Rolling Stones

The Studio Albums Vinyl Collection 1971-2016 Universal

The crown jewels hit vinyl at a premium price.

So it turns out that the Stones have released 15 studio albums since bailing on Decca for 1971’s Sticky Fingers on their own tongue logo‑ed imprint.

This somehow seems both simultaneously too many and too few. It’s a dearth when you consider the exceptional Fingers, Exile On Main St, It’s Only Rock

’N’ Roll and Some Girls, yet it’s a glut when faced with Emotional Rescue and Dirty Work.

We’ve all fought these battles before, of how they were ‘better in the old days’. Well, try telling that to a 25‑year‑old whose first album was A Bigger Bang.

This set is a big old tongue‑ adorned box stuffed with 20 beautiful half‑speed mastered 180‑gram heavyweights (five selections are doubles: Exile and the last four CD‑age releases, from Voodoo Lounge to Blue & Lonesome). Each album comes with its original inserts, but no extra material of any kind.

So, to buy or not to buy? If you’re reading this, you probably already have most of them on some format or other, so you don’t really need them. But they sound utterly superb, and it’s a painless way to finally pick up the ones you didn’t bother getting while the last three expensive decades were happening to you.

As with their gig tickets, it really boils down to whether you’re the kind of person who has £370 to spare.