This one just SOUNDS great--I love the production on this. A close second would be "Stripped". As a matter of fact, the latter-day Stones recorded output all sounds fantastic, which leads me to believe that the new album will be sonically superb, as we've come to expect. What do you think?

I agree. Voodoo Lounge has a warm production. The best production since the 70s. Although nothing beats a Jimmy Miller production.

Absolutley the best album of the 90's. It's still my favorite. I hope Don Was has still got the magic in his hands

BowieStone Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I agree. Voodoo Lounge has a warm production. The
> best production since the 70s. Although nothing
> beats a Jimmy Miller production.
>
> - BowieStone


True, but I would add Some Girls. Very good production.

VL? No way. Waaaaaay too slick and polished. Rock'n'roll shouldn't sound like this. Don Was is a disgrace. Best sounding Stones album? Gimme EOMS or SG anyday...that's rock'n'roll.

Tattoo You

Well Don's production on the latest from Solomon Burke is very polished so I hope it not an indication of what the newie from The Stones camp will sound like.....

ROCKMAN

The most acclaimed of all the Rolling Stones albums is Exile on Main Street and the sound of that album is incredibly muddy. I much prefer the production of Tattoo You or Voodoo Lounge to Exile, but in the end it is the quality of the songs that count. My favorite productions are:

1. Sticky Fingers.
2. Voodoo Lounge
3. Tattoo You

Black And Blue is very well produced.

It is ironic that one of the Glimmer Twins , MJ, has stated that he would re-mix the sound for EOMS, the Holy GRail of Stones music.

Of course life and THIS BOARD is full of ironies, lets see;

1) Mathijs and Flip the Switch has prpobably played to audiences as big OR BIGGER than the VIBRATO KING MT in the last 5 years ( chew on that Open G).
2)No one on this board is any where near as successful as The Rolling Stones, yet many of us obviously know better than they do what they should do with their carreer right now.
3) Read the posts, Ronnie has fooled the world including other famous musicians into thinking he is a world class artist when he is so obviously a talentless hunk of crap.
4) I usually try and make peace and here I am sarcastically baiting one faction after another on the board while veering wildly off topic.

I NEED A DRINK, A NEW CD, AND A NEW TOUR IN THAT ORDER. I guess since it ain't happening today, off to the beach I go.

HAPPY EASTER ALL FELLOW FANS AND POSTERS ON IORR!!!

Let It Bleed was the best produced, all the way around.

Other well produced albums IMO:
Tattoo You
Beggars
Fingers
Some Girls
Aftermath (really Mick and Keith taking the sonic controls, but in the end they are better off NOT producing themselves)

