"Exile on Main St." is the 10th studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 12 May 1972 by Rolling Stones Records. It was the band's 10th album released in the UK and 12th in the US, and is seen as the culmination of a series of critically acclaimed albums that included "Beggars Banquet" (1968), "Let It Bleed" (1969), and "Sticky Fingers" (1971). Known for its murky, inconsistent sound due to disjointed musicianship and production, "Exile on Main St." captures a party-like atmosphere in several tracks.
 
Initially met with mixed reviews, the album received strong reassessments by the late 1970s. It has since been recognized as a pivotal hard rock album, often regarded as the Rolling Stones' best work and one of the greatest albums of all time. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number 7 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003 and 2012, and it ranked number 14 in the 2020 and 2023 editions, consistently the highest-ranked Rolling Stones album on the list. In 2012, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the band's fourth album to receive this honor. A remastered and expanded version of the album was released in 2010, featuring a bonus disc with 10 new tracks. Unusually for a re-release, it charted highly upon its release, reaching number one in the UK and number two in the US.