THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 11, 1994 TAG: 9407090052
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music Review
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
``WHAT ARE YOU scared of, baby?'' Mick Jagger pleads as guitars skitter and crackle. ``Love Is Strong,'' the opening cut of the new Rolling Stones album, ``Voodoo Lounge'' (Virgin), finds Jagger howling for his baby.
He trails after this stranger, vowing ``Someday, babe, we got to meet,'' but this is no Midnight Rambler stalking his prey. If anything, the singer is paralyzed with desire: ``My mind is ripped/My heart is torn.'' A threat is here, though, and along with the tune's sleazy drag, it kicks ``Love Is Strong'' into the realm of great Stones tracks.
``Voodoo Lounge,'' which will be released Tuesday, spends most of its time in that rarefied territory. It's the band's first disc under a $45 million deal with Virgin Records and its first studio album since ``Steel Wheels.'' But where that 1989 raison d'tour was a rushed, often listless affair, ``Voodoo Lounge'' finds the Stones more up than down. For sheer listenability, it's their best work since the underrated ``Dirty Work'' (1986).
The Stones have dropped the speedy tempos that marked many of the topnotch rockers on LPs like ``Dirty Work,'' ``Some Girls'' and ``Tattoo You,'' opting instead for limber, insinuating midtempo grooves. Darryl Jones, the bassist who replaces retiree Bill Wyman on ``Voodoo Lounge'' and will be along on the tour that starts Aug. 1 at Washington, D.C.'s RFK Stadium, carries himself in true Stones style. Along with the eternally fine Charlie Watts, he nails down everything in sight with an absence of flash.
The feel owes something to Keith Richards' low-to-the-ground solo albums, but more than anything, it's a testament to the primacy of the Stones as a unit. Imaginative arrangements like those of ``Moon Is Up'' (which seems to consist of not much more than Jagger's voice, a drum or two, Ronnie Wood's striking wah-wah pedal steel playing, and a whisper of percussion and harmony vocals) and ``Brand New Car'' (dig those lazy horns) are the products of an outfit that's nowhere near ready to quit - no matter how many birthday-cake candles they have to blow out.
Age is given barely a nod on ``Voodoo Lounge,'' with Jagger moaning in ``New Faces'' about a ``figure of youth'' who seems to be stealing his lady friend away. ``New Faces'' is one of the record's weakest cuts, a misguided throwback to the baroque-pop touches of classics like ``Lady Jane,'' with little of the heartfelt bite. In fact, the few dead spots on the new set are invariably ballads, whether the whiny, heartbroken ``Out of Tears'' or the, well, whiny social commentary ``Blinded by Rainbows.'' The latter is as embarrassing an addition to the Jagger/ Richards songbook as was ``Steel Wheels' '' watery ``Almost Hear You Sigh.''
Much better is the spin they put on the dance numbers' time-tested themes. In the compulsively thumping ``You Got Me Rocking,'' Jagger is ``a hooker losing her looks . . . a tycoon drowning in debt'' until he meets the object of his lust. And alongside ``femmes fatales'' in the laundry list of must-to-avoids in ``I Go Wild'' are ``waitresses with broken noses'' and ``checkout girls striking poses.'' (You can bet he only makes love to 'em once.)
Jagger is also anything but tired on the party-down anthem ``Suck on the Jugular,'' demanding that ``men . . . be men/And wimmen wim-men.'' ``Jugular's'' '70s-funk touches are ``Voodoo Lounge's'' only concessions to current dance-music trends - can you imagine Keith approving a stab at techno? - and also help make the most immediately irresistible thing on the album. by CNB