A world tour, another lengthy gap between albums. A return with Voodoo Lounge, another lengthy tour, etc, etc. 'Voodoo Lounge' saw Don Was work as The Stones producer, a guy who once claimed he wanted to collect all of the great artists on his production CV like baseball cards. A guy that tries to reclaim an artists greatness through a return to that artists core values. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Usually it's something of a mixed bag. In this case, we do get a stripped back sound for The Stones and one that appears to mean business. Simple, straightforward and rather traditional. We saw the departure of bass player Bill Wyman prior to this album, although that doesn't appear to make any difference to The Stones in the studio an awful lot. Before going into the songs in any more detail, i'll mention a grip of mine. As an album made for the CD age, 'Voodoo Lounge' stretches out to just over an hour in length. I understand fans may have felt short-changed if the stones had released a forty minute long album after five years away, although if they had done in this case, 'Voodoo Lounge' would have been stripped of at least five songs of filler. It would have hit harder and had a greater overall impact. Still, for an album that does strip The Stones of any fashion or trends and returns them to their core values, 'Voodoo Lounge' works very well. The song titles themselves reveal clues, like all of the words in previous Stones song titles have been cut-up and thrown in the air and fallen down again in new combinations. Hence we get the quite lovely 'Blinded By Rainbows' with its keen Jagger vocal. The quality ballad 'Out Of Tears', although it's slightly bland. The closing track, 'Mean Disposition' which sways and rocks nicely, even though as a composition it never actually goes anywhere.
The album gets off to a strong start, 'Love Is Strong' sounds like classic Stones, 'Sparks Will Fly' is uptempo and whilst nothing to write home about, is simplistically enjoyable. 'You Got Me Rocking' is a highlight with a true Stones sound and a Jagger vocal in the best Stones traditions. 'The Worst' certainly isn't, a keef sung track with a lovely country feel. That's about it, a bunch of other songs that are nothing in particular to write home about, although never bad either. It's just at fifteen songs lasting an hour, as an entity, the album loses out slightly. Still, 'Voodoo Lounge' is certainly a worthy addition to The Stones catalogue. It would be unfair to expect The Stones to get back to peak late sixties form thirty years after that peak, after all.
Love Is Strong / You Got Me Rocking / Sparks Will Fly / The Worst / New Faces / Moon Is Up / Out Of Tears / I Go Wild / Brand New Car / Sweethearts Together / Suck On The Jugular / Blinded By Rainbows / Baby Break It Down / Thru & Thru / Mean Disposition
The album gets off to a strong start, 'Love Is Strong' sounds like classic Stones, 'Sparks Will Fly' is uptempo and whilst nothing to write home about, is simplistically enjoyable. 'You Got Me Rocking' is a highlight with a true Stones sound and a Jagger vocal in the best Stones traditions. 'The Worst' certainly isn't, a keef sung track with a lovely country feel. That's about it, a bunch of other songs that are nothing in particular to write home about, although never bad either. It's just at fifteen songs lasting an hour, as an entity, the album loses out slightly. Still, 'Voodoo Lounge' is certainly a worthy addition to The Stones catalogue. It would be unfair to expect The Stones to get back to peak late sixties form thirty years after that peak, after all.
Love Is Strong / You Got Me Rocking / Sparks Will Fly / The Worst / New Faces / Moon Is Up / Out Of Tears / I Go Wild / Brand New Car / Sweethearts Together / Suck On The Jugular / Blinded By Rainbows / Baby Break It Down / Thru & Thru / Mean Disposition