What are your feelings on Undercover? My personal opinion is it's the last GREAT Stones album, and it's really the last album where the Stones were actually trying, not just phoning it in or staying in their comfort zone. Call me crazy, but I actually like the increasingly synthy-funky-dance-esque direction that Mick was taking the Stones in from Some Girls onward. They didn't simply blindly just play whatever was hot, they took what was hot and put a Stonesy spin on it.

With Emotional Rescue and Undercover they were successfully navigating their way into the early-mid 80s musical scene--being still a vital, relevant act. But since 1989 they've been pretty much playing it safe in studio--opting just to go with their "tried and true" '70s-ish sound, and have become since around '89 a nostalgia act. Safe, not taking any risks.

I look at a song like Too Much Blood as an awesome, fun, dirty Stonesy track, yet also very much '80s, very much in tune with what Prince and MJ were doing--I'd have liked if they continued in this sort of direction or done more tracks like it

IMO, the second (newer) half of Tattoo You, Emotional Rescue and Undercover are very much underrated Stones' albums.

Undercover is pretty good. It’s better than the underwhelming Emotional Rescue, but a few notches below Tattoo You. She Was Hot, Pain Of Love, All The Way Down, the title track… Undercover does have a few aces up it’s sleeve, certainly.

Always loved this album. Not a ballad in sight. Couple of dud tracks, but over all, it was a fave. And yeah, probably their last inspired work. Though i like VL, and think it's an album that has lasted better.

Actually, I think Steel Wheels is their last GREAT work. It's a safer record than Undercover is, but it has a very late '80s sort of charm to it. It's sort of an in between point--in between the Stones trying new stuff, and the safer, more "retro" material that came later.

So yeah I just wanted to revise my opinion a little--Undercover is great, but so is Steel Wheels, for different reasons.

Terrific lp.

Steel Wheels' 80's production sounds really dated now. Check out the raw mixes of some of the alternates and outtakes and it really is a case of what might have been. Its a patchy album, but it has three utterly wonderful songs - Continental Drift, Almost Hear You Sigh and Slipping Away. None of which are typical Stones-sounding songs either.

Undercover's pretty underrated. Loud and nasty album. Best song on it for me is the hugely underrated 'Feel On Baby' - and the 12' dub mix of this song (released only on vinyl) is one that really SHOULD be on a rarities album. One of the few remixes/dub versions of a Stones song that was successful.

it makes me moist

:nooslajaleisk

Undercover is possibly the Rolling Stones' most ambitious album since Some Girls, if not their entire career, as it is a mix of hard rock, reggae, dub, soul, and new wave. The inclusion of new wave in the mix is not surprising considering it is 1983 and the Stones were attempting to reinvent themselves for the MTV era; however what makes this album stand out in the Stones' catalog is the fact that it is so bleak, violent and nihilistic in attitude and overall feel, as it makes previous Stones' albums such as Let It Bleed sound like The Carpenters.

The album teems with Sadism & Masochism ("Tie You Up (The Pain Of Love)," "Feel On Baby," "Pretty Beat Up," and "Too Tough"), nymphomania ("She Was Hot," (a minor hit) and "All The Way Down"), political violence and corruption ("Undercover (Of The Night)" and "It Must Be Hell"), and to top it all off, the overblown slasher imagery of "Too Much Blood." Keith Richards' "Wanna Hold You" seems like an anomaly in the whole mix as it is a straight-forward rocker in the middle of unrelenting mayhem. This particular formula was probably too much for people to stomach as it was a commercial fall off from Tattoo You and most of the Stones' previous albums, failing to top the charts (stalling at #4) and providing only one Top 40 hit with "Undercover (Of The Night)," which barely cracked the Top 10 at #9. The commercial fortunes of the album are not an indicator of the album strengths or weaknesses; on the contrary, time has done a great service to this album as it has aged gracefully in spite of its disturbing atmosphere.

The mix of genres combined with the lyrical content and the ever-growing feud between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards make this album stronger and more substantial (depending on one's taste or lack therof) than Tattoo You. An underrated gem in the Stones' catalog, if not 1980s music in general. It seems as if Kurt Loder had it right back in 1983 when he gave this album four and a half stars in his review for Rolling Stone Magazine.



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What,they´ve been "safe" musically since 1983?? no fucking way,how about songs like

Continental drift
Break the spell
Moon is up
the worst
Thru and thru
anybody seen my baby
might as well get juiced
how can i stop
out of control
saint of me
infamy
laugh i nearly died

and many more......i personally think that ABB tour was their only tour to be "safe" up to that,they did play lot of interesting songs.

I feel Undercover is an underrated record by the masses. The album had solid rock songs and two fantastic singles that could be played in the dance halls and clubs. Some people may say this album sounds dated due to the production, but I think the production makes it stand out with Tattoo You among the few releases the Stones had in the eighties. Dirty Work didn't have all the Stones working together on the album. Steel Wheels was overproduced, reducing some of the effectiveness of the songs, making them dull, lifeless and unmemorable tunes. Undercover, to me, was the last great Stones album.

Undercover is underrated.  It will always be special to me because it's the one album I got grounded over.

I think alot of people over looked it at the time because of the fascination with Michael Jackson, Duran Duran and such.  I was in high school when it came out and no one my age was interested.  They wanted the MTV bands.  

