| Voodoo Lounge | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 11 July 1994 | |||
| Recorded | September, 3 November – 11 December 1993 | |||
| Studio | Ronnie Wood's house,Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin; mixed and overdubbed atA&M Studios, Los Angeles andRight Track Recording,NYC[1] | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 62:08 | |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
| Producer | Don Was,the Glimmer Twins | |||
| The Rolling Stones chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Voodoo Lounge | ||||
| ||||
Voodoo Lounge is the twentieth studio album by the English rock bandthe Rolling Stones, released on 11 July 1994. The album was the band's first release under their new alliance withVirgin Records and their first studio album in five years, sinceSteel Wheels in 1989.Voodoo Lounge is also the band's first album without original bassistBill Wyman, who left the band in early 1991, though the Stones did not announce his departure until two years later.[2] In 2009, the album was remastered and reissued byUniversal Music. This album was released as a double LP on vinyl and as a single CD and cassette.
After the departure of Wyman, the Stones chose not to officially replace him as a band member and continued as a four-piece withMick Jagger (vocals),Charlie Watts (drums),Keith Richards andRonnie Wood (both guitars). Wyman was unofficially replaced byDarryl Jones, who performed with the Stones in the studio and on tour as a contracted player. Keyboards were provided byChuck Leavell. Jones and Leavell, though not band members, would remain collaborators with the group from that point on.Don Was was brought in to produce the album alongside Jagger and Richards.
Voodoo Lounge sold well, reaching either Gold or Platinum status in several countries, but failed to produce a US top 40 hit. The songs "Love Is Strong" and "You Got Me Rocking" peaked at Nos. 14 and 23 in the UK, respectively, and "You Got Me Rocking" became a staple on most subsequent Stones tours. The album received several positive reviews and won the inauguralGrammy Award for Best Rock Album in 1995.
Sections of the Keith Richards song "Thru and Thru" fromVoodoo Lounge are woven throughout theHBOtelevision seriesThe Sopranos' second-season finale "Funhouse" (episode no. 26 overall), and plays in its entirety during the episode's closing sequence andend credits.
Following the release ofKeith Richards'Main Offender andMick Jagger'sWandering Spirit respectively in 1992 and 1993, both leaders of the Rolling Stones began composing new songs in April 1993, deciding uponDon Was as co-producer for the upcoming sessions. In November, after rehearsing and recording atRonnie Wood's house in Ireland that September, the Stones shifted toWindmill Lane Studios in Dublin and began cuttingVoodoo Lounge. Although not joining the band officially,Darryl Jones would be taking Bill Wyman's place as the group's regular bassist, at the suggestion of drummerCharlie Watts.
Don Was, noted for his retro rock production sensibilities, was reportedly responsible for pushing the band towards more conventional territory in an attempt to reproduce the archetypal "Rolling Stones" sound. Although this approach pleased critics and the Stones rock-oriented fan base, Jagger in particular expressed some dissatisfaction with Was's aesthetic, commenting in a 1995 interview withRolling Stone:
... there were a lot of things that we wrote forVoodoo Lounge that Don steered us away from: groove songs, African influences and things like that. And he steered us very clear of all that. And I think it was a mistake.[3]
Was responded that he was not "anti-groove, just anti-groove without substance, in the context of this album. They had a number of great grooves. But it was like, 'OK, what goes on top of it? Where does it go?' I just felt that it's not what people were looking for from the Stones. I was looking for a sign that they can get real serious about this, still play better than anybody and write better than anybody."[4]
The result was an essentially classicist recording that drew on the blues, R&B, and country that had informed the Stones classic late 1960s/early 1970s recordings. Jagger would insist on a more diverse, contemporary production cast for the subsequentBridges to Babylon (1997). After a period of recording in Los Angeles in the first few months of 1994,Voodoo Lounge was complete and the Rolling Stones moved onto the rehearsals for theVoodoo Lounge Tour, which would begin in August.
During the recording of the album, Richards adopted a stray cat in Barbados which he named Voodoo, because they were in Barbados, and the kitten had survived the odds. He dubbed the terrace of the house Voodoo's Lounge. "Sparks Will Fly" was written by Richards after a blow-up withJerry Lee Lewis in Ireland. Richards invited Lewis to Wood's home to jam on a few songs. Lewis took it seriously and thought they were making an album, and upon playback of the session, he started to pick apart Richards' band, which outraged Richards.[5]
| Initial reviews (in 1994) | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Christgau's Consumer Guide |  [6] |
| Entertainment Weekly | C+; originally B[7] |
| Los Angeles Times |   [8] |
| Music Week | [9] |
| Q | [10] |
| Rolling Stone | [11] |
| Select |   [12] |
| Vox | 8/10[13] |
| Retrospective reviews (after 1994) | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [14] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [15] |
| Tom Hull | B+ (*)[16] |
Released in July 1994,Voodoo Lounge received generally positive reviews and debuted at No. 1 in the UK (their first chart-topper there since 1980'sEmotional Rescue) and No. 2 in the US (behind thesoundtrack toThe Lion King) where it wentdouble platinum.
