It is no coincidence then that, creatively and cosmetically, the now thirty-year-old Voodoo Lounge bears a marked resemblance to its prototype of 1989, Steel Wheels, as well as the Rolling Stones LP of late 2023 Hackney Diamonds. Sterling audio may, in fact, be its greatest virtue and, with mastering by Stephen Marcussen, there’s a spare-no-expense approach here that also takes the form of a sixteen-page booklet with all the lyrics as well as some lengthy credit listings (not to mention cover art that resides squarely within the history of poor graphics on Stones albums)
But with three decades of even more discerning hindsight, Voodoo Lounge also reaffirms the notion that latter-day Rolling Stones albums are simply fodder for concert touring. Hearing this title in a broader context also clarifies how LPs of the era took distinct shapes depending on which of the two linchpins of the group, Mick Jagger or Keith Richards, had the most influence over their final form.
Production of the twentieth Rolling Stones studio album is credited to ‘The Glimmer Twins’ (a nom de plume of sorts for the aforementioned co-founders of the iconic group) and Don Was of Was Not Was, musician, producer, and, since 2011, president of Blue Note Records. As a result of synergy between the latter individual and Richards, the fifteen tracks on this record hew to the blues, R&B, and country influences that inform the Stones’ classic albums of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Ties to Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, and Sticky Fingers are, however, never more overt than on the rootsy instrumental ride out to the final cut “Mean Disposition.” Otherwise, nothing on this record compares to genuine classics like “Street Fighting Man,” “Gimme Shelter,” or “Brown Sugar,” perhaps because Jagger and Richards’ songwriting together was not the same all-consuming activity it once was or more probably because each man had just come off the creation of a solo effort.
In this particular case, too, the main motivation for the composing team may well have been to fulfill a new contractual alliance with Virgin Records. As a result, with these originals quite probably written because the composing team needed to, not because it was inspired to, the songs have little if any substance. One of the few (any?) selections the group’s played on stage over the years, “You Got Me Rocking,” isn’t much less precious in its own way than “It’s Only Rock n’ Roll (But I Like It)” from two decades prior.
Supple riffing and wailing blues harp aside, the judicious opening cut “Love Is Strong” finds Jagger overdoing his vocal affectations. But then that’s symptomatic of songs titled “Suck On The Jugular,” where the Rolling Stones sound like they are stretching to live up to their image. The definition of ‘forced,’ much like “Baby Break It Down,” this cut, in particular, supports criticism around the time of its release that this album was too long (at sixty-two minutes).
Ironic as it may sound for a group that had come to describe itself as ‘the greatest rock and roll band in the world,” balladry sounds most credible on Voodoo Lounge. Jagger sings “Out Of Tears” as he means it (and that’s probably true), but the stately gait of the core ensemble helps, too, as does David Campbell’s string arrangement. In contrast, Richards’ customarily off-the-cuff delivery on “Thru And Thru” and “The Worst” neither requires nor receives such ornamentation to validate its emotional authenticity.
By the same token, participating musicians, including former Allman Brother Chuck Leavell on keyboards and original bassist Bill Wyman’s replacement Daryl Jones, don’t fall prey to self-consciousness on uptempo material like “Sparks Will Fly.” No doubt that’s due to the abiding instrumental connection between Richards and the late co-founder/drummer for the Stones, Charlie Watts.
Yet it’s also true that, as guitarist Ronnie Wood demonstrates on the swaggering “I Go Wild” and “Blinded By Rainbows,” he has improved tremendously as a soloist since joining the group in 1975. His versatility is a boon to these relatively stripped-down arrangements, too, because he can add pedal steel (“Baby Break It Down”) and lap steel (“Sweethearts Together”).
Mark Isham’s trumpet and David McMurray’s saxophone on “Brand New Car” are not that much of a plus, however. The two men with horns simply don’t sound brassy enough for the Rolling Stones: they are instead too polite for their own good and the music’s. Yet that’s in keeping with the bulk of Voodoo Lounge, which sounds like nothing so much as how the late Lester Bangs described Goats Head Soup: ‘prose by pros,’ he called the 1973 LP, and that label is hardly off the mark here.
But such a perspective only begs the question of what veteran professional musicians like the Rolling Stones are supposed to do as they age. Financial rewards aside, the dilemma of quitting is hardly a simplistic binary choice, especially when an act like the iconic British group is still playing to stadiums full of paying attendees (and the year-long Voodoo Lounge tour set some records for gross ticket sales). Much to the credit of Jagger, Richards, and company, they have never announced a farewell tour to boost ticket sales or worse, resorted to that ploy, then reneged on their retirement.
And, at least based on uncorroborated evidence from the 2024 American tour, the Rolling Stones don’t sound like they’re playing and singing merely out of habit, which is too often the case on Voodoo Lounge.
