITH RICHARDS Main Offender (30th Anniversary)

Second X-pensive Winos record, beautifully repackaged with a previously unheard show.

After the liberating triumph of 1988’s ‘Talk Is Cheap’ marked the end of his feud with Mick Jagger and the return of the Stones, Keith Richards had nothing more to prove on the second album in his Virgin solo deal. Rather than retaliatory killer shot, ‘Main Offender’ sounded more like Richards having a blast relishing his increased vocal confidence and unfettered rhythm guitar excursions with the band of his dreams.

At the album’s core are the R&B sensitivity and heavyweight grooves baked by Richards and his X-pensive Winos co-producer and drummer Steve Jordan (inadvertently presaging his replacing Charlie Watts in the Stones nearly 30 years later). Instinctually-created tracks were worked up with co-producing guitarist Waddy Wachtel, bassist Charlie Drayton and keyboard player Ivan Neville, with incantatory chorales added by the wonderful (now sadly departed) Sarah Dash, Bernard Fowler and Babi Floyd as a subtly secret weapon.

Recorded in California and finished in New York, ‘Main Offender’ still conjures the gritty city at the time it was made, whether flying dense, churning monstergrooves on 999, Runnin’ Too Deep and Eileen, humping slow-burning soul vamps for Wicked As It Seems, Will But You Won’t and Demon, or via Words Of Wonder’s shadowy reggae skank. On the gentler side, there’s Richards and Dash’s playfully sensual grind on Bodytalks, and gorgeous Motown-flecked ballad Hate It When You Leave standing as the heart-barbecuing highlight.

Remastered by Jordan, this third sublimely classy Winos reissue comes as Super Deluxe clad in leather-bound book with photos, lyrics and memorabilia plus — wahey! — previously unreleased Winos Live In London ’92, capturing the ecstatic second December ’92 night at London’s Town And Country Club that happened to be Richards’s forty-ninth birthday. The Winos’ supernatural soul power comes into its own on album faves and refried tear-ups through Before They Make Me Run, ominously smoldering Gimme Shelter and ebullient Happy. The euphoric joy of that night (witnessed by this writer) resonates throughout, culminating with Richards thanking the audience for “the best birthday I ever had” after their mass singalong. Job done, he returned to the Stones for 23 years before riding with the Winos again on ‘Crosseyed Heart’.

Like a fine wine, this magic band seems to taste better with age; a deliciously unique sensation that’ll send fans of Richards and both his bands spinning deliriously off the wagon.