The Rolling Stones – Exile On Main St. 2LP

If, say, tomorrow an anthropologist from an alien planet walked into Repressed and asked me for the perfect example of this thing us humans refer to as “rock” music in order to unpack all the baggage around that term, I’d have to offer up Exile On Mainstreet.

An album that encompasses rock in all its glorious contradictions. Maximalist in length, minimalist (as far as rock of the early 1970s seemed to go) in execution, white British guys playing Black American blues inflected music, with plenty of mythology floating around to fill up the gaps. For a band at the height of their powers, the playing and recording is relatively ramshackle and off-the-cuff (perfectly executed rock is dull!). Not to mention the fact that the aliens won’t have to endure the cringe that is Mick Jagger as his vocals are finally sitting well within the mix of the rest of the band (thanks Keith!). 

The polemicist in me reckons this is the best Stones album by miles, a template for so much that I love that came after, from David Nance to GBV to Mordecai to Astute Palate!

-Mitch