Track Listing

1. Undercover (Of The Night)
2. She Was Hot
3. Tie You Up (The Pain Of Love)
4. Wanna Hold You
5. Feel On Baby
6. Too Much Blood
7. Pretty Beat Up
8. Too Tough
9. All The Way Down
10. It Must Be Hell

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27407 in Music
• Released on: 2009-06-08
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 45 minutes

CD Description
By the late seventies, The Rolling Stones were unquestionably the world’s greatest rock’n’roll band, a tag they thoroughly deserved and have yet to lose. They had moved effortlessly into open-air stadiums but also began a tradition of performing more intimate shows in theatres and clubs alongside their groundbreaking concerts in arenas. To the delight of their millions of fans, they have continued with this policy to the present. The world really was The Rolling Stones’ oyster in the late seventies, as their Canadian escapades made headlines around the world. They partied at Studio 54, came up with dancefloor favourites "Miss You" and "Emotional Rescue", and recorded in Paris, Nassau and New York. The eighties saw the band stretch the envelope further still, working with jazz great Sonny Rollins, film directors Julien Temple and Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and producers Chris Kimsey and Steve Lillywhite. Amazingly, the Rolling Stones topped these achievements with ever-more ambitious tours in the nineties and noughties, and recorded three more classic studio albums with acclaimed producer Don Was, in Dublin, Los Angeles, France and the Caribbean.

Produced by the Glimmer Twins and Chris Kimsey, and recorded in Paris and New York, Undercover made the Top 5 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1983. Its lead-off single, the stunning "Undercover Of The Night", incorporated elements of reggae, dub and dance and proved that the group kept their finger on the pulse of popular music. Jagger has never been in better form than when delivering its politically-charged lyrics. He also raps about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the nasty "Too Much Blood". The Top 50 single "She Was Hot" has rightly been revived by the band in recent years, as has the Richards-sung rocker "I Wanna Hold You". Corriston’s cover originally came with strategically-placed stickers to cover the risque image.

Customer Reviews

Good Stones 80's
A good rocky stones album which sounds very modern considering it's 20 years old . A interesting mix of blues , soul and rock making all songs on this album quite different from each other and listenable over and over again . Richard's song on it is as usual class and very powerfull . Too much blood is not only a good upbeat song but is also a good laugh in parts ; especially when Jagger describes his coversation on the Texas chainsaw massacre . A mixed bag of songs that complement each other perfectly , along with Steel Wheels this is their joint best 80's album .

The decline starts here....
Rating: 3.5/10

Best tracks: "Undercover of the Night", "Too Much Blood"

Where did the Stones lose it? Although 1980's weak Emotional Rescue is hardly beloved by anyone, it was immediately followed by the rather splendid Tattoo You, so when it comes to pointing the blame for the real downslide, it's 1983's Undercover; simply put, this is the one that really started the rot. The main problem is the production; for the most part, it`s utterly lifeless. "Undercover of the Night" rises above everything else here and is a great tune, arguably their last excellent single. The other single was "She Was Hot", which is a bit rubbish, but rather fun in a very trashy way. However, when the Stones resort to their usual blues-rock, it sounds staid. "The Pain of Love" is a good/bad example of this; it simply cruises, gets the job done, nothing more. Same goes for "Wanna Hold You", which nevertheless is entertaining because Keef's always good value when he gets to sing! "Feel on Baby" is a throwback to the reggae-tinged rock they meddled with far more successfully back in the seventies; it's alright, I suppose, it drifts along pleasantly enough. The other stand out here along with "Undercover of the Night" is the absolutely mind-boggling "Too Much Blood", which is the Stones trying to do a "Thriller" by way of "Sympathy for the Devil", a six-minute plus funk monster where Jagger sings about violence in modern culture, throwing in a serial killer anecdote and this totally insane bit which has to constitute the silliest thirty or so seconds in any Stones song. Behold:

"You ever see The Texas Chain Saw Massacre? `Orrible, wasn't it? You know people ask me, `is it really true, you know, where you live in Texas, is that really true, what they do to around there to people?' I said, you know, every time I drive through the crossover I get scared there's a bloke running around with a [naughty word deleted] chainsaw! Ooooh! Ooooh! Oh no, he's gonna cut off my...oh no, don't saw off my leg! Don't saw off my arm! When I go to the movies, you know, I like to see something more romantic like An Officer and a Gentleman or something! Something you can take the wife to, you know what I mean? AAAGGGHHHOOOW! TOO MUCH! TOO MUCH! YEAH!"

The album gets back to basics with the Ronnie Wood-penned "Pretty Beat Up", notoriously re-titled "Dog S***" by a less than complimentary Mick and Keef; it's more going-through-the-motions blues rock, best forgotten. The same goes for "Too Tough", which sounds like another Stones song throughout the verses, but I can't remember which one. "All the Way Down" (which sounds a lot like "She Was Hot") is an appropriate title given where the Stones' creativity was heading, although the midst of this nothingness is this rather good bit where it slows down a bit around the two minute mark; it only lasts a few moments, but it's a good bit. "It Must Be Hell" pinches the riff from the band's own "Soul Survivor" from Exile on Main Street. As a result, the song's alright, given the brilliance of the riff, but everyone sounds a bit bored on this track, especially Mick Jagger, whose vocals on the majority of this album sound like they were recorded while he was distracted doing something else, something more interesting, like rearranging his sock drawer or something.

The band sound like they're coasting. It's okay, I suppose, but who wants to waste their time with okay music? There's a whole world of music out there, and who needs the Stones 231st album?

The Freshest Sounding Stones Album
The late sixties and seventies albums are considered the classics, but this is the most modern and fun sounding stones of the lot. The blend of the choppy grittyness of the Stones guitars and Jagger's knowingly dark vocals with the dancey rhythms of Undercover, Tie You Up, Too Much Blood and Pretty Beat Up is really powerful and modern sounding, something you just don't get with the classics.
It sounds way more contemporary than Tattoo you - which is still a great album, mind.
There aren't many albums from the 80s that sound as good as this.