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| Lazy Bones |
Friday, November 16, 2001
Jagger's solo efforts getting better
By DARRYL STERDAN
Winnipeg Sun
GODDESS IN THE DOORWAY
Mick Jagger
(Virgin / EMI)
When you're already in The World's Greatest
Rock 'n' Roll Band, what do you do for an
encore?
This is the problem that has nagged at the
Rolling Stones for as long as they've been
making solo albums. They've all handled it
differently. Charlie Watts changes the subject
by playing jazz; Ron Wood laughs it off by
making light-hearted, jammy larks; Keith
Richards sticks to his guns and makes solo
CDs that are basically Stones albums minus the
Stones.
But Mick may have it toughest of all. As the
voice and face of the band -- not to mention
one of its main songwriters -- he's in a no-win
situation. If his solo work sounds too much like
The Stones, purists gripe he's parodying
himself; if he doesn't sound enough like The
Stones, they gripe he's lost touch with his roots.
On his fourth solo album Goddess in the
Doorway -- his first solo outing in eight years --
he may finally have hit on a decent strategy:
Don't write songs that sound like The Stones,
but record them as if you're making a Stones
record. Which is to say, play as much
dance-pop and funky soul as you want, but be
sure to keep the rockers cooking, keep the
ballads strong and focused -- and don't forget
to toss in a little country for good measure.
That's Mick's game plan for this 56-minute
album, and most of the time it works reasonably
well. Backed by a VIP list that includes
everyone from old-guard pals Bono and Pete
Townshend to worshipful acolytes like Joe
Perry, Lenny Kravitz and Matchbox 20's Rob
Thomas, Jagger presents some of his least
forced and thus most distinctive work on these
dozen tracks.
Joy, featuring a shared vocal with Bono and
one of Townshend's signature Morse-code
guitar lines, fuses gospel to propulsive
wah-wah funk; Hide Away jives to a spare
backing track of soulfully groovy blues; God
Gave Me Everything, co-written and performed
almost entirely by Kravitz, is a smoking
fuzz-bomb of classic rock; Lucky Day has one
of those hip-swivelling R&B rhythms you're
probably already picturing Jagger dancing to;
Everybody Getting High augments its choppy,
Joe Perry guitar lines with a robotic
electroboogie vaguely reminiscent of ZZ Top;
Too Far Gone is a southern-flavoured
roots-rocker anchored (like most of these
numbers) by Jagger's strummy rhythm guitar
and topped with burbling organ and tasty guitar
licks (once again by Perry).
If there's one quibble about Goddess it's that
it's back-loaded. For some reason, Jagger
leads off with one of the least interesting tracks,
a big arena-pop number called Visions of
Paradise, complete with strings. Originally it
was the album's title track; presumably, Mick
thought better. Too bad he didn't follow through
by moving it further back in the album, along
with the fairly standard, slightly overproduced
ballads Dancing in the Starlight and Don't Call
Me Up.
Of course, that's why your CD player comes
with a skip button. Ultimately, it just means that
Goddess in the Doorway gets better as it goes
along. As it seems, does Mick Jagger's solo
career.
So whaddaya do for an encore now? (More on:
Mick Jagger).
Track Listing
1. Visions Of Paradise
2. Joy
3. Dancing In The Starlight
4. God Gave Me Everything
5. Hideaway
6. Don't Call Me Up
7. Goddess In The Doorway
8. Lucky Day
9. Everybody Getting High
10. Gun
11. Too Far Gone
12. Brand New Set Of Rules |
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| marko |
Ouh yeah!It ain´t primitive cool! |
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| Maxlugar |
I just wet my nappies. |
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| Cardinal Ximinez |
Was that guy listening to the same thing I listened to?
Just goes to show, different strokes for different folks. |
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| marko |
Ouh yeah mates,ilove this cd,,,keeps getting better! |
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| CS |
The five stars review by Rolling Stone is available on line now at
http://www.rollingstone.com/recordings/review.asp?aid=2043318&cf=3104 |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
This is a reproduction of the review in Rolling Stone 883/884 - December 6-13, 2001. The review is the first and includes a great drawing by Brook Meinhardt. Here edited by me LOL
Brand New Set of Rules: World, Meet Mick Jagger, Solo Artist
Rolling Stone Rating:
Readers Rating:
 
By Jann S. Wenner
Up to this point, Mick Jagger's solo career has been an incidental affair, something that has surfaced in the interludes between Rolling Stones albums and tours. His previous releases - 1985's She's the Boss, 1987's Primitive Cool and 1993's Wandering Spirit - were earnest, respectable efforts that offered their fair share of pleasures but did not establish a distinct or significant new musical identity for Jagger apart from the Stones. Goddess in the Doorway finds Jagger taking a giant step - not away from the shadow of the Stones but beyond what that understandably history-bound band has been able to achieve on record in recent times.
