The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street 2CD

Still inspired by their "Sticky Fingers" recording sessions in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, "Exile on Main Street" found the Rolling Stones sounding more like a southern fried juke-joint band than ever before.

That "Exile on Main Street" was recorded in a basement is no surprise, either - much of it sounds as if it was recorded live at a gospel revival, with a final mix that gives no hierarchy to specific instruments. The result is a swampy, most exhilarating chunk of rock and roll euphoria. "Exile on Main Street" sharpens the country, blues, and gospel tendencies the Stones began exploring in the late '60s on albums like "Beggar's Banquet".

Here, armed with an assortment of backing musicians and vocalists, the band virtually inhabits the spirit of each style, distilling the whole to a ragged, soulful perfection from the escalating, horn-driven vamps of Rocks Off through the back porch singalong Sweet Virginia to the mean blues stomp of Ventilator Blues and the church-like strains of Shine a Light, Exile on Main Street's double-album length plays like a weary, boozed-up sermon on the very meaning of rock music.

This is the closest the band ever came to religion, and it still has the power to convert.

Tracklist:

1. Rocks Off
2. Rip This Joint
3. Shake Your Hips
4. Casino Boogie
5. Tumbling Dice
6. Sweet Virginia
7. Torn and Frayed
8. Sweet Black Angel
9. Loving Cup
10. Happy
11. Turd on the Run
12. Ventilator Blues
13. I Just Want to See His Face
14. Let It Loose
15. All Down the Line
16. Stop Breaking Down
17. Shine a Light
18. Soul Survivor
19. Pass the Wine (Sophia Loren)
20. Plundered My Soul
21. I'm Not Signifying
22. Following the River
23. Dancing in the Light
24. So Divine (Aladdin Story)
25. Loving Cup (Alternate Take)
26. Soul Survivor (Alternate Take)
27. Good Time Women
28. Title 5