The Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge released

Voodoo Lounge The Rolling Stones

Released: July 19, 1994 Peak: 2 US, 11 UK, 12 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.1 UK, 6.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: classic rock veteran

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Love Is Strong [3:46] (7/5/94, 91 US, 2 AR, 14 UK, 2 CN, 47 AU) You Got Me Rocking [3:34] (7/23/94, 2 AR, 23 UK, 29 CN, 64 AU) Sparks Will Fly [3:14] (1/7/95, 30 AR, 57 CN) The Worst [2:24] New Faces [2:50] Moon Is Up [3:41] Out of Tears [5:25] (10/7/94, 60 US, 48 CB, 37 RR, 31 AC, 14 AR, 36 US, 3 CN, 43 AU) I Go Wild [4:19] (4/1/95, 20 AR, 29 UK, 45 CN, 57 AU) Brand New Car [4:13] Sweethearts Together [4:46] Suck on the Jugular [4:26] Blinded by Rainbows [4:32] Baby Break It Down [4:07] Thru and Thru [5:59] Mean Disposition [4:09] All songs written by Mick Jaggers and Keith Richards. Total Running Time: 62:08 The Players: Mick Jagger (vocals, guitar, percussion) Keith Richards (guitar, vocals, bass) Ronnie Wood (guitar, backing vocals) Charlie Watts (drums)

Rating: 3.591 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings) Quotable: Voodoo Lounge exults in the Stones’ reason for being: transcendent, fundamental rock & roll.” – Paul Corio, Rolling Stone Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Voodoo Lounge is a remarkable experience, the most visceral, daring Rolling Stones album since...who knows when.” CD “It’s a gas gas gas to hear the truth, the guts of rock and roll peek through the curtains of time.” CD 1989’s Steel Wheels, “which vaulted stylistic barriers, was in fact the riskier bid. But Voodoo Lounge exults in the Stones’ reason for being: transcendent, fundamental rock & roll.” RS For their first studio album in five years, the Stones “strip their sound back to its spare, hard-rocking basics…turning out a set of songs that are pretty traditionalist.” AMG “They revive some of the English folk and acoustic country-blues that was on Beggars Banquet” AMG although “there are no new twists or turns in either the rockers or ballads (apart maybe from the quiet menace of Thru and Thru, later used to great effect on The Sopranos).” AMG These are “songs that may not be classics, but are first-rate examples of the value of craft.” AMG Part of the sound can be attributed to Don Was, “a neo-classic rock producer… helming the boards with the Glimmer Twins.” AMG “Without seeking to alter their basic approach, [he] has given this classic band a contemporary perspective.” CD “Because [he] insisted Mick have actual lyrics ready for the basic tracks, it obliged the Stones to return to the kind of live, spontaneous rhythm section feel that made even their most humble throwaways just jump out and bite you on the ass.” CD “The departure of bassist Bill Wyman has forced the Stones to dig deep, and the arrival of Darryl Jones has given drummer Charlie Watts, if not a new lease on life, a different point of view. Watts and Wyman were like the Benny Benjamin and James Jamerson of rock ’n’ roll, and without his trusted rhythm mate, the drummer has to listen like his life depended on it.” CD “This is the Stones…playing as a band. The Richards/Ron Wood guitar interplay is peerless, Charlie Watts swings easier than any other rock drummer, and the leanly muscled material flexes deep attitude.” RS “There’s an edge and a sense of danger to Voodoo Lounge that is palpable from the reassuring crunch of Richards and Wood on the opening Love Is Strong, through the honky tonk bump of Baby Break It Down and the blue suede groove of Mean Disposition.” CD “It’s on formula pieces (You Got Me Rocking, Brand New Car), rather than on experiments like Blinded by Rainbows, that the boys kick fiercest, realizing an essential truth: Rock & roll – like its revered forebears, blues and country – soars higher off blessed authenticity than off original expression.” RS The hour-run time is “an ironically bloated length for an album whose greatest strengths are its lean, concentrated classic sound and songcraft.” AMG Had this been released “even five years earlier, this would be a near-triumph of classicist rock, but since Voodoo Lounge came out in the CD age, it’s padded out to 15 tracks, five of which could have been chopped to make the album much stronger.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Rolling Stones AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine CD CdUniverse.com review RS Rolling Stone review by Paul Corio WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/23/2008; last updated 10/25/2021.