Albums2010 Revisited: Exile On Main Street

So, I did snag this on vinyl (finally), and my original plan was to listen to it on vinyl and then report back, but I put it on and immediately realized that it was time for new needles again, so I pivoted to Ye Olde Spotify (Web Browser) for the listen. (Needles have been ordered-- or possibly located, because I swear every time I get needles, I put them somewhere and always, without fail, forget where I put them.)

Spotify says this is an hour and seven minutes, which doesn't seem right to me somehow. This album has eighteen tracks on it and sweeps you away in all the good ways, so that while it's not interminable, it doesn't drag, and it's not boring; it does, in fact, feel far longer than an hour and seven minutes. An original entry on the Albums2010 run, my original review appeared a couple of blogs ago, all the way back in December of 2010. 

I've always been weirdly ambivalent about The Rolling Stones, and I'm honestly not sure why. I'll listen to them. I enjoy some of their songs. My Old Man has now threatened multiple generations of his family that he's going to sing 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' whenever someone deigns to complain about how unfair life is. But weirdly, I can name you plenty of their songs, but not really many of their albums. Which is an odd thing to say about a band that's been around for as long as they have.

(Gun to my head: Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main Street, Bridges to Babylon-- we have Let It Bleed on vinyl, and I couldn't remember the title. Something about Satanic Majesties, which turned out to be Their Satanic Majesties Request.)

My initial review back in 2010 mentioned a deep dive in Rolling Stone talking about the making of the album and I guess the idea of the band fleeing to France as tax exiles and holing up in a villa somewhere and making this album just kind of tickled me. I wouldn't have thought France would have stirred such creative musicality that's deeply rooted in what we would consider American genres of music, but there we go. (I guess Led Zeppelin went to that place in Wales for Led Zeppelin III, so it's not unheard of?)

What I love about this album is that you can hit play, and I honestly don't think there's a bad track on it. And for an album with 18 tracks on it, I think that's pretty damn good. But what might be even better is how the album shifts and plays with sounds without hard, jarring shifts across songs. 'Shake Your Hips' has a driving country blues beat to it, which reminds me a lot of ZZTop (specifically 'La Grange')-- but then a couple of tracks later, you get 'Sweet Virginia,' which is a country-blues-folk type of track. 'Sweet Black Angel' feels a little bit country as well.

'Rocks Off', 'Tumbling Dice' and 'Happy' seem more rock'n'roll and 'Shine A Light' dabbles in gospel. It's obvious that if they're not 'experimenting' per se, the Stones are certainly playing around with different sounds and melding genres together on this album, and what it produces is nothing short of magical. 

I remain weirdly ambivalent about The Rolling Stones. I enjoy their songs. Will I ever do a complete dive through their discography? Probably not- and not just because it's like a million albums deep at this point. But I love this album. I'm just going to call my shot and say it: this might be the best damn thing they ever do. And I'm going to stick with that take until proven otherwise.