Less impressed, the writer of "Melody Maker"s initial review dismissed "Beggars Banquet" as "mediocre" and said that, since "The Stones are Mick Jagger", it was only the singer's "remarkable recording presence that makes this LP". Geoffrey Cannon of "The Guardian" found that the album "demonstrates group's primal power at its greatest strength" and wrote admiringly of Jagger's ability to fully engage the listener on "Sympathy for the Devil", saying: "We feel horror because, at full volume, he makes us ride his carrier wave with him, experience his sensations, and awaken us to ours." In his ballot for "Jazz & Pop" magazine's annual critics poll, Robert Christgau ranked it as the third-best album of the year, and "Salt of the Earth" the best pop song of the year. In April 1969, for "Esquire", he wrote that "Beggars Banquet" is "unflawed and lacking something".