The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St. Review

For an album Keith Richards called the must-listen album of The Rolling Stones, it does pale in comparison to the albums preceding it. That is not to say Exile on Main St. is not a must-listen. It is. Their continued focus on unorganised, stripped-back production and instrumental values gives them a greater balance, a better understanding, of the lyrical implementations Mick Jagger had for this release. It is nothing short of a powerhouse release. In that disorganised state, the barebones recording studio, comes a frenetic energy which hears The Rolling Stones rely on their fundamentals as musicians. Their playing style takes precedence over anything a polished mix could offer. Rock on and on, for an hour, with an exceptional piece from The Rolling Stones. Exile on Main St. features some truly incredible moments from the band – though the sum of its parts is less than Let it Bleed and Beggars Banquet.  

Rocks Off is one of many examples of perfect first tracks from The Rolling Stones. Be it Brown Sugar from Sticky Fingers or Gimmie Shelter from Let it Bleed, Jagger and the band knew how to set the scene. What it means for Exile on Main St. is defiance. Power. Brass implementations and a whooping jagger over the fundamental blues sound they returned to when shaking off their psychedelic tinge in the mid-1960s. This is an album which considers the conventional tone of The Rolling Stones. Hip-shaking, rock action with an Americanised twang to it. Shake Your Hips gets all three in one go, a caricature portrayed with such confidence it becomes an earnest thrill ride. Caricature is the centrepiece for Exile on Main St., not the pursuit of it as a comfortable image but as a monster needing to be slain. Jagger and the band toy with the fundamentals of their rock sound and come through with a bluesy flavour, a darker tinge to once accessible tones.  

Context of the times is crucial for appreciating the roaring rock and roll success of The Rolling Stones here. Their pivot into darker territory was cemented by their follow-up album Goats Head Soup, even purely in image. Exile on Main St. provides a shot of excess in a genre already defined by the individual highs, some creative, some drug-induced. Watts and Wyman abstain, the rest pursue this ever-raised bar of self-fulfilment. You can hear it in the groovy greed of Tumbling Dice, the overwhelmed production struggling, yet somehow holding together, all these moving parts. Backing vocalists, some slick guitar work from Keith Richards, and a reliable rhythm section which keeps the project from falling into tones of excess. Countryfied, electrified, The Rolling Stones hammer through the expected hits of the time and revolutionise every sub-genre they touch on Exile on Main St.  

Those steady rock conversions soon dissolve, revealing the real, emotive core The Stones are gunning for. Torn and Frayed is a beautiful effort, followed up by the folk blues adaptation of Sweet Black Angel. Jagger runs riot here, a lyrical powerhouse paired with some deeper grooves of acoustic guitar. A band like The Rolling Stones is bound to have more than a handful of wildly perfect moments, but it is only on a return to Exile on Main St. that those little intricacies reveal themselves. It is hard not to fall in love with initially simple songs like Happy once the focus turns to Richards’ guitar work, or the repetition of hope found in Jagger’s lyrics. Just two tracks later and the venomous, anxiety-riddled bravado of Ventilator Blues has dried up the optimistic tinge. Exile on Main St. is a beast of an album. Its chokehold on rock and roll is vice-like, its relentless urgency, its powerful conclusions of a band in excess and excitement, are still roaring decades on from its release. The Rolling Stones’ urgency is still intact.