The Rolling Stones’ desire to keep up with the Joneses bit them in the ass with their second release of 1967.

Their Satanic Majesties Request was a foray into psychedelic rock spurred by the ecstatic reaction to The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Even the cover art seemed like a nod to, or a knock-off of, their counterpart’s groundbreaking concept album.

But while Sgt. Pepper was a smash hit, this album left both fans and critics scratching their heads.

The Stones were in disarray during the eight months it took to record the album. Drug use, legal trouble, and romantic entanglements combined to make studio sessions chaotic and unproductive. Manager and producer Andrew Long Oldham quit in the middle of the sessions, leaving the band to produce the album themselves.

The result was a bloated mess more committed to the orchestral arrangements and overall vibe than the songs. ‘She’s a Rainbow’ and ‘2000 Man’ are the only tracks here I’d bother to revisit. And while the album has its fans, it’s hard to see it as anything other than the Stones’ first misstep.

The good news is that this misstep led them to shake off the pretensions and return to the blues rock that made them stars in the first place. A year later, they would kick off one of the greatest four-album runs in music history.