In terms of consistency, craftsmanship and musical experimentation, Goddess in the Doorway surpasses all his solo work and any Rolling Stones album since Some Girls. It does so by returning to the dance beats, big grooves and modern edge that have characterized the Stones' best work. The key to all the Stones' classics - from "Satisfaction" and "Brown Sugar" to "Miss You" and "Start Me Up" - is that they are built from the rhythm up: Goddess in the Doorway, which was almost entirely constructed around Jagger's rhythm guitar, is a return to that modus operandi.
Jagger has poured his heart into this album. The strongest songs - "Don't Call Me Up," "Brand New Set of Rules," "Hide Away" and "Everybody Getting High" - are also the most candidly personal. In the past, he has slipped into personae - the Street Fighting Man, Jumpin' Jack Flash, the Man of Wealth and Taste - but he lets his guard down to an unprecedented degree on Goddess; the beautiful ballads draw on feelings of loneliness, vulnerability, spiritual yearning and, as always, life with the ladies.
These gains in maturity have taken no toll on Jagger's inner rock & roller. The Street Fighting Man can still swagger at the top of his - or anybody else's - game. Goddess in the Doorway resembles the Stones' best albums in that it's a varied yet cohesive collection of ballads, hard rockers and one country song. But on his own, he is free to cast off the blues-rock anchor that both defines and (at times) confines the Stones. Jagger heads into edgy, danceable modern-rock territory with the throbbing electronic groove of "Gun" and the snarling, whip-crack assault of "Everybody Getting High."
Making the most of this opportunity to stretch himself, Jagger has recruited some outstanding guests, many of them younger artists whom he directly influenced. Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty collaborates on the pop-y, melodic opening track, "Visions of Paradise," which boasts a soaring chorus. Lenny Kravitz produces and co-writes "God Gave Me Everything," a driving, riff-propelled rocker that evokes the punkish stomp of the early Stones.
On "Hide Away," one of my favorite tracks, Wyclef Jean helps burnish a subtle reggae- and hip-hop-inflected groove. Employing some of his most moving and nuanced vocal phrasing, he confides, "I'm gonna fly away/And no one's gonna find me." The lyrics portray a guy who's got it all - fame, fortune and the means to indulge any materialistic and hedonistic impulse he might divine - but is wise enough in his late middle age to know there's something more out there.
"Joy," a rocking, gospel-tinged collaboration with Bono of U2 - and featuring an indelible guitar hook from Pete Townshend - offers a revealing glimpse of what Jagger is seeking: "I looked up to the heavens/And a light is on my face/I never never never/Thought I'd find a state of grace." The mark of U2 is overt on "Joy," but the band's influence subtly courses through the rest of the album; like Bono and company in the last decade, Jagger (along with producers Marti Frederiksen and Matt Clifford) has adapted modern rhythms and contemporary production techniques to his own naturalistic rock & roll ends.
"Everybody Getting High," featuring Aerosmith's Joe Perry, and "Lucky Day" are fierce, biting rockers. No one struts or wags a tongue as sharply as Jagger, and "Everybody Getting High," in particular, stands out as a blistering, arena-ready, hard-rock singalong. The absurdist lyrics find Jagger poking fun at scenes from his celebrity life: "My dress designers, they wanna doll me up in blue/Mmm-hmm pretty/Next fall collection, they're gonna show it in the zoo." The tight blues shuffle "Lucky Day" is highlighted by some brief but fiery harmonica playing from Jagger. Like a good blues workout, it leaves you hungry for more, and this masterful use of tension and restraint is part of what makes Goddess in the Doorway so beguiling.
It may seem a truism, but it's worth noting that he is - along with John Lennon, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan and Bono - one of the great male rock voices of this age. And he is in exceptional form on Goddess in the Doorway. If anything, Jagger's voice is rounder and warmer than ever, and he brings a new richness of phrasing to the heartbroken, confessional "Don't Call Me Up" and the extraordinary closing tracks, "Too Far Gone" and "Brand New Set of Rules."
After all of the excursions undertaken on Goddess in the Doorway, Jagger brings it all back home with these last two numbers, which are musically rich and lyrically reflective ballads in the grand tradition of such Stones pillars as "Wild Horses" and "Moonlight Mile." Jagger offers unabashedly human, vulnerable sentiments on "Brand New Set of Rules" (which features daughters Elizabeth and Georgia May on background vocals): "I will be kind, won't be so cruel/I will be sweet, I will be true/. . . I got a brand-new set of rules I got to learn."
It is a clear-eyed and inspired Mick Jagger who crafted Goddess in the Doorway, an insuperably strong record that in time may well reveal itself to be a classic. World, meet Mick Jagger, solo artist.
JANN S. WENNER
(RS 883/884 - December 6, 2001)
The link to this review in Rolling Stone is the above posted by CS |
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