Milo, NYC
All my friends are junkies

I guess first one would need to determine what you mean by "best" pruduction.
To me the "best" sounding production is "Sticky Fingers". Because I know what I am looking for and I am finding it here in the sounds and music. In the texture, in the actual mikes and sound proofing used etc. Not to say that I know what they used for baffl;es but what ever it was it sure did the trick because the recordings are excellent.
Now also under the production header falls "arrangment". Again a topnotch job here by the twins in their choice of adding horns, in their choice of the feel for "You Gotta Move", the jam in CYHMK and the huge strings in "Sway". The decision to keep the slide tracks on "Sway", the percussion on CYHMK, the piano tinkling in Dead Flowers, the beautiful Buckmaster score on "moonlight Mile", the opus in A minor culled from one sentence that Jagger repeated for a whole summer while hanging with Marianne and Keith (Sister Morphine...). The deadon tight recordings of Brown Sugar and Bitch. These were done mainly live in studio. With fairly little separation and overdubs. By today's standards the amount of trax used is laughable. But what a classic! It's in the microphones, the room, the amps and guitars and the age, spirit and fire of the performances. Was Jimmy Miller the producer? On paper yes. But I think it was the year, the studios, the layover in Muscle Shoals with Jim Dickinson, Keith on a little H, and Jagger on a lot of C and whiskey. Just enough revernce for the hallowed grounds of the Deep South recording studios. Billy Preston in London was redhot and the perfect choice to burn up the grooves while attending mass on I got the Blues. That horn section is so tight! Maybe Bobby and Jim felt like they had something to prove to the greatest band in the world of the times. Everything was new and ebverybody was eager to excel. To be great. There are 10 trax on SF and each song has a tale. Can anyone think of a tale to tell about "baby break it down"? Or "Sweethearts together"? Or even the single "Love is Strong"? Now I dig the Voodoo Lounge of course. But to me after Steel Wheels it has probably the WORST production of any Stonesalbum. The technology is there, yes. It was 94 and how could one not use it? But Don Was was so in awe of Exile and the Stones' legacy that he couldn't think one SINGLE original thought. There they were: Jagger, Keith and Don Was and the best studio warstory they came up with was to stick Charlie ibn the staircase with the drums. Duh! I mean every garageband has done that. Nothing wrong with it, mind you, but if I'm lookinmg for greatness it's not there. Even the supposed "dirty" sounds are clinically perefect. The last track of Mean Disposition should have been the centerpiece.
Are we mainly talking aboutthe technolgical aspects when saying production? How it sounds in the headphones on a SACD. Where it almost doesn't even matter which song is playing. Could be Abba...
Do the people who pick VL really feel that the Stones never burned brighter than when they were creating Voodoo Lounge? That the channels were wide open. The cosmos was singing their tune and celebrating the birth of the Voodoo Lounge.
because this kind of sentiment is what I feel when I hear "Moonlight Mile" with the vocals the strings and the piano and cymbals. When the big choir drops out from the chorus in "Knocking" and the song kerruncks!!! into another gear, dimension. The shakers and hand drums start shaking and the great Tenor sax knocks before entering. When Keith sings on top of Jagger in the refrain to "Wild Horses", or when the bariton Sax and trombone contribute these obscene squonks under the second verse of "Bitch": "Sometimes I'm sexy"- squonk - "move like a stud" - squonk, squonk - "kicking the stone..."
The technolgy used from Sticky Fingers through Exile, into GHS (to an extent) but definetly on IORR and most of Black and Blue all seems of one family. Maybe it's Andy Johns and Keith Harwood with the Twins, some Jimmy, Stu and lots of 70's glam. Some Girls is also excellent but in an American way now.
After that album it changed. IMO they Stones should have never gone over 16 tracks. Or digital. because I don't care what anyone says on VL they are using dig. It is very evident when listenig to all of Brew, Stew and Residue.
Enough.

a) Sticky Fingers
b) Steel Wheels
c) FlashPoint

Well Chelsea back in the 80's didn't Keithy Boy say something like...Studio technology was the biggest threat to the sound of the Stones...or something to that effect...?

Someone will know the quote PottedShrimp...Kenty..KeithRichards..Bassplayer?

ROCKMAN

I think you got it about right Rockman. Can't remember the exact quote.

I'll have my rant in this too by the way.
To answer the question: No, it's not the best produced Stones album. It is way up there among the best though.
The question can be looked upon in two different ways:

1.- Is it the best produced album (Meaning: Is this the best way a Stones album was produced ever)?

2.- Is this the album that has the best production fitted for the songs (Meaning: Coherence between the songs (Album in full) and the production)?

If it's the first, then maybe I'd say yes. Voodoo Lounge has a great production. Not very slick, as some might say. It sounds raw. But if we talk about best produced (Don't think "Production fitted for the songs" here) I might even say Bridges To Babylon here. The tools to produce with has obviously become better and better as time has passed by.
If it's the second I'd say a definite no. There's albums that has productions fitted better for the songs. Sticky Fingers, Beggars Banquet, Black And Blue, Let It Bleed. All of those has a production that suits the songs better than Voodoo Lounge has (The reason I don't mention Exile On Main Street is that it simply is too messy, which of course fits on the album, but it's not the best at all IMO. And the production on Some Girls is a tad boring I think).

