Holy fuck. While listening to "Sad Sad Sad" I was prepared to call this a decent example of Stones Inc., but every song after that is excruciatingly, irredeemably rotten. I feel embarrassed listening to this - I keep wanting to peek out the window to make sure the neighbors haven't noticed. This isn't merely bad for the Stones, this is just plain bad. It's on par with latter day Rod Stewart albums. I live a much poorer life just for having listened to this. I'm gonna go slam my dick in a door just to get some feeling back.

Holy fuck.

Funny that the much-touted "reunion/comeback" album Steel Wheels followed Dirty Work by just three years, while it took the Stones five years to turn out its sequel, Voodoo Lounge — a time frame that seems much more appropriate for a "comeback." To pile on the irony, Voodoo Lounge feels more like a return to form than its predecessor, even if it's every bit as calculated and Bill Wyman has flown the coup. With Don Was, a neo-classic rock producer who always attempts to reclaim his artist's original claim to greatness, helming the boards with the Glimmer Twins, the Stones strip their sound back to its spare, hard-rocking basics. The Stones act in kind, turning out a set of songs that are pretty traditionalist. 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), even if they revive some of the English folk and acoustic country-blues that was on Beggars Banquet. Still, this approach works because they are turning out songs that may not be classics but are first-rate examples of the value of craft. If this was released ten years, 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. Instead, it runs on for nearly an hour, an ironically bloated length for an album whose greatest strengths are its lean, concentrated classic sound and songcraft. Still, it makes for a stronger record than its predecessor.

voodoo lounge is the only post-tattoo you stones album worth owning

voodoo lounge is the only post-tattoo you stones album worth owning

And the boys need to set down a maximum-two-ballads-per-album rule.

Like they've got lots of product still to record? They're one cerebral embolism away from managed care and one Larry King interview away from a PBS fundraising special.

So why does Dylan get a pass?

So why does Dylan get a pass?

Can't speak for anyone else, but everything Dylan's put out since John Wesley Harding goes on the same shitpile as Dirty Work.

Can't speak for anyone else, but everything Dylan's ever put out goes on the same shitpile as Dirty Work.

Nashville Skyline, New Morning,Blood on the Tracks, Basement Tapes all belong on a shitpile?

He's probably grouping Basement Tapes with the earlier stuff because it was recorded in '67.

And probably exaggerating his dislike for Blood on the Tracks.

Nashville Skyline is a solid album, though, and I'm not sure how you can find much fault with it.

New Morning, whatever. I'm sure it's a shit-ton better than latter period Stones, but it's still a take-it-or-leave-it kinda thing.

Because he's released a good record in the last 20 years.

Nashville Skyline, New Morning,Blood on the Tracks, Basement Tapes all belong on a shitpile?

I don't count Basement Tapes in there, but all of the rest you mentioned bite, suck, and blow. Blood on the Tracks is the most over-praised steaming dungpile this side of Pet Sounds.

Blood on the Tracks is fucking great, but then, you know, so is Pet Sounds.