Just when you thought all of the rock ‘n’ rollers from the ‘60s had traded in their amplifiers for rocking chairs—just when you thought the last of the “anniversary_but_no_new_album” tours were finished—just when you hoped no one over 45 would make another hard rock record—the Rolling Stones have released their best album in years.

“Steel Wheels” is a pleasent surprise packed with 12 songs, each of which outshines anything band leaders Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have done separately.

The album jumps to a start with the straight_ahead rocker, “Sad, Sad, Sad.” Jagger’s voice is unusually clear and biting and the voices of several backup singers compliment him well. Richards’ guitar rips through the instrumental breaks with a fury unheard in recent Stones products.

“Mixed Emotions,” the album’s first single, continues with the pace set by the opener. A particularly anthemic chorus combined again with an uncommon Stones sound brings home the intent of the album: the “world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band” hasn’t forgotten how to rock.

“Mixed Emotions,” as well as “Rock and a Hard Place,” also carry messages from Jagger to his longtime bandmate Richards. “Let’s bury the hatchet/wipe out the past,” Jagger sings in “Mixed Emotions.”

“You’re not the only one/with mixed emotions/You’re not the only ship/adrift on this ocean,” Jagger cries later. A similar message is found in “Rock and a Hard Place”: “We’re in the same boat/on the same sea/and we’re sailing south/on the same breeze.”

Jagger finishes the song proclaiming “You’d better put a stop/put on a kind face/can’t you see what you’ve done to me.”

Richards was critical of Jagger’s recent decisions to record and tour on his own. He once told Musician Magazine, “If Mick tours without this band, I’ll slit his throat.”

Rhythm guitarist Ron Wood and bassist Bill Wyman share many of the bass guitar duties while Richards layers his own guitar sounds. Drummer Charlie Watts plays his kit with the same authority heard on early Stones releases. The band’s sound is rounded out by keyboardists Matt Clifford and Chuck Leavell and brass work by the Kick Horns.

Other album highlights include “Terrifying,” on which it is hard to believe that Jagger is singing. The band later cranks up the volume for “Hold on to your Hat,” a shuffle_style rocker.

Side two offers “Continental Drift,” over five minutes of strange Moroccan and African instruments and rhythms. Richards even steps forward to the microphone for vocal duties on “Can’t Be Seen” and “Slipping Away.” His scratchy, gravelly voice sounds better here than on his own solo album, “Talk is Cheap.”

The abberation of the record is “Blinded by Love,” a Nashville_sounding ballad complete with fiddles and mandolins.

“Steel Wheels” is an excellent album, worthy of anyone’s purchase. The Stones have shown a new freshness unseen in many of their contemporaries as they ride their steel wheels into a third decade of rock ‘n’ roll.