i got into the stones in 1987, i spent the years 1988 and 1989 listening to all the albums i bought so i had many dissapointments.

dirtywork, emotional rescue, black and blue being the biggest.

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Silver Dagger
Dirty Work. Terrible terrible. The magic had gone.

true...but the cracks in the armor were abundantly obvious with the prior record. i remember scratching my head in '83 wondering what had happened. it's been a measured group of disappointing records ever since....sometimes my fan-dom allows me to enjoy...but critically speaking, they haven't done anything worthy of "The Rolling Stones" in over a quarter-century now....

hi dandelionpowderman. do you really mean bridges was a disappointment? what about saint of me, or out of control? or angelina in the anybody seen my baby vid he he.

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Silver Dagger
Dirty Work. Terrible terrible. The magic had gone.

I completely agree and add a third "terrible" to your statement
"Undercover" did not make me jump with joy either, although I somehow liked the dance track "Undercover"...

Its Only Rock 'n Roll and the title song, a total sell-out, nothing to do woth the Stones or RnR .. Black and Blue nailed it further down .. Some Girls was a LOT better (apart from Miss You which I cant stand)

<hi dandelionpowderman. do you really mean bridges was a disappointment? what about saint of me, or out of control? or angelina in the anybody seen my baby vid he he.>

LOL! Love the video (and the song) too. Saint Of Me is good, OOC is way better live. How Could I Stop is excellent. But a lot of the remaining songs sound unfinished and half-baked to me.

dandelionpowderman: don't know if you remember me man, but we had a cool chat about the stones in st hans haugen last year sometime. i'm julie's boyfriend. hope to meet you again sometime

cheers for keef and the guys!

Anybody Seen My Baby was the Miss You of the 1990s! And the video was a shitload better than the 1978 video!

first real let down was dirty work, its just a nothing album of thrown together filler tracks, minus one hit

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skipstone
Anybody Seen My Baby was the Miss You of the 1990s! And the video was a shitload better than the 1978 video!

yes but you have to admit that micks antics in the miss you video are very enjoyable

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melillo
first real let down was dirty work, its just a nothing album of thrown together filler tracks, minus one hit

It actually has highlhgts but the main reasion why I agree with you is that the typical standard riff rockers are missing or terrible. So, if the basis is not given the rest cannot shine.

It's Only Rock'n'Roll. Album and Single.

Apart from sounding more present and strong than on GHS Keith's imaginitive muse had completely deserted him and the band compared to his irrepressible creative energy of only two years earlier.

Keith's strongest moments on it are the guitar solos on a Ronnie Wood knockabout and on the Temps cover version.

The second and imaginitively weaker of the two 'Jagger/Taylor' albums.

Whereas GHS flowed and had natural textures, IORR just seemed 'forced', (construed/contrived) - a once genuine R&R band trying to get noticed and compete with the galm bands.

1976's B&B finds them regaining the initiative though. Totally new sound and approach. Keith not quite so 'out to lunch'!

Goats Head Soup, without a doubt. What a letdown after the four that preceded it. I personally love IORR and thought they redemmed themselves with it after GHS though.

I'll have to go along with Four Stone Walls on this one, and more or less for the same reasons.

NME's Nick Kent had built my hopes up by giving the album a very large benefit of the doubt, making it all the more disappointing when I actually got the thing home and heard it for myself.

In fact, such is the sheer awfulness of the album, that even to this day, I find it difficult to decide which tracks are the worst; the crassness of Short & Curlies, the unconvincing, synthetic feel of Ain't Too Proud To Beg perhaps, or the unfortunate disaster that Fingerprint File somehow managed to become. Luxury and Dance Little Sister aren't that much cop either; each of them offering promising starts before quicklly running out of ideas (and direction). Even the title song sounds hideously overdone compared to the backing track of the promo video.

It's only the two ballads, If You Really Want To Be My Friend and Till The Next Time, especially, that save the album from being a complete turkey.

The irony is that the album was originally intended to be a raw, no-holds-barred collection of covers, though if the evidence of that pathetic Temptations track is anything to go by, we should perhaps, be grateful for being spared even greater embarassment.

I think GHS-IORR AND B&B are a better 3 album run than UNDERCOVER -DW AND SW, but again that is not saying much

Undercover, especially coming after the more inspired Tattoo You. First truly mediocre album has to be It's Only Rock 'N' Roll, however.

<dandelionpowderman: don't know if you remember me man, but we had a cool chat about the stones in st hans haugen last year sometime. i'm julie's boyfriend. hope to meet you again sometime>

Ha ha, there you are Kay! Thought you might be in here You've been on this board for five years??

Sure we'll meet again, and not only for my band's gigs, I hope. LOL! Next gig Aug 29 on Buckleys btw... You ok?

wow, strange to see how many people dislike iorr. for me it stands next to their best records. i coudn´t live without at least 80% of the record. everything after tattoo you is more or less a disappointment with some exceptions.

I think the sound on IORR has a lot to do with the album not being highly regarded by the fans. Personally, I think If You Can't Rock Me is one of the best songs the stones ever recorded. There are many great tracks in there too, but the muddy sound and the strange mixing in places spoils what could have been a great album. Just my two cents...

for me it was exile, but i was just simply too young when i first heard it (11).
before i only knew the "easy songs" like tell me, she's like a rainbow, ruby tuesday, etc.
it took me some years to learn that this is the best rock album that has ever been written...

The Stones have only released one studio album since I have been a fan, so its a little difficult to pick out my first disappointment!

In terms of hearing the albums for the first time, however, I guess 12x5 was a little disappointing after purchasing the excellent debut only a week before.

For those who were around at the time, I can go along with the IORR disappointment. Its certainly a step-down from the four albums that preceded it.

