Voodoo Lounge (1994)


 


  1.Love is Strong
  2.You Got Me Rocking
  3.Sparks Will Fly
  4.The Worst
  5.New Faces
  6.Moon is Up
  7.Out of Time
  8.I Go Wild
  9.Brand New Car
 10.Sweethearts Together
 11.Suck on the Jugular
 12.Blinded by Rainbows
 13.Break it Down
 14.Thru and Thru
 15.Mean Disposition

 

If anyone still had doubts after Steel Wheels, this album put them to rest. It arrived four years later, and while that might have seemed like an eternity in Rolling Stones time, the result was something far more ambitious. Bill Wyman was officially gone by now—retired after the Steel Wheels tour—leaving the core band a quartet. Daryl Jones stepped in on bass, though never quite officially joining. Probably a smart financial move, depending on how you look at it.

There’s a lot to like here. In fact, there’s a lot, period. And that’s both the record’s strength and its undoing. Like many CD-era albums, this one runs long, and with length comes the dreaded filler. Which wouldn’t be so bad if they’d simply lumped the weak stuff together, but the weaker tracks are sprinkled throughout, disrupting what might have been a first-rate listen.

The opener, Love Is Strong, is one of their best in years. That low-slung groove practically dares you to miss Bill Wyman—who, ironically, seems to be haunting the track from afar. Out of Tears and Blinded by Rainbows are unexpectedly sincere, almost political, and beautifully crafted. Keith delivers in spades, as usual. The Worst is poignant and elegant despite clocking in under two and a half minutes, and Thru and Thru is a slow burn that shouldn’t work, but somehow does. It’s weirdly hypnotic. Brand New Car has a sly, wink-wink cleverness, and Baby Break It Down is classic Stones through and through.

But then there’s Moon Is Up—psychedelic in the wrong way, harpsichord and all—and Sweethearts Together, a misfire that’s as saccharine as it is baffling. (Accordion. Need we say more?) You Got Me Rocking tries hard to be a stadium anthem, but sounds like a lukewarm rewrite of If You Can’t Rock Me. Suck on the Jugular is as juvenile as the title suggests, barking far louder than it bites.

Still, if this album proves anything, it’s that the Stones weren’t going away quietly. Steel Wheels wasn’t a one-off. They were back, and for the long haul. This one may have benefited from a tighter edit, but it’s bold, confident, and, in places, downright inspired. Less might’ve been more—but more, in this case, still isn’t half bad.


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