Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed

I did it. I listened to Let It Bleed from start to finish. It hurt. A lot.

Let's go back and remind ourselves what my personal problem with the Rolling Stones is. Their albums sound like garbage. The mixes are bizarre, they full pan things for no good reason, parts that should be loud are barely audible, parts that should be subtle are 12dB louder than anything else, Mick's vocals sound like they put a microphone next to the air holes in the plexiglass coffin they keep him in, the harmonica sounds like they put a contact mic on a garbage can and filtered all the highs off. Bill Wyman's bass is the only good sounding instrument in the whole ensemble, but even that gets panned hard right half the time. 

Notice how half the title track lives in the vinyl death zone? Some bands can get away with it, but the Stones try to pack every single sound inside the 200-400 hertz range and it's like listening to the full band broadcasting through the copilot's walkie-talkie. Also notice that this thing is pristine. There's no dust or grime, no groove wear, no surface noise at all, this is how it sounds.

There is some real truth to the notion that mixing and mastering for vinyl is a special artform. I would never expect the casual listener to notice, but hundreds of albums from the mid/late 60s later, i feel pretty confident stating the Stones on vinyl is an absolutely miserable listening experience. 

Is Let It Bleed a great album? Absolutely. Their raunchy country-blues infused rock and roll is fantastic. The playing is phenomenal, the songwriting is great, i love it, but even the EQ smiley face of doom can't fix the low mid cacophony that is this album. Sure you can hear most every part, but that's like saying you can still identify all 30 cars in the aerial photograph of a nasty highway crash. 

That's a shame, but it's true. Actually listening to their albums on vinyl is pure misery.