Today we have the Rolling Stones' tenth studio album Let It Bleed. Released in 1969, the album has since gone on to be considered one of the Stones's strongest releases and is often also considered one of the greatest albums of all time (ranked as the 32nd greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine). The album is less acoustic than Beggars Banquet and contains contributions from vocalist Merry Clayton on "Gimme Shelter" and the London Bach Choir on "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
The apocalypse on "Gimme Shelter," brewed up with Richards's signature riff, Jagger's cries for help in the lyrics, and Clayton's voice cracks, make for one of the greatest songs of all time as well as the Stones' best song so far. The blues "Midnight Rambler" and "Monkey Man" similarly seem to teeter on the edge of destruction as if, musically, they're about to fall apart. Acoustically too, this visceral sense lingers and even if it didn't, "Let It Bleed" still has Jagger's most overtly sexual lyrics yet anyway. Richards gets his first lead vocal on "You Got the Silver" and it's hard to say it's not just as good as the classic "You Can't Always Get What You Want." A [Later: A+]
