10 Rock Music Albums That Divided Critics
5. The Rolling Stones: Exile On Main St. (1972)
The story of Exile On Main St. falls right out of the book of rock 'n' roll madness. In a huge villa in the south of France; with thousands of pounds worth of heroin; a litany of icons dropping in and out, and with rising tensions within the band, the Stones to created their masterpiece.
The Stones were quite literally on the run at this point. Notorious music mogul, Allen Klein, had just released them from a less than savvy contract. With their release came the revelation that they were indebted to the UK taxman for over seven years worth of payments. The answer was to seek refuge in sunny France were they could make music and indulge in hedonism. After months held up in Keith Richard's rented mansion, they travelled to LA with reels of tape. With somewhat clearer minds, they assembled all the usable material into an album.
But the ram shackled and tumultuous approach to recording, did not go unnoticed by critics. Many thought the record embodied the hit and miss nature of the sessions. The overriding consensus was that the group had a handful of hits tied together with uninspired filler material.
Maybe they weren't entirely wrong. It is one hell of a long album...