So in my opinion you gotta find out what is more important to you of the two possibilities I talked about. To me it's the second one. Production that fits the songs is way more important. And by this I don't mean that Britney Spears is cool. Seems like an odd thing to say? I agree . But I'll explain:
Britney is one of the top acts, pop-wise, today. She has a very good production on her albums (See the above posted possibility #1). The production even fits the songs very well (I.e. Easy digestable crap songs with a non-exploding super slick production). Even though the production fits the songs very much (Mainly because it's dance/pop) I don't like it. See Britney Spears is a combo of the two possibilities. It is a good production (#1) and it suits the songs (#2). Just because I chose the second possibility, it doesn't mean that everything done that way is good.
I have no idea how I should close off this post. So I'll just close it now.

Damn it.................I'm starting to speak Russian again I think. Was this post understandable at all???

JumpingKentFlash

Britney!! jeez man she's banned from my stereo.....but I did have a laugh when I saw this dudes T-Shirt that read...I Speared Britney...classic!!!

ROCKMAN

I think it's an odd question to ask because it depends what is meant by the term best. Is it clearest/cleanest because if it is that style of production really runs against what the Stones are really all about. I don't particuarly like the production on Voodoo Lounge it's to clean and clinical - the Stones best music shouldn't sound like this although it's not half as bad as Steel Wheels which is where i feel the Stones hit an all-time low in that respect.

One of the main reasons I really don't like Voodoo Lounge is because of the production. The aim of the Stones and Don Was to have it sound "organic", and I just don't like organic. I like the snare to snap and crackle and hit you right between the eye, I like the bassdrum to thump you in the belly, I like the cymbals to really crash -I like Chris Kimsey. That man has made the drums sound like they never did before. He also recorded the guitars just as I like them: a Telecaster through a cranked boogie, and setting these treble tones real high and dry in the mix. That's how I like it! I'd say that Some Girls is the best recorded album, together with Emotional Resque and Tattoo You, but the skills of Kimsey can be heard even better on the 1977 Pathe Marconi outtakes. There you hear a band in a room, and it sounds encredible.

Don Was attempt was to make it sound organic, but it just sounds fake to me. All Keith's guitars on Voodoo Lounge sounds fake. It sounds like an attempt to make a guitar sound like Keith Richards, and it fails. There's no presence, there's no attack, it all sound lame. Charlie's snare on Voodoo Lounge is horrible. It's lame and boring, and it doesn't make me want do dance. And that's what's Stones music all about in my opinion!

Mathijs

best produced or worst produced, all i know is that mean disposition is a nice rock and roll tune and would be a great number to play onstage...it doesn't seem to be that difficult of a song to play and i think it would really get the folks shakin their tail feathers...

The best thing on VL:
The Snare Drum sound from Charlie.
You can recognize it 100 miles against the wind...
For me it´s the best Sound of a Snare available on a Stones record!

I agree with Mathijs on the snare. On the 89-90 tour the snare sounded meaner, harder than ever since. It really jumped out of the rest of the sound. So I would go for Some Girls. The first half of Tattoo You is also great, the second half is a bit to slick. B2B obviously is the worst of 'em all.

Edward

mr edward Wrote:
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> B2B obviously is the worst of
> 'em all.
>
> Edward

Well, not for some songs. I love how Flip the Switch, Low Down, Already Over Me, Too Tight and How Can I stop are produced. It's a wall of sound, but everything is still clear and really sparkles. Low Down is one of the Stones songs since the 1977 sessions in my book!

Mathijs

I just don't like the general sound of the album. There are some great songs (out of control, lowdown and too tight), but it doesn't sound raw, mean enough for me. It's like a collection of songs really, not an album...

Edward