Undercover [Original recording remastered]

i think people are judging this album on sticky,exile ect.
80% of this album is crazy up tempo stones..
i wish the last five stone albums would be as mad and crazy as undercover..

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?

I can distinctly remember buying this album in 1983 after hearing the decent single 'Undercover Of The Night' and feeling distinctly underwhelmed. There are perhaps two songs here that are substantial enough to be remembered over the longterm - the single already mentioned 'Undercover Of The Night' and 'Too Much Blood' and the others are so insubstantial it's doubtful they could be remembered even the following day.
It's best to think of 'Undercover' as what happened the morning after the night before because this was the first album in a series leading right up to the present day that represents the Stones after they lost their muse.
Every song on this album not already mentioned is a shortterm pleasure (which is perhaps better than being no pleasure at all) - it's ultimately sketchy, underdeveloped and insubstantial where the most exciting aspect is the title of the songs themselves - 'Pretty Beat Up', 'All The Way Down', 'Tie You Up', 'She Was Hot' etc.

Possibly worth a 2.5 though.