Beggars Banquet

Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.112) - Ranked #57 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" Entertainment Weekly (9/20/02, p.103) - "...Always one of their finest hours...now featuring magnificent retweaked sound. Rarely has digital separation served songs better..." - Rating: A Uncut (1/03, p.97) - Included in Uncut's "100 Best Albums of the Year" NME (Magazine) (7/8/95, p.46) - 8 (out of 10) - "...Psychedelia gives way to the swamp blues of the Mississippi Delta....'Sympathy For The Devil' is still as scary as it was the first time anyone ever heard it while 'Street Fighting Man' remains the greatest song that Noel Gallagher wishes he'd written..."

The Stones forsook psychedelic experimentation to return to their blues roots on this celebrated album, which was immediately acclaimed as one of their landmark achievements. A strong acoustic Delta blues flavor colors much of the material, particularly "Salt of the Earth" and "No Expectations," which features some beautiful slide guitar work. Basic rock & roll was not forgotten, however: "Street Fighting Man," a reflection of the political turbulence of 1968, was one of their most innovative singles, and "Sympathy for the Devil," with its fire-dancing guitar licks, leering Jagger vocals, African rhythms, and explicitly satanic lyrics, was an image-defining epic. On "Stray Cat Blues," Jagger and crew began to explore the kind of decadent sexual sleaze that they would take to the point of self-parody by the mid-'70s. At the time, though, the approach was still fresh, and the lyrical bite of most of the material ensured Beggars Banquet's place as one of the top blues-based rock records of all time. ~ Richie Unterberger