Their Satanic Majesties Request Lots and Lots of Soda Crackers

Overall Album Score: 8.8 out of 10

If the entire Rolling Stones discography was a kingdom, Their Satanic Majesties Request would be that weird Prince who the noblemen like to scoff at. It is strange and bizarre. It gives the 1967 psychedelic trends the middle finger, yet it embraces the movement at the same time. (The cover is immediately recognizable as a Sgt. Pepper parody.)

If these "noblemen" are actually "Rolling Stones snobs," they really do scoff at this album ... calling it feeble-minded, stupid, bad songs, and all in all an awful album. However, even though I'm willing to call some of these accusations true (namely the "stupid" part, but then you'd probably have to call the entire Psychedelic movement stupid), I won't attest that this is an altogether bad album! On the contrary! This is a good album! Why is it a good album do you ask? "Because the liner notes are so colorful!" I say. That doesn't make this album a good album! Is that all you can come up with? "No," I say, "This album is good because it has good songs on it!" Oh, says YOU.

To tell you the dirt-down truth, "She's a Rainbow" is one of my favorite Stones songs. It's a song that's silly and irrelevant (good things, methinks), and it also supports one helluva catchy tune. Okay, there are also some real insane wankfests in here (not unsimilar to the crap we would hear from The Stooges, The Velvet Underground, and, less crapfully, Frank Zappa). Namely "Sing This All Together" is something that probably won't hold up at all to modern audiences. It's one of those "experimental" ambient things that don't exactly constitute a real song. Oh well. It's listenable, however. (It's much more listenable than The Velvet's "Sister Ray" ... I shudder.) Also, "On With the Show" is kind of a mess, and "Gomper" is a little bit ... hmmm ...

But this is still a worthwhile album! I haven't personally bought this album (I'm listening to it on Rhapsody), but if you've been avoiding getting this album for your Stones collection, then don't! There are too many good songs in here for you to do that!

Lalalalalalalalallalalalalaaaaaaaaah! Mick Jagger still looks weird.

Overall Album Score: 8.8 out of 10 (It's the Stones in their classic period? So what if it isn't down 'n dirty blues-rock? There are plenty of good songs on here ... there are even a few great ones.)

Average Song Score: 8.9 (This is higher than I frankly expected it to be! There are some great tunes on here ... a few lesser ones ... but all in all memorable ones.)

Album Tilt: 9.0 (There is enough to like about this album to recommend it; it's a necessity in any Rolling Stones collection, even though it's crazy psychedelia.)

Artist Rating: 8.5 (The reason why I'm docking the album a few points in this category is because I'm not convinced that this is a major artistic statement, although it does take special care to make fun of the whole psychedelic thing. It was a creative album, at least.)

Track Reviews

Sing This All Together 9/10

Off to a goofy start, I see ... in thee! The tacky, psychedelic lyrics (which is somewhat reminiscent of the opening track of Sgt. Pepper.) However, as opposed to the band-within-a-band tactic, this introduces the album and says the rest of the album is a sort of product of our minds. The singing is also purposefully tacky and poorly done! (And funny!) The out-of-tune chorus! Hah!

Citadel 9/10

Another noisy and intentionally tacky song. This one might be less memorable than the previous song, but it definitely has some good hooks in it. The instruments are good 'n' psychedelic. Keith found a few good spots to shine on this one. It's a mess, but I see that it was skillfully done enough for me to dismiss it as intentional!

In Another Land 8.5/10

You can't read these lyrics and convince me that the album wasn't a joke! These are GOOFY! Mick Jagger's vocals are disrupted through seemingly some sort of electronic means ... sounding almost as if he were singing into a fan. The song has good melody. For some reason, it ends with some snoring!

2000 Man 9/10

This one starts off sounds a lot like the Kinks' "Death of a Clown." It's not bad, though, and the chorus is certainly different. I'm able to hang onto the entire song without losing interest or favor of it.

Sing This All Together (See What Happens) 8/10

This one's really goofy ambient, sound-collage stuff. Within it, as the title suggests, we get a bit of the recurring melodic theme from "Sing This All Together" in the song. It's very interesting to listen to. (A bit like Frank Zappa's 'Suzie Cream Cheese' sound collage, methinks.) It means absolutely nothing, but it's fun. Let the insanity ensue into your brain and make you make cream-filled tarts and cherry cheesecake and peach cobbler and ... and ...

She's a Rainbow 10plus/10

Awwwwwww... This is where A) The Stones give us a danged good pop song with the best melody, harmony, and most beautiful (yet still goofy) instrumentation ever and B) The lyrics are still crazy! If they're not going to do the hard-blues-rock stuff, then they had might as well be doing this. The piano that sort of provides the introduction and, sort of, the basis for the song is utterly graceful and, alone, is worth the price.

The Lantern 10/10

Another danged fine classic. Hark! This might just be the album's most normal song. Bark! The melody is fine and the song actually sounds original. Shark! (Uh oh.) It's a slower-paced song that also sounds almost epic in a way ... even though I'm not sure why I'm saying that. 'Tis a wonderful song, indeed.

Gomper 7/10

The Jagger/Richards patron saint of good songwriting apparently took a break when they penned this one. While there are still some good elements to it (i.e., whenever Jagger is singing), this is largely just a boring psychedelic wankfest. Rieeorrrrrrg!

2000 Light Years From Home 9.5/10

And the Rolling Stonsies decide to pen a space rocker! I'm not sure how do describe it, but the song is characterized by smooth, seemingly randomly-chosen synths, some of them get louder in a smooth wave and then abruptly stop. It really works well! And, actually, the melody is very good this time, and this is far from being a boring song.

On With the Show 7.5/10

Okay! Now we're really ready to get started with this album! First we have ... oh wait. This is the last song on here. You nasty tricksters! Grrrrrrrr! Well, this song is so weird and frigged-out that it's a mess. Oh well. My room is a mess, too, so I can't complain too much. Although, I like hearing Mick's 20's style radio announcer voice! The melody has some hooks in it as well.

E-flail splee glere!

slb23@shaw.ca (Simon B.) received August 21, 2004

This is one of those albums that divides a fan base of a particular band, in this case, the Rolling Stones. (other examples: TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS by Yes, THE FINAL CUT by Pink Floyd, etc). Either you love it or hate it. I'm somewhere in the middle: while I admit it does have a few good songs, is quite psychedelic in places and has generally good sound quality, it ultimately comes off as a slightly-failed experiment.
Song Ratings:
1. Sing This All Together (7.5)
2. Citadel (7)
3. In Another Land (5.5)
4. 2000 Man (7)
5. Sing This All Together (See What Happens) (4)
6. She's A Rainbow (7)
7. The Lantern (7.5)
8. Gomper (5.5)
9. 2000 Light Years From Home (9)
10. On With the Show (7)
Album Cover: (7)
Total Album Rating: 74/110 (67%)

ghostdogtaj@netzero.net (politenessman) received Jan. 20, 2005

1-listen carefully.background vocals on "sing this all together" are by john and yoko.
2-"in another land "is written and sung by bill wyman,not jagger,ya'dope.
3-look at the original cover.the beatles faces are hidden in it.it takes some looking though.