Posted by keef on August 04, 1999 at 16:42:04:
In Reply to: Voodoo Lounge....Again. posted by Stones Maniac on August 03, 1999 at 20:21:47:
Now for part 2--why Voodoo Lounge is a Great album
Vocals: Jagger has never sounded better, IMO. He many have sounded AS GOOD, but never BETTER over the course of an entire album. He dropped the BARKING, GRUNTING, SHOUTING style vocalizing of the "Dirty Work/Steel Wheels" era and replaced it with the HOWLING, GROWLING man-of-a-thousand-accents Jagger of old. Voodoo Lounge has the dark and sinister "Midnight Ramber/Dancing With Mr. D vocal style of Love is Strong. It's got the no bullshit Brown Sugar/Bitch singing of You Got Me Rocking and Sparks Will Fly. The howling badasss of Stray Cat Blues/Crazy Mama reappears on I Go Wild. The tender, higher range voice of Angie is all over Out of Tears. The soulful, R & B voice of Beast of Burden is back with Baby Break It Down. The Sticky Fingers/Exile era country accent comes back with Blinded By Rainbows. The classic Elizabethan style vocalizing of Lady Jane pops up again in New Faces. Jagger even pulls off another Paint It Black era "mysterious" vocal sound in Moon Is Up. I could go on and on, but every fan of this album knows what I'm going to say anyway.
Guitars: Not only does Keith come up with some of his best riffs in years on VL, but he gets the TONE and SOUND just right this time. Love is Strong, Sparks, Break It Down, and I Go Wild all have the signature Keith sound all over them. Big, thick, chunky rhythm work all over the place. The dirty, distorted tone of Can't You Hear Me Knocking burns through You Got Me Rocking. For the first time in years, the acoustic guitars are back in a big way. Nearly every song has an acoustic in it somewhere, even the rockers.
Production: Stripped down and raw just like their best work during the Beggars-Exile era. REAL instruments and no SYNTHESIZERS. Jagger is back with some of his best harp work of his career. The guitars are mixed up high where they should be while the drums have a very warm, bedrock sound.
Lyrics: From the spooky tale of stalking and lust of Love is Strong to the sorrowful heartache of Out of Tears, the lyrics on VL rank among Jagger's best of the past 20 years.
In closing, VL is a GREAT Stones' album that gets better with age, much like Exile did over 25 years ago. It has become one of my top five favorite Stones' albums. Throw in all the b-sides--The Storm, Jump on Top, Drive, So Young--and the unreleased Honest Man and Zip Mouth Angel and you've got one of the modern day equivalent of Exile on Main Street, IMO or course.
Keef
: Ok, peeps...I got alot of feedback from people about my last message about not liking Voodoo Lounge. It surprises me that alot of people would write me back about their views about the album, but YET...not SPECIFICALLY tell me what really makes the album good to THEM. I have no friggin clue how, as one person put it, it can be said that Steel Wheels "doesn't hold up well today"...yeah, right...and Some Girls does??? Don't even get me started on THAT album. One person even had the audacity to tell me that B2B was overproduced...maybe so, but hell, it is a greater and better album than Voodoo Lounge. Sorry, guys and gals, I just cannot agree with you about Voodoo Lounge...it's too boring...my dog can make better songs than that.