Voodoo Lounge showed that the Stones might actually be able to pull off the unthinkable --- a melding of the classic melodicism and guitarplay that they'd been known for with songcraft that sounded relatively fresh and, if not modern, at least in keeping with the aesthetic of the times. Part of that was due to the rotation of music fashion, with the sounds of the 1990s sounding a lot more like the late 60s and early 70s than the 1980s had.

Bridges To Babylon, however, showed that the union of Rolling Stones album and modern sound was still a hit-or-miss proposition. There were some fascinating modern touches on this album, and some songwriting that was still pretty remarkable despite its new production wrapper. There were also a lot of songs and ideas that just didn't quite cut it, and an atmosphere of separation and disagreement in the writing and production structure that ends up making the album feel like a bunch of solo projects going on simultaneously.

The result is an album that is a genuinely interesting but ultimately frustrating listening exercise. There's at least two bona fide Rolling Stones classics on here, but there's also a group of songs that sound either uninspired or perfunctory. It's well worth a listen with modern ears, but it may be the most dated-to-the-moment album that the Rolling Stones had made since the mid 1960s.