“Exile On Main St.” by The Rolling Stones - album review

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TJR says

The second LP on their own label was a gem – perhaps against all the odds, what with the chaotic background of being exiled in France and being distracted by matters of the hedonistic variety. By this stage, Mick and Keith are pushing 30 and although darker and denser, a youthful swagger remains, perhaps with more panache than ever. Both men, however, saw it quite differently. At the time of release, Jagger said: “This new album is fucking mad. There’s so many different tracks. It’s very rock n roll, you know. I didn't want it to be like that. I'm the more experimental person in the group you see, I like to experiment. Not go over the same thing over and over.” Richards was more pleased with the end-result: “Exile was a double album. And because it’s a double album you’re going to be hitting different areas, including ‘D for Down’, and the Stones really felt like exiles. We didn't start off intending to make a double album; we just went down to the south of France to make an album and by the time we'd finished we said, ‘We want to put it all out.’ The point is that the Stones had reached a point where we no longer had to do what we were told to do. Around the time Andrew Oldham left us, we'd done our time, things were changing and I was no longer interested in hitting Number One in the charts every time. What I want to do is good shit—if it's good they'll get it sometime down the road.” I’m with Keith – there’s plenty of “good shit” to unpack here. Record one has all the best action; the intoxicating debauchery of “Rocks Off”, an excellent cover of Slim Harpo’s “Shake Your Hips”, the sexy-cool of “Casino Boogie”, the classy-groove of “Tumbling Dice” and the down-home beauty of “Sweet Virginia”. If there's anything which could remotely described as filler it appears on record 2, with the likes of “I Just Want To See His Face” and “All Down The Line” being a tad formulaic. Not bad for a bunch of “drunks and junkies” ; - )

The Jukebox Rebel
21–Oct–2007

Tracklist
A1 [04:32] 10.0.png The Rolling Stones - Rocks Off (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Rock
A2 [02:23] 7.2.png The Rolling Stones - Rip This Joint (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Rock n Roll / Rockabilly
A3 [02:59] 8.5.png The Rolling Stones - Shake Your Hips (James Moore) Blues / Rhythm n Blues
A4 [03:33] 8.0.png The Rolling Stones - Casino Boogie (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
A5 [03:45] 8.8.png The Rolling Stones - Tumbling Dice (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Rock
B1 [04:25] 9.5.png The Rolling Stones - Sweet Virginia (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
B2 [04:17] 7.3.png The Rolling Stones - Torn And Frayed (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Folk Rock / Americana
B3 [02:54] 7.4.png The Rolling Stones - Sweet Black Angel (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Folk
B4 [04:23] 6.7.png The Rolling Stones - Loving Cup (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
C1 [03:04] 6.9.png The Rolling Stones - Happy (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Rock
C2 [02:37] 7.1.png The Rolling Stones - Turd On The Run (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Blues / Rhythm n Blues
C3 [03:24] 7.0.png The Rolling Stones - Ventilator Blues (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
C4 [02:52] 5.7.png The Rolling Stones - I Just Want To See His Face (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Soul
C5 [05:17] 5.7.png The Rolling Stones - Let It Loose (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
D1 [03:49] 5.6.png The Rolling Stones - All Down The Line (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Rock
D2 [04:34] 7.8.png The Rolling Stones - Stop Breaking Down (Robert Johnson) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
D3 [04:14] 7.4.png The Rolling Stones - Shine A Light (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
D4 [03:49] 6.0.png The Rolling Stones - Soul Survivor (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) Blues Rock / Soul Rock

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