The Rolling Stones, “Grrr Live!”

When it comes to the Rolling Stones, there’s not much new under the sun to say about them, absent discovery of a heretofore unknown chord or when one of the longtime mainstays dies. The latter indeed happened about 18 months ago, and it was worldwide news.

The Stones’ newest release, Grrr Live, isn’t on that level, but it’s a solid batch of rock and roll classics that, almost without exception, sound great and show a band working hard to give these songs – ones they’ve trotted out hundreds (and in some cases thousands) of times before – urgency, strength and, in the best cases, an unexpected freshness.

Grrr Live is billed as the “definitive greatest hits live” package, and of these 23 songs, 18 or 19 of them could rightfully be considered as either greatest hits or as beloved entries in the Stones’ canon. As with each of the seven live Stones albums that preceded it, Grrr also features a rarity or two (“I’m Going Down,” originally found on 1969 odds and ends release Metamorphosis ) and latter-day attempts at hits (“Doom and Gloom,” “One More Shot”).

Anyone reading this will undoubtedly know almost all of these songs, so suffice it to say the most important takeaway here about Grrr is that the performances here are better than almost anything on any of the earlier live albums, with perhaps an exception or two (it’s tough to beat the version of “Midnight Rambler” from Get Yer Yah Yahs Out!), it sounds as if the Stones, on a night in New Jersey in December 2012, were working extra hard to give a good performance. And when they are focused, there isn’t a better band in rock and roll to get it done.

Even Keith Richards, who takes the lead vocals on his customary “Happy” and “Before They Make Me Run,” sounds renewed, at least by his hoarse standards. And even if Keith still sounds like he could be 90 years old (even if he does sound energized), septuagenarian Mick Jagger shows he can still outperform pups half his age. His command of the material here, old and new, is complete. It’s almost a trip back in the time machine to hear him singing “The Last Time,” as if he’s barely aged a day. The band sounds great on that one, too.

The special guests, rather than just show up and yell into a mic, generally gave a kick to the songs on which they appeared. That’s especially true with “I’m Going Down,” a Jagger/Richards blues song on which guitarists John Mayer and Gary Clark Jr. help give the song a powerful crunch. Bruce Springsteen trades verses of “Tumbling Dice” with Jagger; it’s a good match for the Boss. Lady Gaga takes the Merry Clayton role on “Gimme Shelter,” and acquits herself well. The Black Keys, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, add extra heft to “Who Do You Love,” the old Bo Diddley nugget, and onetime Stone Mick Taylor adds some familiar-sounding guitar on “Midnight Rambler.”

The Rolling Stones themselves sound stronger and fresher than on some of their previous live efforts. Ronnie Wood’s signature slide guitar surfaces on “Rambler,” while Richards’ thick single-string lead and rhythm work notes pop up all over the place.

But what anchors everything here, as it had for this rock juggernaut for nearly six decades, is Charlie Watts’ drumming. This album’s purpose of lasting significance may well be as a document of Watts’ late-career playing, and how it can noticeably lift a band with the time-honed skill and power of the Stones to ever-greater heights.

The Stones are unique in that any “definitive greatest hits live” effort would literally require a four- or five-disc box set; a dozen or more Stones songs that didn’t show up here could credibly be called “greatest hits.” But this package is a strong one, and – among other things – an excellent epitaph for one of its longtime mainstays.

The album is out in multiple formats, on CD, vinyl, and on DVD and Blu-Ray as a concert film.

Follow journalist Sam Richards at Twitter.com/samrichardsWC.