David Cavanagh ofQ Magazine wrote that "musically, these 15 songs represent the Stones at their all-time least newsworthy," adding that "Voodoo Lounge is no classic, but nor is it the resounding hound it could have been." Though he was disappointed in the inconsistency of the album's second half, he called the trio of opening rockers "exuberant and on the warm side" despite their lyric shortcomings and hailed the next four songs as an extremely good stretch with "Out of Tears" in particular showing "tantalizing glimmers of genius".[10]
Writing forVox magazine in August 1994, Steven Dalton thought that the album's strongest tracks were filled with "echoes of the band's halcyon days", most notably 1972'sExile on Main Street and 1978'sSome Girls.[13] He went on to surmise thatVoodoo Lounge "reminds us why we liked the Stones in the first place," and singled out "New Faces", "Out of Tears" and "Blinded by Rainbows" as the album's highlights, despite also stating that the record contained "too many sketchy, arsing-around-in-the-studio jobs" to be considered one of the group's overall best albums.[13]
Jon Pareles ofThe New York Times foundVoodoo Lounge to be disappointing, arguing that the album "rings hollow, as if it were made not to shake things up but simply to fuel the machine." He harshly criticized the songwriting, arguing that "for much of the album, Jagger and Richards seem determined to write the most generic love songs possible... Flip over the sentimentality, and the Stones offer some of their least convincing leers."[17]
Robert Christgau didn't believe the album warranted a full review, consigning it to his column's list of "honorable mentions" and commenting only that the Stones had become the "world's greatest roots-rock band".[6]Tom Hull similarly listed it as an "honorable mention," conceding that the album "feels like they're just going through the motions".[16]
Alexis Petridis ofThe Guardian would later rankVoodoo Lounge as one of their weakest albums, writing that "this isn't a bad album, exactly, but it sounds as if hard work was involved, the product of craft rather inspiration: tough coming from a band that, at their best, made it all seem effortless." Petridis also felt that the 62-minute album was much too long, joking that "it goes on for about six weeks."[18]David Marchese ofNew York expressed a similar criticism, writing thatVoodoo Lounge "would’ve killed at 45 minutes" while pointing out the weakest songs as he reviewed the album track-by-track.[19]
In early 1995, while the Voodoo Lounge Tour was still underway until August,Voodoo Lounge won theGrammy Award for Best Rock Album.
In 2009,Voodoo Lounge was remastered and reissued byUniversal Music.
"Love Is Strong", which was inspired by Richards' solo "Wicked as It Seems", was released as the first single, reaching No. 14 in the UK. However, although the track was a hit on US rock radio, it stalled on the singles chart at No. 91, and (at least in the US) became the Rolling Stones' worst performinglead single from an album up to that time. Two follow-up US singles also received strong rock radio airplay, but failed to cross over into top-40 hits: "Out of Tears" peaked at No. 60, and "You Got Me Rocking" fared even worse, peaking at No. 113. Consequently,Voodoo Lounge would be the first Rolling Stones album tonot produce significant hits in the US, even with two million copies sold. In the UK, "Love Is Strong", "You Got Me Rocking", "Out of Tears", and "I Go Wild" were all top-40 chart hits.
The song "Thru and Thru", which features Keith Richards on lead vocals, appears several times in "Funhouse", the second-season finale ofThe Sopranos, including over the end credits.
The Voodoo Lounge Tour was the setting for most of a 1994 episode ofBeverly Hills, 90210.
In July 2014,Guitar World placedVoodoo Lounge at number 42 in their "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.[20]
An interactive CD-ROM titledRolling Stones Voodoo Lounge CD ROM was published byGTE Interactive Media in 1995, to mixed reception. It uses early QuickTime video technology for Windows 3.1 and Macintosh.[21]
All tracks are written byMick Jagger and Keith Richards.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Love Is Strong" | 3:46 |
| 2. | "You Got Me Rocking" | 3:34 |
| 3. | "Sparks Will Fly" | 3:14 |
| 4. | "The Worst" | 2:24 |
| 5. | "New Faces" | 2:50 |
| 6. | "Moon Is Up" | 3:41 |
| 7. | "Out of Tears" | 5:25 |
| 8. | "I Go Wild" | 4:19 |
| 9. | "Brand New Car" | 4:13 |
| 10. | "Sweethearts Together" | 4:46 |
| 11. | "Suck on the Jugular" | 4:26 |
| 12. | "Blinded by Rainbows" | 4:33 |
| 13. | "Baby Break It Down" | 4:07 |
| 14. | "Thru and Thru" | 5:59 |
| 15. | "Mean Disposition" | 4:09 |
Note: "Mean Disposition" was included only on CD in 1994, but is also featured on the 2010 vinyl (2xLP) release. It was also included on 2024 30th anniversary 2 LP vinyl release.
The Rolling Stones
Additional personnel
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Argentina (CAPIF)[51] | 2× Platinum | 120,000^ |
| Australia (ARIA)[52] | Gold | 35,000^ |
| Austria (IFPI Austria)[53] | Gold | 25,000* |
| Belgium (BRMA)[54] | Gold | 25,000* |
| Canada (Music Canada)[55] | 3× Platinum | 300,000^ |
| France (SNEP)[56] | 2× Gold | 200,000* |
| Germany (BVMI)[57] | Platinum | 500,000^ |
| Ireland (IRMA)[58] | Silver | 5,000[59] |
| Italy | — | 250,000[60] |
| Japan (RIAJ)[61] | Gold | 172,410[47] |
| Mexico (AMPROFON)[62] | Platinum | 250,000^ |
| Netherlands (NVPI)[63] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[64] | Gold | 7,500^ |
| Norway (IFPI Norway)[65] | Gold | 25,000* |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE)[66] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| Sweden (GLF)[67] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[68] | Gold | 25,000^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[69] | Gold | 100,000^ |
| United States (RIAA)[70] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
| Summaries | ||
| Europe (IFPI)[71] | Platinum | 1,000,000* |
| Worldwide | — | 6,000,000[72] |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
{{cite web}}:|archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)e alla luce di un album molto riuscito come "Voodoo Lounge" che in Italia ha venduto oltre 250 mila copie
