Their Satanic Majestic Request
| The Rolling Stones
Their Satanic Majestic Request
Their Satanic Majesties Request is the sixth British and eighth American studio album by the Rolling Stones, released in December 1967 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and London Records in the United States. Recording sessions saw the band experimenting widely with a psychedelic sound in the studio, incorporating elements such as unconventional instruments, sound effects, string arrangements, and African rhythms. The album's title is a play on the "Her Britannic Majesty requests and requires ..." text that appears inside a British passport. It is the first Stones album to feature the same track listings in both its UK and US versions.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
It is the strange result of a bizarre set of personal, professional, and cultural circumstances.
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Rolling Stone
Their Satanic Majesties Request, despite moments of unquestionable brilliance, put the status of the Rolling Stones in jeopardy.
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Ultimate Classic Rock
Their Satanic Majesties Request isn't a perfect record, but it's a lot better than most people, including the Stones themselves, gave it credit for in 1967.
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All Music
It's a much better record than most people give it credit for being, though, with a strong current of creeping uneasiness that undercuts the gaudy psychedelic flourishes. In 1968, the Stones would go back to the basics, and never wander down these paths again, making this all the more of a fascinating anomaly in the group's discography.
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Pop Matters
But despite the freeness and druggy nature of some of these experiments, there is plenty of focus and good old rock and roll to be found throughout.
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Louder Sound
the album was more an acid-fried dispatch from the Stones’ besieged front line, reflecting their annus horribilis of drug busts, managerial upheavals and Brian Jones’s deteriorating condition exacerbated by losing Anita Pallenberg to Keith Richards
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John McFerrin Music Reviews
for the most part, this album RULES, and I have no qualms about giving it such a high grade
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Only Solitaire
Satanic is a truly tripped out album with layers of 'cosmic conscience' - more reminiscent of early Pink Floyd than of the Beatles.
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Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews
there are heavy, acid-drenched rockers everywhere
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The Guardian
Neither the disaster it has been reviled as nor the masterpiece some revisionist critics have claimed, Satanic Majesties is a likable, undisciplined psychedelic mess
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Robert Christgau
I'm fond of it; without a doubt it contains several great songs
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Adrian's Album Reviews
One thing in particular strikes me about this record, though - how great it sounds for an album recorded in 1964
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Don Ignacio
It's by no means one of The Rolling Stones' best albums, but I listen to this more frequently than some of their monster classics
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Mark's Record Reviews
I mean, it's goofy, but it was 1967, for chrissake! What did you think they were gonna do? Fusion? Come on now. And try to get an original copy - with the funny 3-D cover.
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Sound Blab
Their Satanic Majesties Request still contains a handful of fair-to-good songs that simply couldn’t claw their way out from under the critical burial this album received.
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Red Dirt Report
stands as their most consistently interesting album
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Psyhedelic Baby Magazine
Allow me to please say that there is no need for this reissue to exist, except for those who want things because they are either a completist, or are profoundly fooling themselves into thinking that they can hear something they actually can not.
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Record Collector Magazine
its waywardness is its charm; and however late to the ball it may have been, its punch-drunk indiscipline makes it a far more convincing psychedelic entity than many of its better-behaved peers.
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Unsong
this is the Stones' BEST / most creative album
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Every Record Tells a Story
There’s four really good songs on this LP, two okay ones
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New Noise
This re-release will hopefully allow the public and critics alike to revisit one of the band’s most underrated albums.
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Keno's ROLLING STONES Web Site
Yes, this is a good Stones album even if it is different.
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Sun Herald
All in all, “Satanic Majesties Request” proves to be a bridge between Stones’ albums such as “Between The Buttons” and their 1970s output, before and after Brian Jones’ dismissal and unexpected demise. This package is wonderfully put-together and should be snagged by all Rolling Stones devotees.
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On Milwaukee
I do rejoice at the chance to rediscover this neglected moment in the Stones' long career and to, especially, rock that mono version, both in the car on the CD and at home on the warmer vinyl
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Treblezine
but novelty can only get you so far. At some point, talent has to show through and entertainment has to take hold. Satanic could only prove it had either with the kind of judicious editing the band blithely ignored at the time
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Diffuser
Say what you will about the Stones' exile on acid street, but time has actually served the album quite well.
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The Vinyl District
Their Satanic Majesties Request may just be your bowl of magic mushroom soup.
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Alex's Reviews
I love this album. Get these notions of Pepper or Forever Changes or even Safe As Milk out of your head. Hell, if it helps, pretend it's NOT The Rolling Stones.
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Alt Rock Chick
As physicist Freeman Dyson once wrote, “Without discipline there can be no greatness.” The Stones cast discipline to the wind in Their Satanic Majesties Request and the results were disastrous.
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MIKELADANO.COM
t would also be lazy to use the old outdated “psychedelic” adjective to describe this music. I can think of numerous other adjectives: challenging, rewarding, inventive, chaotic, grimy, majestic.
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God is in the TV
This is not an awful Rolling Stones album, but all these years later, it still feels like their attempt to cash-in on psychedelia without really pulling it off. There’s plenty to investigate, but aside from a few tracks, not a huge amount that really captures the Stones at their best.
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Penny Black Music
Not without merit, but seriously flawed
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GeorgeKelley.org
I’ve always considered Their Satanic Majesties Request a quirky album. The variety of songs and styles constantly surprise with each listening.
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