The Rolling Stones: Voodoo Lounge version on vinyl 2LP in Remastered edition. This particular edition was published in Europe and USA in publishing company Rolling Stones Records on 26. June 2020.

The first Rolling Stones album without Bill Wyman on bass and with Don Was as producer may have been a disappointment. Instead, it won a Grammy for Best Rock Album. Voodoo Lounge came at a bad time for the Rolling Stones. By the 1980s, the band had, in the opinion of many fans, lost cohesion and direction, and doubts began to emerge about the band's viability. Personal side projects seemed to take precedence over the work of all or most of the band members. There were rumours of a working relationship between Mick and Keith. The undoubted commercial triumph of Steel Wheels' 1989 tour and album (including the European leg of Urban Jungle) conclusively disproved these rumors. Then, in 1992, Bill Wyman announced his departure from the band, and the question of whether the Rolling Stones could continue without him was inevitably raised again. Voodoo Lounge was The Rolling Stones' answer to that question: "Yes, for as long as we want". The fact is that although Bill's departure marked the end of a thirty-year era, the Voodoo Lounge represented a new beginning for a new band with a new producer. True, the four band members had played together for twenty years - three of them for over thirty - but losing a bass player could spell disaster, and a new producer, especially for a successful band with well-known habits and credentials, is always a risk. The Rolling Stones seized the situation as an opportunity, and the result is audibly inspired, authentic and widely admired. (Conventional wisdom, then and now, is that Voodoo Lounge is the best Stones record since Some Girls - itself "the last great Stones album" since... well, since before that ;-) The album was by all standards very popular, going double platinum in the US and spawning several UK hits, although the success of the US singles didn't materialise. (A thirteen-month tour of six continents in support of the album grossed $320,000,000, the band's second most successful tour ever, after the tour for A Bigger Bang). Voodoo Lounge's straightforward album opener, Love Is Strong, garnered plenty of praise for coming across as the band intended it to go on, harkening back to the "golden days." And it's true that it sounds exactly like the Rolling Stones sounded on It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, for example, after they perfected their modern rock sound. You Got Me Rockin' also doesn't pretend to be anything other than it is - the clue is in the title, the music is in the message, and it's also the unmistakable Stones sound, Bill or no Bill. When Mick shouts "I was a hooker losing my looks", apart from smiling at the inherent and intended dash of comic effect, you just know you're with the band that brought you, for example, Torn and Frayed. Growing up includes growing old, even if it doesn't mean slowing down. Sparks Will Fly's similarly upbeat, three-minute symphony "I want sex" - not to mention a completely unexpected and uncharacteristic transition into sheer raunchiness by an obviously exuberant Mick Jagger - is another favorite track. (To be fair to the wider community of Stones fans, discussion of this song on message boards is somewhat "Marmite-ish" - those who don't hear the absurdist humour of this straightforwardly exuberant rock'n'roll lingo tend to attack it harshly for its crudeness. Does it overstep the boundaries and limits of public decency? Yes, that's a risk the Rolling Stones have always been prepared to take. As Mick said of Beggars Banquet 25 years ago, "Some people find some lyrics rude. Some of those lyrics ARE actually rude." In slower fashion, the heartfelt confessional The Worst and the harpsichord ballad New Faces are less controversially admired. A sweet, plaintive lament over the sorrows of past youth and lost love, it suggests a similarity (and perhaps a fondness) to Ruby Tuesday. Moon Is Up picks up the pace but remains a reflective lyric. But the surprisingly exotic instrumentation - Ronnie's swinging pedal steel, Mick on castanets and harp, Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench on accordion, and Charlie playing drums on a stairwell dumpster - makes this sweet, simple, straightforward tune an unexpected highlight. Out Of Tears harks back to the great ballads of the golden age. It's very much Mick's song, a classic sad ballad that's perfectly suited to his voice, Chuck Leavell's piano and the trio of guitars from Keith (electric), Mick (acoustic) and Ronnie (electric slide). The topical, completely emotive Blinded By Rainbows, as well as Mick's song, stand out on Voodoo Lounge for different reasons. With lyrics full of ripped flesh and semtex blasts, it's unique on an album that is otherwise, as Mick admits, "all about girls, cars and immaturity". The slow-flowing '90s country rock of Blinded By Rainbows sits comfortably enough musically on Voodoo Lounge, but in terms of lyrical content, it's more akin to "tarantulas on angel food," as Chandler puts it. Voodoo Lounge is a long and consistent album, which can make it sound "samey" - just as any collection of music assembled for similarities and contrasts can sound unusual on first listen. But songs like Suck On The Jugular - it's called a groove - which is best summed up by the chorus line "Let's get together and rock all night/Let's get together and fuck all night"; and Revenge of Mean Disposition start to stand out once you get to know them. Voodoo Lounge will never be as accessible as the Stones albums that made it possible in the late 60s and early 70s, because it's a direct descendant of them - like trying to be your own grandfather - not just like him, but be him. But when it comes to the style of black and white blues that the Stones helped invent, the Voodoo Lounge has a claim to classic status. (rollingstones.com)

Album spans genres Rock, Blues Rock, Rock & Roll and Classic Rock. 180g Remastered Half Speed Master Master. Vinyl. Vinyl.