The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street

The one we’ve all been waiting for

From 1971’s Sticky Fingers to 2005’s A Bigger Bang, Stones fans have, over the last year or so, been devouring the shiny digital remasters of the band’s back catalogue, eagerly anticipating the one album missing from the programme so far. Here it is, then, the long overdue reworking of Exile…, the only reissue to bring with it previously unheard material.

The stuff of internet whispers for years, the extra tracks arrive in a hail of debate and controversy: beyond the expected mixing desk polish, just how much 21st-century interference has there been? Certainly, the deeper timbre of Mick Jagger’s voice on more than a few of the 11 bonus songs suggest new vocals might have been added to the original tapes at a more recent date than the beginning of the 70s when the instrumental tracks were recorded.

It could well be a case of Jagger belatedly upping his input on what has, by and large, always been considered Keith Richards’ album. Recorded at Nellcôte, the guitarist’s rented mansion at Villefranche-sur-Mer in the south of France, the less enthusiastic of mixed reviews it received when first released in May 1972 bemoaned the lack of well-structured songs in favour of loose-riffed exchanges between Richards and Mick Taylor.

The hedonistic party vibe at Nellcôte, with friends and hangers-on crashing on every available floorspace, only added to the myth of Exile… representing the Stones at a chaotic crossroads. Arguably still reeling from the grim shock of Altamont and having been hounded out of their homeland by the tax man, the band were accused in some quarters of embarking on the record with little in the way of a gameplan, unsure of what they were doing.

With the passing of time, however, the album has grown in stature – and rightly so. Torn & Frayed, Happy, Sweet Black Angel and Rocks Off burn through the speakers with menace and attitude, even if Jagger’s lyrics are often difficult to decipher in the muddy mix. There are fewer such gripes on the remaster, though, the overall sound having been, for want of a better expression, de-grunged, but without sacrificing any of its energy.

Its 18 tracks showcase a group in full cocksout swagger mode, a defiant statement and shot across the boughs at anyone even thinking of displacing them as the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world. Their intermittent country dalliances rear up on Shine A Light and Sweet Virginia, but they’re possibly at their best when sneering and strutting through Tumbling Dice and Let It Loose.

Tumbling Dice features on the bonus disc in its embryonic form, titled Good Time Woman and with a completely different lyric; the gospel hues of Following The River recall You Can’t Always Get What You Want; while Plundered My Soul lays down a slick groove the stellar house band at Stax would have been proud of.

Ultimately, the nitty gritty of the new tracks’ origin are of little real concern. It’s Stones stuff most of us haven’t heard before, from a time when rock’s most magnificent gunslingers were still packing a full magazine. A thrilling addendum to an album confidently reiterating its claim to be their most vital and satisfying.

5 stars 5 stars 5 stars 5 stars 5 stars

Polydor | tbc

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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