It's a dark album too, except for She Was Hot and Wanna Hold You.  Perfect for the early/mid 80's and all the BS going on with Reagan and South America.  I saw two families lose their family farms the summer before it came out - and several the year before near the little town where we used to live.  It fit my overall mood.  Being 15 and thinking you know everything.  ::)

Love it; glad I'm not the only one who digs "Feel On Baby."  
Brainy

" What are your feelings on Undercover?  "


<   ---- Outstanding Album !!!!!!!


Features great Keef & Charlie .......... and the usual superb Mick vocals .


" Hit Me Ronnie ! "

JACKY ! ®

This album is a little bit cold sounding like lots of materials from 1980 years , in a same way Jagger's "she is the boss" got the same sound and i don't like them so much .

For me their last good album was Woodoo Lounge , great sounding , warm , it was a prolific period , woodoo brew and all the materials they were  recording during this period sound awesome .

"You Got It Made" is one of the best song they ever done.

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riffkeither wrote on Jun 9^th, 2011 at 8:47am:

"You Got It Made" is one of the best song they ever done.

That my friend, is a bold statement, mainly because I have never heard this tune before. So I had to look it up I got to tell ya I really dig it! Thanks broseph!


http://youtu.be/14OC40gK-BE

Definitely better than Emotional Rescue and more daring than Steel Wheels but SW and Voodoo Lounge just deliver the goods more. "It Must Be Hell" and "Tie You Up" are pretty third-drawer, "Too Much Blood," "Pretty Beat up" and "Feel on Baby" aren't quite the dance successes that tracks like "Hot Stuff" and "Miss You" were. I like a few tracks still, "Too Tight," "She Was Hot," "Wanna Hold You" and "Undercover of the Night" being the only ones that merit a four or five star rating in my books. Final grade: B (3 stars out of five). Better than Dirty Work and Bridges to Babylon but not by much.

I thought with Undercover, they managed to meet the new era of music and video creation in a total package, on their own terms, and with originality. With Dirty Work, they just...well, less said the better. As Gazza said, Steel Wheels has dated rapidly. When i 1st got Undercover, i loved it. Really rocking record. Dirty Work was like "What the fuck is up with Jagger's voice? Then "what the fuck is up with these shit songs?". With Steel Wheels, i was iniitally thinking "great, great, yeah man", then as the record goes on (BTW, SW was the 1st release Stones cd i bought) i thought "Why do the guitars sound so weak?" Sure, i'm liking it a bit, but where's a decent rocker? Where's the bloody distortion! I was a huge fan of The Cult, Maiden, sure GnR, Aussie band Kings of the sun, and Soundgarden (I was the 1st to buy Louder than love in Melbourne - confirmed by Gaslight Records in Bourke St!!! - yay me!). SW just sounded so gentle in comparison. What a dilemma? DW trying TOO hard to be tough, and SW not tough enough.

And thats why Undercover for a long time was my fave Stones 80's album. Even more than Tattoo You for a while.

i was listening to undercover the other day. LOUD. i agree with angieblue. the album is way underrated. she was hot-- rocks, all the way down--awesome guitar riffs and too much blood a hilariously entertaining attempt at rap. i wanna hold you is a cute pop tune. i heard keith perform a more bluesy version was it at MSG?

My top 3 from Undercover:

1. PAIN OF LOVE ~ whenever I am feeling the pain of love in any form, I blast this song and sing it as loud as possible 3 or 4 times, and by the 4th time I feel so much happier! This is because I get some comfort knowing I'm not the only fool who feels the ups and downs and crazy shit that we do for love, and we do get over it, and come back with a bang!

This is my favorite line, but the whole song rocks!

You dream of it, passionate
You get a rise from it
Feel the hot cum
Dripping on your thighs from it
Why? why so divine, the pain of love?

2. ALL THE WAY DOWN
I was 21 naive...she showed me love a thousand ways...I raved about it every night...shes a slut....she went all the way down....shes there when I close my eyes.

OK the way I interpret this song is that she was young MICK's wake up call that a women can be so accomplished in the ways of lovemaking he was blown away, literally! In fact, he still thinks about her years later, shes there when he closes his eyes, her sexual expertise really turned him on!

3. SHE WAS HOT!
On a cold and damp NY night, she grabbed a cab and came right by for a glass of French Champagne, kissed his mouth and had a steamy one night stand with MICK! What could be hoter than that?  

And this little line gives us some powerful words to live by!

Honey when you your young and fresh
And you need the touch of flesh
Go take the pleasure where you find it

I wish I had seen this when fresh...but I was tied up in a major move ( still in Chapel Hill)...

\anyway...UNDERCOVER is in my top 3...top 5 at worst...I LOVE this album...for too many reasons to mention w/o becoming "that poster".

Some great somgs that have already been mentioned...some funny/great/stupid MTV moments...and i will never pose as someone who doesn't like the title track, Too Much Blood or She Was Hot ( my name on SHIDOOBEE), PBU...It was the Stones embracing the 80's and what the 80's had become all too fast...with TY being just re-writes of older songs...they evolved from the ER ( FM Radio disco??) Stones to the multi-platform  Stones of the MTV generation...seamlessly...

Great memories and I was really sorry that they didn't tour the LP...

Gazza wrote on Jun 6^th, 2011 at 7:09am:

Best song on it for me is the hugely underrated 'Feel On Baby' - and the 12' dub mix of this song (released only on vinyl) is one that really SHOULD be on a rarities album. One of the few remixes/dub versions of a Stones song that was successful.

That extended (radio) version of She Was Hot; now THAT should be on rarities!