Their Satanic Majesties Request(1967)


 

  1.Sing This All Together
  2.Citadel
  3.In Another Land
  4.2000 Man
  5.Sing This All Together (See What Happens)
  6.She's a Rainbow
  7.The Lantern
  8.Gomper
  9.2000 Light Years From Home
  10.On With the Show

 

Ah, the psychedelic sixties. Never before had The Rolling Stones released an album as polarizing as Their Satanic Majesties Request. Depending on who you ask, it's either a daring experiment or a misguided detour. Maybe both. What’s certain is that this was their most sonically adventurous work to date—and probably ever. Clocking in at over 43 minutes, the record tries everything once, twice in some places, and not all of it lands. But when it does, it’s thrilling. When it doesn’t—well, it gets weird.

They kick things off with the dreamy Sing This All Together, which aims to set the mood with a sort of “everyone hold hands and swirl” energy. It’s not bad, but it also isn’t what The Rolling Stones do best. The same can be said for She’s a Rainbow and 2000 Man, both of which try to hop on the flower-power bandwagon, but the band’s trademark swagger feels stifled by all the saccharine optimism. They were never made for daisy chains and peace slogans.

But then comes the other half of the record—when they lean into the darker, more experimental corners of psychedelia—and that’s where this thing takes off. Citadel is a menacing, compact blast of acid-laced paranoia, while 2000 Light Years from Home remains one of the most eerie, cosmic tracks the band ever recorded. And for the first (and only) time, Bill Wyman contributes a song, the surreal In Another Land, which surprisingly ends up being one of the album’s strongest cuts.

Not everything is so fortunate. Sing This All Together (See What Happens) is a directionless jam that goes nowhere for eight minutes. And the closer, On With the Show, is so kitschy and misjudged it sounds like background noise for a burlesque show in a half-lit club. Not exactly the best way to end a record.

In the end, Their Satanic Majesties Request isn’t a masterpiece, but it’s far from a disaster. It’s inconsistent, scattered, and at times plain bizarre—but that’s also what makes it so endearing in retrospect. For one brief moment, The Rolling Stones took a left turn into the surreal—and even if they never looked back, it’s fascinating to hear what they picked up along the way.


Go back to the main page
Go To Next Review