Label: Virgin Records (US), 7243-8-39649-2-5
Style: Funk, Rock, Rock and Roll, New Wave
Country: London, England
Time: 45:00
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 308 Mb
Charts: UK #3, US #4, AUS #3, CAN #2, FRA #11, GER #2, JPN #12, NLD #1, NOR #3, SWE #1. UK: Gold; US: Platinum.
By
now, the Rolling Stones have assumed something of the status of the
blues in popular music — a vital force beyond time and fashion.
Undercover, their twenty-third album (not counting anthologies and
outtakes), reassembles, in the manner of mature masters of every art,
familiar elements into exciting new forms. It is a perfect candidate for
inclusion in a cultural time capsule: Should future generations wonder
why the Stones endured so long at the very top of their field, this
record offers just about every explanation. Here we have the world’s
greatest rock & roll rhythm section putting out at maximum power;
the reeling, roller-derby guitars at full roar; riffs that stick in the
viscera, songs that seize the hips and even the heart; a singer who
sounds serious again. Undercover is rock & roll without apologies.
There
is a moment early on in “Too Tough,” a terrific song on the second
side, that sums up all of the Stones’ extraordinary powers. With the
guitars locked into a headlong riff and Mick Jagger hoarsely berating
the woman who “screwed me down with kindness” and “suffocating love,”
the track is already off to a hot start; but then Charlie Watts comes
barreling in on tom-toms and boots the tune onto a whole new level of
gut-punching brilliance. That the Stones are still capable of such
exhilarating energy is cause enough for wondrous comment; that they are
able to sustain such musical force over the course of an entire LP is
rather astonishing. Undercover is the most impressive of the albums the
group has released since its mid-Seventies career slump (the others
being Some Girls, Emotional Rescue and 1981’s remarkable Tattoo You)
because, within the band’s R&B-based limits, it is the most
consistently and energetically inventive.
If there are
disappointments on Undercover, they can only be claimed in comparison to
past Stones triumphs. If the album lacks the epochal impact of, say,
Sticky Fingers, then perhaps it’s because the mythic years of pop are
past — by now, even the Stones have long since bade them goodbye. But
Undercover seems to be more felicitously concentrated than Exile on Main
Street, and while it may lack that album’s dark power and desperate
atmosphere, it does deliver nonstop, unabashed rock & roll crafted
to the highest standards in the business. And that, rest assured, will
do just fine.
(full version: rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/undercover-100134/) Review by Kurt Loder. November 7, 1983
01. Undercover Of The Night (04:33)
02. She Was Hot (04:41)
03. Tie You Up (The Pain Of Love) (04:16)
04. Wanna Hold You (03:52)
05. Feel On Baby (05:06)
06. Too Much Blood (06:14)
07. Pretty Beat Up (04:05)
08. Too Tough (03:51)
09. All The Way Down (03:14)
10. It Must Be Hell (05:04)
No comments:
Post a Comment