How critics read 'Beggars Banquet' as both a comeback and a step forward

When ‘Beggars Banquet’ landed in December 1968, most reviewers treated it as a deliberate clean-up act after the muddy psychedelia of ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’. The general consensus was that the Stones had stopped trying to out-Kaleidoscope the Beatles and instead remembered they were a blues band who could snarl. Critics like Richard Goldstein in the New York Times praised the return to “dirty, basic rock,” while British papers noted the band had finally ditched the mellotrons and spacey production.

But calling it a simple “return to roots” undersells how the album was also seen as a new direction. The acoustic folk-blues of “Prodigal Son,” the political venom of “Street Fighting Man,” and the slide-guitar menace of “No Expectations” all pointed toward a band that was expanding its sound while losing the theatrical gimmicks. Most reviews split the difference: it was a return to the attitude of ‘Aftermath’ but with a harder, more cynical edge that matched the 1968 street mood. Even the Mellotron had a cameo on “Jigsaw Puzzle,” but nobody complained because the songs were finally strong enough to carry it.