I've never had a particularly strong opinion about the Rolling Stones. For the most part, their classic radio hits are songs that I enjoy, but they've never driven me to check out their back catalog. I don't know how this album compares to their others (and still need to go back to review Exile on Main Street), but Let It Bleed felt quite bluesy throughout. In the past, that may have led me to give it a higher ranking because I enjoy the blues sound. But in 2021 it's hard not to read it as gross appropriation that is not done as well as the originators of the style. The lead track, Gimme Shelter, is a great song that starts out the album strong, but it arguably continues to decline from there until the album itself reminds us that we can't always get what we want, even if all we want is a consistently solid album. As the goose says, country honque.