Customer Reviews

Bridges to Babylon (Reis)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
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Don't write this one off, folks. Give it a few listens & you just might find it to be the most solid album of the recent recordings of The Stones. It does not have the Chuck Berry/country flavor of Voodoo Lounge or the percussion crunch of A Bigger Bang; but it is a consistent & surprising rock album that leaves no one alive in its wake.

Charlie's cracking the drums with electricity & perfect timing. Keef chinks & chunks the notes at you like sneering smoke in your face. Ron's back there doing something - you don't know what it is, but it sure as hellfire works. Then there's the featherweight prize fighter Mick. He's not backing down or bluffing. Get out of his way. There's some other plays too - some jazz sax, some backing vocals, etc. It all comes together well with more hits than misses.

Just listen & enjoy.

I remember a few years ago when I pilfered this from my mother's cd collection, I was immediately drawn to how interesting and strange the album can be at times. The Dust Brothers seem like a really good fit for these guys, added odd bass loops and samples to the songs they helped with.

Seeing as how this album came out in 1997, you might wonder if a remaster is really all that necessary...well I've compared this 2009 remaster with my mother's original cd and I can say that it's a welcome addition to my collection.

From the smooth/roughness of the opening track to Might as Well Get Juiced, the remaster definitly brings some things to the forefront of the recording that weren't there before.

Overall, a great album and one that shows that if anything the Stones have only gotten stronger with age.

This stones album is a late career masterpiece. Listening to this album crystallizes the idea that this is the best rock and roll band of all time. They are so mature in this music. Clean, with minimalist licks. Anyone who says the stones peaked at any point before this is living in the past. Rock and roll doesn't get any better than this....yet.

I must confess I overlooked this Stones album. I used to buy Stones albums automatically, but beginning with Steel Wheels I thought they lost their edge. Keith Richards' recent bio mentioned a sax solo on this album and when I went back to sample the album on Amazon I decided to get it. Worth buying if you are a Stones fan and don't have it already.

My buying this album was a delayed reaction. First, I got the DVD of its tour. Then, after reading Keith Richards: The Biography it was a done deal. The album is great and what you'd expect from the royalty of Rock & Roll.

I am the Stones Authority. I'm finally getting around to reviewing the late generation Stones albums. This is a very good album. It was a really good tour also. Great Show. This is the second of the two studio albums supported with tours by the Stones in 90's, Voodoo Lounge being the other - also a very good album. Not a lot of output for a decade, but what they did put out (along with Stripped, a live and somewhat acoustic small band Stones compilation) was quality. They would never again be the Top 40 wonders they were after their foray in 1981 with Tattoo You, times change, tastes change - the 90's gave us Rap music and Seattle Grunge. Oh well, that is what the kids were liking then, but if you were a die hard Stones fan - as I am - then your long wait between albums would not disappoint. "Saint Of Me" is a killer track, as is "Out Of Control". These two songs would have stood tall in any previous Stones album. And other tracks such as "Anybody Seen My Baby", a mesmerizing plaint of modern urban ennui and love lost, and "Too Tight", a whimsical and maybe even somewhat nostalgic little rocker harking back to the days of Emotional Rescue's "Let Me Go" and "She's So Cold", as does Keith's little number "You Don't Have To Mean It", continue to show the Stones off as diverse and capable of touching all the zones and genres, effortlessly and enchantingly. I hate to say it, but even maturely. The thing about all of the music on this album is that it sets a mood. It is a cohesive album start to finish. And it casts a spell that makes it hard to put off once it starts. This album and Voodoo Lounge are as fine an example as any of their work that the Stones are greater than the sum of their parts. That individually, however talented they may be when apart from each other, something special and magical happens when the boys get together and the others join in. Channeling the Spirits of the past - and a bygone era. This album with Voodoo Lounge and the recently released BIgger Bang leaves me hoping that their is still time for at least one more, once more before the age passes and the door closes forever on an era now bygone and fading on the yellowed pages of history.

I'm one of the original American Stones fans. I remember in '64 when Murray the K came back from London with some crappy audio recording of the crowds going berserk as the Stones performed at Wembley. Murray (aka 'the 5th Beatle') frantically described the scene as a raw, sex-charged display.

I got away from them in the '80s after the Tempe, AZ concert that was filmed for "Let's Spend the Night Together." And I have to say I haven't been very faithful in the three decades since.

Then, about 6 months ago, I finally found a copy of Stanley Booth's "The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones," which is focused on the fateful '69 tour that climaxed at Altamont. Booth had complete access to the band, for the length of the tour and for the next 15 years. (Booth is a slooow author.) It is by far the most professional and insightful book on the boys - on Stu and Keef especially. It recounts all the sad, angry and crazy stuff that went down with Brian. We also revisit the comedy of errors at Redlands - Keef's estate - in absurd detail.

A friend loaned me 'According to the Rolling Stones,' a coffee-table book containing lots of interesting tales and first person recollections by the lads. It's an excellent effort and a bit of a family project. It's edited by Charlie Watts and Dora Loewenstein, among others, Dora being the daughter of Prince Rupert, the Stones' business adviser for about 40 years.

'True Adventures' and 'According to...' - sent me back to the discography to catch up. By luck, I landed first on 'Bridges to Babylon,' a sinuous, crackling classic overflowing with carefully crafted mischief. Charlie and Daryl lead the sonic assault that carries all the stops and starts. I haven't listened to 'Bridges' that many times, but it is clearly among Keef's best vocal efforts.

There is a different Mick on display here. He's not the brash, boastful old satyr. This man has doubts, as does any man in his mid-50s. He even gets a bit confessional. I found it quite appealing. After a certain point in one's life, it's time to put away the Little Red Rooster.

Another reviewer credited the Dust Brothers - producers of the sessions - for creating the atmosphere of 'Bridges.' If that's so, then good on them.

As long as we're hearing confessions, I must admit I had never listened to 'Bridges to Babylon' until a few days ago. (Be aware it is now in heavy rotation at mi casa.) Soon, I may be ready to include 'Bridges' in my Stones Top Ten. Highly recommended.