THIS is the shit. Inaccessible at first, this sprawling double album seems to emerge from its hazy inscrutability one song at a time (beginning with "Tumbling Dice," of course, possibly the Stones best single), until, at last, you can accept the thing of a piece, which is, after all, necessary, lest you be left wondering what's so great about a song like "Casino Boogie," which needs its context to be fully appreciated as a great country-rock knock-off. This is only one example of the album's textural complexity. "Rocks Off" is surely the greatest opening track on an album, and "Soul Survivor" the perfect close, summing up the mood of the whole with a great, lazy funkiness that would never be heard from the Stones again (or anyone else, for that matter). That on-the-verge-of-falling-apart feeling that pervaded Sticky Fingers is present here again, in spades, making Exile both a masterpiece, a casual pleasure, and my nominee for single greatest rock album there is. –Will
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