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LOGIE
I'll have to go along with Four Stone Walls on this one, and more or less for the same reasons.

NME's Nick Kent had built my hopes up by giving the album a very large benefit of the doubt, making it all the more disappointing when I actually got the thing home and heard it for myself.

In fact, such is the sheer awfulness of the album, that even to this day, I find it difficult to decide which tracks are the worst; the crassness of Short & Curlies, the unconvincing, synthetic feel of Ain't Too Proud To Beg perhaps, or the unfortunate disaster that Fingerprint File somehow managed to become. Luxury and Dance Little Sister aren't that much cop either; each of them offering promising starts before quicklly running out of ideas (and direction). Even the title song sounds hideously overdone compared to the backing track of the promo video.

It's only the two ballads, If You Really Want To Be My Friend and Till The Next Time, especially, that save the album from being a complete turkey.

The irony is that the album was originally intended to be a raw, no-holds-barred collection of covers, though if the evidence of that pathetic Temptations track is anything to go by, we should perhaps, be grateful for being spared even greater embarassment.

Oddly enough, thats the only two songs on the record I dont care for. Well, 'Short & Curlies' is a throwaway too. 'Til The Next Goodbye' is decent enough I guess, but I've never got the appeal of 'If you Really Want To Be My Friend'. Its far from their best record, but I still think its pretty solid - and even though theres nothing on it that is as brilliant as 'Winter', I've always preferred it to Goats Head Soup overall.

First time I've ever read that the album was going to be an album of covers. Its not as if they recorded too many for it.

Sticky Fingers.

Damn zipper is false advertising.

<and even though theres nothing on it that is as brilliant as 'Winter',>

Time Waits for Noone isn't that far behind, imo.

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Gazza

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LOGIE
I'll have to go along with Four Stone Walls on this one, and more or less for the same reasons.

NME's Nick Kent had built my hopes up by giving the album a very large benefit of the doubt, making it all the more disappointing when I actually got the thing home and heard it for myself.

In fact, such is the sheer awfulness of the album, that even to this day, I find it difficult to decide which tracks are the worst; the crassness of Short & Curlies, the unconvincing, synthetic feel of Ain't Too Proud To Beg perhaps, or the unfortunate disaster that Fingerprint File somehow managed to become. Luxury and Dance Little Sister aren't that much cop either; each of them offering promising starts before quicklly running out of ideas (and direction). Even the title song sounds hideously overdone compared to the backing track of the promo video.

It's only the two ballads, If You Really Want To Be My Friend and Till The Next Time, especially, that save the album from being a complete turkey.

The irony is that the album was originally intended to be a raw, no-holds-barred collection of covers, though if the evidence of that pathetic Temptations track is anything to go by, we should perhaps, be grateful for being spared even greater embarassment.

Oddly enough, thats the only two songs on the record I dont care for. Well, 'Short & Curlies' is a throwaway too. 'Til The Next Goodbye' is decent enough I guess, but I've never got the appeal of 'If you Really Want To Be My Friend'. Its far from their best record, but I still think its pretty solid - and even though theres nothing on it that is as brilliant as 'Winter', I've always preferred it to Goats Head Soup overall.

First time I've ever read that the album was going to be an album of covers. Its not as if they recorded too many for it.

Disappointment can be a very unforgiving emotion so perhaps I still allow it to cloud my judgement!

For months, I’d looked forward to the release of IORR, with every little titbit of information successively helping to build up the anticipation; Jagger’s all-nighters in the studio working to get Fingerprint File finished; the criticisms by Taylor that the band were venturing too much in the direction of a rockier sound; the prospect of some classic covers; the fantastic promo video of the title track itself. I couldn’t wait.

There are some excellent songs, but while the likes of If You Can’t Rock Me and Fingerprint File are crying out for a rougher, dirtier sound, which of course, their live arrangements gave them, Time Waits For No One is the real enigma. It should work, but somehow doesn’t.

As for the idea of releasing a collection of covers, to include the likes of Drift Away and Shame Shame Shame, it was first mentioned by Jagger in an interview with NME and I think that Nick Kent may even have alluded to this point in his review of the IORR album itself.

Did you notice that there are always the same records mentioned?: Goats, IORR (that was my first Stones buy, therefore it is very special to me),Black and Blue,Undercover, Dirty Work.
It is not correct to interpret them as a decline of talent or effort over the years, these albums share one thing that's different: The typical Stones up-tempo rockers are weaker than on Exile etc.!
If you give those records a second chance then you will find some phantastic results. The highlights of those records are the unusual ones and they are not embedded in a Start me Up or at least a Sad Sad Sad. Therefore the whole album is considered as less important (but more attractive to listen to some of us as we are not listening to Hot Rocks and 40 Licks all day).
That's why I count Bridges to Babylon to my favourite 5 Stones albums because you can rely on the typical Stones basis whereas Some Girls f.e. has a weird Before The Make Me Run and a bunch of punk songs.

Another thing they share is that they were the first albums post-Jimmy Miller (I know hes credited as producing GHS, but by all accounts he was a spent force by the time the sessions took place). Clearly Mick & Keith were still finding their feet as a production team.

Echoes of the only previous attempt to produce themselves - in 1967 when they did Satanic Majesties after Oldham's departure.

I suppose the fact that 1967 and 1973-75 were also periods where their creative juices were being somewhat hampered by acid and heroin respectively, (not to mention subsequent ongoing arrests and court appearances) cant have helped.

id say Goats Head and Dirty Work

well, I think---Stones-lovers---here from 15-58
But still--my first ----little dissapontment--say "Buttons"

under the boardwalk---down by the sea

.....Live Licks. Hands down.