[.ca] Bridges To Babylon

Chronique amazon.fr:
En 1997, pour échapper à la routine, au lieu de s'enfermer dans un studio pour enregistrer tous ensemble, les Stones travaillent séparément avec plusieurs producteurs : l'inévitable Don Was, mais aussi les Dust Brothers (Beck, Beastie Boys) et Danny Saber, plutôt branché dance. Les invités aussi sont nombreux : Benmont Tench dépose quelques nappes d'orgue Hammond, Jim Keltner seconde son copain Charlie Watts, Me'Shell NdegeOcello joue de la basse sur le single groovy "Saint Of Me" et Wayne Shorter vient illuminer de son saxophone soprano une ballade jazzy de Keith Richards, "How Can I Stop". Mine de rien, les Stones passent le cap du millénaire avec deux trois tubes et une tournée mondiale à guichets fermés : pas mal pour des grand-pères. --Hubert Deshouse

From Amazon.com:
It's no use comparing Stones albums to Exile on Main St. anymore; the world's greatest rock & roll band clearly substitutes finances for passion these days. But compared to, say, Soul Asylum or the Black Crowes, the band still produces worthwhile records--"Flip the Switch," "Out of Control," and the closing Keith Richards suite all give Bridges the edge over the Stones' spotty previous Voodoo Lounge. Despite dross like the plagiarized hit "Anybody Seen My Baby," and the underutilization of the talented Dust Brothers production team, the Stones don't deserve our indifference just yet. --Steve Knopper

What a draaaag it is, getting old...:
The thing is, they were always the choice of the highbrows. While The Beatles spoke to the masses, the Stones were always favoured by the college crowd. Yet, it was the Beatles who evolved and deepened and matured, and who had the wisdom to quit before the well ran dry. The Stones are still going at it forty years later. Not going strong, just going through the motions. Their well dried up years ago. Being of a certain age, I remember when "Satisfaction" first topped the charts. So my disappointment with this album does not stem from the foreshortened view of history that sometimes afflicts the young. It's actually a grown man's lament that a bunch of otherwise talented guys can't find the courage to grow up. Bridges to Babylon is a paean to arrested adolescence. It is dumb, transparent and banal. It repeats everything the boys were screaming about decades ago, except that the "boys" are now senior citizens. It is important that I make myself clear about this: I believe that growing old is one of life's gifts. I have no desire to revert to youth. Been there done that. But surely if growing old is to have any significance, it must involve an evolution for the better: the deepening of wisdom and the amassing of experience. This album contains none of these things. It doesn't even make a passing bow to nostalgia or reflection. Just inane songs about how desirable, mysterious and dangerous women are. The stuff third-rate poets have been nauseating about for thousands of years, and the Stones for going on forty. It took the Beatles less than seven years to progress from the frivolity of "She Loves You" to the introspection of "Let It Be". We saw them find wisdom before our eyes. It was wondrous to grow up with them. But the Stones lost that sense of wonder long ago because they refused to grow up. For more than twenty-five years now, we have been stuck on the same old ride in the same old time loop. This album is the worst sort of exploitation: a cynical vehicle to print money by recycling the ossified reputation of a band permanently parked in puberty. Sad.

Great ...as always...:
This is a great album....Do not compare it with previous Stones material....just compare it with some of the stuff that is being produced these days...I think "Out of Control" alone makes the price of the CD. And..., excuse me...I really think they are sounding a LOT better with age.....

Bridges to Banal-bylon:
After listening to this album, it is clear that the Rolling Stones have thoroughly worn out their welcome. This is a conclusion that most Stones fans reached after hearing Bridges to Babylon, but it is something I have felt long before this album was released. Why? Because the Stones are perhaps the most overrated rock band of all time. Despite having a few good albums and some classic singles, the majority of their records were real stinkers. When compared to contemporaries like the Beatles, the Who, Zep, and Floyd, the Stones are a distant last. You could make a record with the 12 worst Zeppelin songs and it would still be better than most of the Stones endeavors.

Amazing Return to Form For Rock Gods:
After three decent but unsatisfying albums in a row-86's "Dirty Work", 89's "Steel Wheels" and 94's "Voodoo Lounge", the Stones had sort of lulled me into believing that these types of albums were all we would ever get from them again. But in 1997, they shocked the hell out of me and released their best overall album since "Some Girls" in 1978. Every song on here is great and every musician in the band shines on every song, including the newest Stone,Bass player Darryl Jones. There is hard rock("Flip the Switch"), funk ("Anybody Seen My Baby"),soulful ballads("Already Over Me","How Can I Stop") and one of their best funky blues numbers "Might As Well Get Juiced",given a 90's techno twist by The Dust Brothers that pushes it over the top. Supposedly, Mick and Keith fought a lot over using different producers on this project and even stopped speaking at one point(what else is new?), but their conflict and drama led to some of their most brilliantly dramatic and conflicted music in a long time.The tour that accompanied this album was record breaking and musically was one of their best and this album was successful, but given the level of the material, should have been much more so.

A Lot of These People Think Too Much:
This is great rock by a great rock band. A lot of these reviewers are hung up trying to place this band in some historical or personal context. I am reminded of the old Satchel Paige question about how old would you be if you did not know how old your are. How would this CD sound if you were not caught up in a game of ranking the dinosaur bands or trying to put the past into some sort of personal perspective? Get over it. If these guys were unknown and they shopped Bridges to Babylon as a demo, my guess is they would get a lot of interest. It is good, wise rock and roll. But its only rock and roll.

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