Review: Bridges To Babylon

What can you say about a band that’s been around for 35 years that hasn’t been said before? That they’re getting older? Who isn’t? If you’re one of those people who think the last great Stones album was Exile On Main Street, you’ll have to go on thinking that. Bridges To Babylon is not their best album nor is it their worst. It’s full of danceable, singable, cruisable music but it still lacks the edge they once had.

Babylon is a departure album in many ways. There are four guest producers along with the “Glimmer Twins” the most for any album so far. The four remaining original members are present but the group still doesn’t have a bass player. Don Was, Darryl Jones and Me’Shell Ndegeocello all get their turn on bass. For the first time since the mid-eighties Chuck Leavell is not playing keyboards. New addition Waddy Wachtell of the X-pensive Winos plays guitar on almost every track. This mix is bound to create a different sound from previous Stones offerings.

That’s not to say that the Stones don’t know what they’re doing. They know their fans will forgive them for straying into trendiness as they do on tracks like “Anybody Seen My Baby” and “Might As Well Get Juiced”. “Baby”, produced by Don Was and the Dust Brothers, is a great song that doesn’t need the rap segment in the middle. One can’t help wondering if it would be there without the input of the famous Dust Brothers.

As the album was being made, rumors were flying about Keith Richards being pissed off with all the technical “trickery” the Dust Brothers were using. “Might As Well Get Juiced” proves him to be right. This is a simple song gone horribly wrong through technological overload. Not even Mick’s voice is the same as he tries to sound like a rap artist. It is a perfect example of why you shouldn’t do something just because you can.

Having said that, the other Dust Brothers song is the best track. “Saint Of Me” should have been the first single. It’s a dance groove with pseudo-gospel lyrics that has Mick confessing that he’ll never be a saint. The song echoes back to his Lifetime Achievement Grammy acceptance speech where he said the Stones were being rewarded for “25 years of bad behavior”. “Saint Of Me” speaks of “all the special pleasures/ of doing something wrong”. And you know what he means.

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