Category: Album Reviews
Tags: exile on main st., the rolling stones

Sounds too clean. That’s the short version of this review.

Exile On Main St. is of course one of the legendary rock albums and one of the greatest of all time. Most critics consider it to be the Stones’ finest hour (although I prefer Sticky Fingers and Let It Bleed myself). Most of it was famously recorded in Villa Nellcôte, a crumbling 19th century mansion at the South of France, in a haze of heroin, Jack Daniels and sex and it sounds like it. It’s not the sort of record where individual songs steal the spotlight as obvious hit singles. Exile… is a tapestry of rock ‘n’ roll, country, soul and blues, all blended together. Jagger’s voice is slurred and the guitar sound is thick and muddy. Jimmy Miller’s genius production created an album that sounds drunk, weary and glorious at the same time.

The new version changes a lot of that. It still sounds unbelievably sleazy of course, but the mix is much clearer and there is more definition between the instruments and the voice (you can almost make out the lyrics! Almost). In a way, this allows the listener to really appreciate the way the whole band can be tight and loose at the same time. No other band on the planet could ever achieve that balance of sounding laid- back and groovy at the same time and in that respect, the new version is a revelation. Plus, acoustic songs such as Sweet Black Angel and Sweet Virginia sound a lot more intimate and warm. Can you guess the downside though? This is a band that always thrived on filth and decadence. Exile… is an album whose sound was as crucial as the actual songs. Frankly, I prefer the old version. The one that Jagger hated because his vocals are buried in the mix. The one that sounds like the most debauched party ever (followed by an epochal hangover).

There is also an extra CD with 10 songs from the Exile… sessions. Apparently, the band rediscovered those ”old” songs and added them to this release. The Stones do have a history of raiding their vaults and working on old tracks when they run out of inspiration (the excellent Tattoo You is one such album) but they were never in the habit of releasing ”totally rediscovered” outtakes- unlike the Beatles with their Anthology. I suspect many of these outtakes are newer than we are told. I don’t really have a problem with that though. The songs are on a different CD, so they don’t mess with the original tracklisting and they are all good (I especially liked Alladin, a song Death In Vegas had covered in The Contino Sessions). Exile… is still one of the greatest albums of all time and if you don’t own it, you are missing a huge piece of 20th century culture. Innevitably, we are now faced with a Raw Power- style situation, where a historic album is present in various different versions (production- wise) and we are supposed to choose our favourite. This anniversary edition is interesting enough for long- time fans to pick it up once again. Make no mistake though, it’s nowhere near the definitive version.

PS: Our friend (and former member of the GangBang Press crew) Mihaliz reviews the album and compares it with previous versions in his blog:

http://whitetrashsoul.blogspot.com/2010/05/rolling-stones-main-street-revisited.html

(-Dimitris Kontogiannis-)

About the Author: CnB