MoeFOH's Album of the Week... Week #26

[MoeFOH]

MoeFOH's Album of the Week 🎶

Same as the movie thread, each week we're going to spotlight an album... be it a classic, new release, hidden gem, or outright turd... and open it for discussion: i.e. post up your favourite tracks, clips, lyrics, experiences if you saw live, etc... or dive deeper and give us a critique on why you think it's great, overrated, or a complete train wreck... And finally score it for us...  

All contributors go into a monthly prize draw for a 3-cigar sampler! 

PM me with suggestions if there's an album you want to nominate for next week's discussion. 

 

Week #26: Exile On Main St

Moe says: I've never viewed it as the Stones' best, but it seems to hold a "Sgt Pepper" type place in their oeuvre... interested to know what others think...

Wiki says:

Exile on Main St. is the 10th British and 12th American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 12 May 1972 by Rolling Stones Records. Recording began in 1969 in England during sessions for Sticky Fingers and continued in mid-1971 at a rented villa in the South of France named Nellcôte while the band lived abroad as tax exiles. A collage of various images, the album's artwork, according to frontman Mick Jagger, reflects the Rolling Stones as "runaway outlaws using the blues as its weapon against the world", showcasing "feeling of joyful isolation, grinning in the face of a scary and unknown future".

Working with a mobile recording studio, the loose and unorganised Nellcôte sessions went on for hours into the night, with personnel varying greatly from day to day. The recording was completed with overdub sessions at Los Angeles's Sunset Sound and included additional musicians such as pianist Nicky Hopkins, saxophonist Bobby Keys, drummer Jimmy Miller and horn player Jim Price. The resulting music was rooted in blues, rock and roll, swing, country and gospel, while the lyrics explored themes related to hedonism, sex and time. These newly recorded tracks were combined with some tracks recorded at earlier sessions from 1969 to 1971, resulting in the Stones' first double album.

Exile on Main St. contains frequently performed concert staples and was a number one charting album in six countries, including the UK, US, and Canada. It spawned the hit songs "Happy", which featured a rare lead vocal from Keith Richards, country music ballad "Sweet Virginia", and worldwide top-ten hit "Tumbling Dice". A remastered and expanded version of the album was released in 2010 featuring a bonus disc with 10 new tracks. Unusual for a re-release, it also charted highly at the time of its release, reaching number one in the UK and number two in the US.

The album was originally met with mixed reviews before a positive critical reassessment during the 1970s. It has since been viewed by many critics as the Rolling Stones' best work and a culmination of a string of the band's highly critically successful albums, following the releases of Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969) and Sticky Fingers (1971). Rolling Stone magazine has ranked Exile on Main St. number 7 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003 and 2012, and dropping to number 14 in the 2020 edition, the highest Rolling Stones album ranked on the list. In 2012, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the band's fourth album to be inducted.

Over to you...

Who's a fan? How highly do you rate this album?

Thoughts, memories, experiences, favourite tracks...? 

Post em up!

Score it out of 10!

[MoeFOH]

 

[JohnS]

I would concur that this album, Exile on Main Street, caps the Stones' classic period starting with Beggars Banquet. The circumstances that surrounded making this album should have logically culminated in producing a disaster but what can one say? It comes together and just works. The vibe of this album is great from beginning to end.

[Ford2112]

It's a killer album. 10.

[Doctorossi]

No complaints when you put this on. Timeless. 10/10.

[bassistheplace]

My fave stones album. 10/10

They're not even close to being top5 band for me, but this album is fantastic

[SpecialK]

10/10.... They don't make music like that anymore..... 

[Capn_Jackson]

I’m an outcast to many Stones fans, because my favorite Stones record is Goats Head Soup. Exile holds a special place in my heart, though. In college several years ago, I read “Old Gods Almost Dead,” the Stones bio by Stephen Davis. Great description of the Exile recordings and process. That process is my favorite thing about the record, along with killer songs. It’s a heckuva story. Similar in scope to Led Zeppelin’s recording of Physical Graffiti.

[joeypots]

My take on the Stones is that they have grown in stature as time has passed and I am a fan.  I once read that Exile is all Keef and Sticky Fingers is Mick. What ever. Exile is staggering in the quality of the songs even if they are rough. Gems like Loving Cup and Shine A Light stand out as sleepers that took on life as concert staples long after they were first recorded. It’s a 10/10 for me.  Check out Live At The El Mocambo, a Stones night club show in Toronto played in 1977.