A varying mass of Rolling Stones material recorded in a house they holed themselves up in, with the idea seemingly being to display the full range of influences The Rolling Stones enjoyed and admired - their entire 'thing' in the space of a double album. The production and sound is a world removed from the craft and clarity of a 'Let It Bleed' as The Stones go for a sound that, I suppose, they felt more natural and real. The material collected here, and there's a lot of it, feels very loose and jam based and the sound is muddy and indistinct, deliberately so, it would seem. Receiving very mixed reviews upon original release, 'Exile' has gone on not only to become one of the most highly regarded Rolling Stones, but one of the classic albums of the Rock music era. Performances are down, technically speaking. It was so hot where they were recording, it proved difficult to keep guitars in tune and Jagger's voice in shape even throughout a single song performance. Keith Richards liked the sound and overall feel of the songs in particular however, felt that these 'mistakes' added to the whole effect. You must understand, by the way. By giving this highly regarded classic of rock music such a low grade, i'm not trying to be a bad fellow, or anything. 'Exile' can be said to be more than the sum of its parts, the cumulative effect of these muddy sounding yet genuine Rock N Roll songs leaves you with a sense of being impressed that the album exists in the first place, but enjoying the actual music seems more of an aquired taste.
'Rocks Off' is a decent intro with nice horn parts, 'Rip This Joint' a brief blast through a very Fifties styled Rock n Roll tune, 'Shake Your Hips' does the blues thing, 'Tumbling Dice' is just pure Stones and also the best song out the entire eighteen on display. It sounds like a good Rolling Stones song, but jesus, 'Turd On The Run' Nice harp parts! Nice shuffling rhythm, but this isn't strong material and the performance here is particularly loose. The blues tunes here are good - i'd have liked to have seen them pursue that direction over the course of a single album and pursue it properly. Of course, all of The Stones, Keith in particular, were heavily under the influence of drugs at this point in time. Anyway, 'Ventilator Blues' is a seriously great track that sounds convincing in a way too many of the other songs here really don't. 'Exile' is a self indulgent Stones party - a Stones surrounded by too many hangers on. A Stones moving away from 'Let It Bleed', 'Sticky Fingers' etc and throwing as much music at the listener as the average listener can take and hoping most of it sticks.... Oooh, I like 'Shine A Light', a sweet soul song with accomplished Piano. Accomplished isn't a word you'd use to describe 'Exile On Main Street' on the whole however, and not just because of muddy mixing. The performances are loose yet more importantly the writing is loose, Stones by numbers. They aren't stretching themselves here, apart from possibly even managing to record these eighteen songs in the first place.
Rocks Off / Rip This Joint / Shake Your Hips / Casino Boogie / Tumbling Dice / Sweet Virginia / Torn And Frayed / Sweet Black Angel / Loving Cup / Happy / Turd On The Run / Ventilator Blues / I Just Want To See His Face / Let It Loose / All Down The Line / Stop Breaking Down / Shine A Light / Soul Survivor
'Rocks Off' is a decent intro with nice horn parts, 'Rip This Joint' a brief blast through a very Fifties styled Rock n Roll tune, 'Shake Your Hips' does the blues thing, 'Tumbling Dice' is just pure Stones and also the best song out the entire eighteen on display. It sounds like a good Rolling Stones song, but jesus, 'Turd On The Run' Nice harp parts! Nice shuffling rhythm, but this isn't strong material and the performance here is particularly loose. The blues tunes here are good - i'd have liked to have seen them pursue that direction over the course of a single album and pursue it properly. Of course, all of The Stones, Keith in particular, were heavily under the influence of drugs at this point in time. Anyway, 'Ventilator Blues' is a seriously great track that sounds convincing in a way too many of the other songs here really don't. 'Exile' is a self indulgent Stones party - a Stones surrounded by too many hangers on. A Stones moving away from 'Let It Bleed', 'Sticky Fingers' etc and throwing as much music at the listener as the average listener can take and hoping most of it sticks.... Oooh, I like 'Shine A Light', a sweet soul song with accomplished Piano. Accomplished isn't a word you'd use to describe 'Exile On Main Street' on the whole however, and not just because of muddy mixing. The performances are loose yet more importantly the writing is loose, Stones by numbers. They aren't stretching themselves here, apart from possibly even managing to record these eighteen songs in the first place.
Rocks Off / Rip This Joint / Shake Your Hips / Casino Boogie / Tumbling Dice / Sweet Virginia / Torn And Frayed / Sweet Black Angel / Loving Cup / Happy / Turd On The Run / Ventilator Blues / I Just Want To See His Face / Let It Loose / All Down The Line / Stop Breaking Down / Shine A Light / Soul Survivor