I'm sorry...

I just heard my 40 Licks and came across all the crappy songs in Disc 2. And then came this song, Undercover.



Seriously, it's so bad it's disturbing. The Stones called themselves "the best rock n' roll band", but now we get this f*cking piece of crap! Sorry for language, but Undercover is easily the worst song I've heard.



Of course, disc 1 of 40 Licks is my favourite album of all time. The Stones were, along with The Beatles, the best rock n' roll band in the world during the '60's. After that, little songs were actually cool, let's say, Don't Stop?



So please PLEASE! Get the early albums! Get Let It Bleed! Get the album with Brown Sugar! (sorry I cant remember the name). Get the first album! But don't get this, ever!

Sleazy, sweaty, violent....and totally compelling

OK --- it's got misogynistic, sleazy, and sometimes violent and gory subject matter in its lyrics. And it rocks like a mother. As a previous reviewer pointed out, no one cut on the Stones' 'Undercover' album stands out as a particular classic, but taken together, the album somehow draws you into its world and provides a wierdly fascinating, compelling listen. Even as you shake your head in disbelief at, for example, Mick's 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'-type rap in "Too Much Blood", you will also be shaking your ass and dancing around to it as well. The other 'experimental' cut, "Feel On Baby", is without a doubt the best reggae/dub-style track the Stones ever recorded, and the rest of it is tough-as-nails rock 'n roll ("Too Tough", in particular, may stand as the Stones' most unheralded rocker). You also get a dose of politics, Nicaraguan style in the title cut. But what really becomes apparent, after a few listens, is that 'Undercover' is the last album (to date) on which the Stones really sounded as if they cared. Certainly, they have not rocked as hard since.



If 'Some Girls' was the last great Stones album, then 'Undercover' stands as the last good one. I do believe, however, that with some effort the Stones could produce one more studio album AT LEAST as good as this one. Whether or not they have the desire to is a whole other question that remains to be answered.

Very underappreciated Rolling Stones album

The Rolling Stones' first studio album since 1981's Tattoo You entitled Undercover was originally released in November of 1983 as their last studio effort with Atlantic Records for the US and Canada under the band's own Rolling Stones Records imprint.

The album was once again produced by lead singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards(a/k/a The Glimmer Twins) with engineer Chris Kimsey co-producing and was recorded in France and the Bahamas between November of 1982 and June of 1983 and mixed in New York in the summer of 1983.

By the time recording sessions began for Undercover, Mick and Keith were starting to come to loggerheads about things and the band almost imploded. How is this album(as I first heard it when my mother got the album in late 1983 then I eventually got the Columbia reissue in 1989 and the 1994 Virgin remastered CD), read on.

The album begins with the first of two hit singles Undercover Of The Night. The track was an attack on the political climate in South America in 1983(coincidentally movies like Scarface and such were coming out then) and is a great rocker with some excellent electric percussion. We follow with the album's second single and a great rocker out of She Was Hot which just rocks out. Next is the track Tie You Up(The Pain of Love) which is a great R&B felt rock song with some lyrics referring to S&M in a funny way. Next is the manadtory Keith Richards vocal track Wanna Hold You which is a great rocker in the vein of Tattoo You's Little T&A. We end the first half with Feel on Baby which is a Jamaican tinged number with some electric percussion which give the song an 80s feel.

We kick the second half of Undercover off with the US only single Too Much Blood. That track was a funk number with lyrics about a scandalous, murderous story in France, which was TRUE, about a Japanese guy who murdered this girl and it sort of captured the imagination of the French public, and the Japanese. Next is the rocker Pretty Beat Up(written by Jagger, Richards and guitarist Ron Wood whereas the rest are Mick and Keith tracks) which is a good song with sax work from David Sanborn. Next was the album's last US single Too Tough which was a great rocker with some killer solos from Woody. We follow with another rocker All the Way Down which sounds like another She's So Cold from 1980's Emotional Rescue. We close the album with the rocker It Must Be Hell which is a great closer to the album whereas the last two albums closed with slow songs, this song was uptempo.

Upon release, Undercover went to #4 on the Billboard album charts and ended the streak of consecutive Rolling Stones albums to hit #1 at 8. I know some people despise the album but I actually like it alot and would be their last good album until 1989.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!