9. Goats Head Soup (1973)

It seems like almost an impossible task to follow up something like Exile on Main Street and the records that immediately preceded it with something that isn’t going to most assuredly suck, relatively speaking, and perhaps this explains why Goats Head Soup is kind of a redheaded stepchild in the Stones’ formidable late-’60s-early-’70s catalogue. But absent of that kind of context, Goats Head Soup is actually a really good record, albeit a thematically tough hang. Opener “Dancing With Mr. D” — a meditation on death — builds off a simple riff into a substantial vintage Stones rocker. “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” manages to wed inspired horn arrangements to the tale of an accidental shooting of a child. And the jubilant album closer “Star Star” is … well, an unsubtly evocative contemplation of carnal pleasures — not conventionally “romantic” by any stretch of the imagination, but an awful lot of fun. It’s not all lyrically so bleak or sarcastic though — the truly lovely, yearning “Angie” is a welcome breath of fresh air that redeems so much of the album’s cynicism and darkness. A terrific release that has only grown in stature over time.