Exile on Main St
The first thing I want to note is that when I came into this album, I was biased. I wanted to listen to albums critically considered classics, so I went to Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums and listened to the first one I saw that I hadn’t listened to. It was Exile. I had always thought that The Rolling Stones were sort of overrated, and I wanted to hear for my self. My god, I was wrong. I was so, so, so, so f*cking wrong. This album starts off like a freight train, with a really good bluesy rock song,
Rocks Off. The next 3 songs are visceral, ragged rock songs. Very raw, very good.
The Rolling Stones are really good at sounding sort of disorganized and chaotic, but never letting a song get away from them, and it almost seems at random times other band members join in and start singing, and the harmonies aren’t beautiful like The Beatles but they’ve got a more visceral feeling to them.
The next notable song is
Tumbling Dice, which is one of their more popular songs on the album. I love the vocals on this song; Mick Jagger has one of those insanely distinctive voices. I really like the female vocalists on this song, since I don’t think they’re organized enough to be called a choir.
As I heard the first 15 seconds or so of
Sweet Virginia, I knew I was wrong about this album and this band. This was greatness I was listening to. I love Jagger’s voice on this song. Got to scrape that **** right off your shoes.
The next song,
Torn and Frayed, is quite a good song. The next song however,
Sweet Black Angel, is absolutely excellent in my eyes. It’s so raw, so simply done.
The next,
Loving Cup, is pure Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones have this thing they do which is so distinctive, it’s their “explosion” moment, think about
You Can’t Always Get What You Want, and the part where the drums kick in, and the guitar starts to get fast and the choir and Mick yell “You get what you need!!”, well about 50 seconds into Loving Cup, they have that explosion. It’s a great song with a nice use of horns in the middle.
Let It Loose, my new favorite Rolling Stones song. I can’t even describe how much I am digging this song right now. It’s got a really sad feeling to it, like it should be the theme song for a guy in his forties, sitting and drinking at the bar, smoking a cigarette and asking himself where all the years have gone. The next standout song is
Shine a Light. It’s jubilant, it’s sad, and it’s beautiful all at the same time.
To be honest, this album doesn’t have a bad song. I’ll go as far as to say it doesn’t have a mediocre song on it. It shot straight up to my top albums list.
10/10