Wow, I just can't stop listening to Undercover. For the record it's the 2009 UMG edition. I'll admit that it isn't great for the same reasons Sticky Fingers or Some Girls are great, but it's just so deliciously 1980's - Stones style. It's a completely new sound for them. Undercover..., Wanna Hold You, Too Much Blood and Too Tough - any album that has four repeat listens on it qualifies for golden status in my book, especially compared to todays music. I'll give It Must Be Hell an honorable mention too. I would love to hear the instrumental Cellophane Trousers one day. I nominate Undercover for the Stones most underrated album.

I agree
always loved it
Undercover of the night, Too Tough, Too much blood ... yes !!!!

I think undercover is a grat album yeahh

I always considered this their last very good album. Undercover was a strong single with a good promo video that caused a bit of contraversy / publicity. I found it a back to basics rock album.

Aside from the somewhat out of place monster hit Start Me Up on Tattoo You, I think Undercover is a better album. Start Me Up just dwarfs Tattoo You.

Just as Emotional Rescue did not live up to expectations (by critics) after Some Girls...
..Undercover followed Tattoo You. Even though I was hungry for more of the same...I
was pleasantly surprised with Undercover. It was so much better than most of
the crap that was coming out in that time period. I think..had they toured behind
UNDERCOVER..our perspective may be different....it probably wouldn't be
considered underrated.


IORR............but I like it!

Great album, the last cut is not so good, but all others IMo are are good as the Stones as a full ever band did.

Last Great Album

agree, last great album! really started tom love it when i finaly bought it on vinyl!!! SWH is the highlight on shine a light.

Great album to me. Just could do without that trite little track "Wanna hold you" which Keith once described as a "cuddly song" - puke - and "Feel on baby" is so blah and goes way too long.

Love the FEEL of Undercover. The whole thing has that nasty, machete-guitars, dark, depraved vibe. Dirty Work wanted a similar vibe, but it was too much yelling from Mick and the songs weren't as good.

The 80s production has never bothered me as much as it seems to bother others on the board, but it does sound dated -- just not in a horrendous way.

I agree it's the last great album, and I love Bridges. It just doesn't feel like one piece the way Undercover does.

Great album to me,too.
Feel On Baby album version´s way too short,squando,I´ll recommend the 12" one...

first sign of serious trouble for the band....

Love it

The actual follow up to Emotional Rescue.

Great tunes on it - She Was Hot and Tie You Up are outstanding. I've always loved this album, even with the silly Too Much Blood. Feel On Baby has always been a fave, as well as All The Way Down and Too Tough.

Very strange in a way is that UOTN fits on this album but is way more aggressive than anything else on the album and it seems very odd on the hits comps because it's so off the beaten path different. I've always like the song, I've just thought it's been a waste of time live.

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skipstone
The actual follow up to Emotional Rescue.

Good point! And musically it makes sense. I think EMOTIONAL RESCUE is much closer to UNDERCOVER than TATTOO YOU is. TATTOO YOU is quite 'retro', starting from "Start Me Up" (poor man's "Brown Sugar" ), plus the slow flip side's being an oddity in itself (EXILE side 2 vol. 2) but the RESCUE album is more trendy 'dance' album' as UNDERCOVER is. Think of "Dance", "Emotional Rescue", "Undercover of The Night", "Too Much Blood"; the reggae sounds of "Send It to Me", "Feel On Baby"... And then the both albums are filled with basic Marconi Some Girls-type raunchy rockers... "Summer Romance", "Let Me Go", "Where The Boys Go", "Too Tough", "All The Way Down", "Pretty Beat Up", etc. And heh, "She Was Hot" is a at least lyrically a cousin.. no.. a brother of "She's So Cold"...

- Doxa



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2009-10-11 18:18 by Doxa.

Ah! Doxa! Right on! That's basically how I see it. And for whatever reason, I've always put She Was Hot and She's So Cold together on any comps I make, in either order. Why I don't know, they just seem to go together like that.

I think, sticking with how you compared them, Undercover is the better album song wise (no Indian Girl to start with). Tie You Up is, for me, the best song on the album and one of their best songs ever actually. It's a vibrant album full of a lot of different aspects of what the songs could do compared to previous albums. And it's the last album they really utilised a studio and musicians for as far as doing different things instrument wise. As in, actually doing something. Bridges To Babylon is the next album they actually did some interesting things on.

"Feel On Baby album version´s way too short,squando,I´ll recommend the 12" one..."

Haha. Yeah righto Fanny. I have it and made the mistake of listening to it once.

I also dunno about it being the last great album. I think there last four outings have been excellent. VL would've been a classic if they'd trimmed it somewhat and added "Zip mouth angel".

love the album and remember 94 wysp "philadelphia radio station" presenting world premiers of undercover of the night and she was hot both were extended alternate mixes that i've never heard anywhere else , i always wished they were available to the public

I love Undercover. And I think why it gets often called "the last real Stones album" is because it comes off as an album by a band.
DirtyWork was not a band anymore; but had they picked back up after that one, DW would just kind of fall in there; maybe like "Satanic" of the 80's.
But after UC and DW came the whole Stones MACH III era.

ALWAYS loved Undercover!! This theme (of Undercover being underrated) comes up perennially, and I chime in every time. I agree. I don't see it as the beginning of the end, as some others seem to, but rather the Stones most mature, smartest album and one of their best. I think this one went over the heads of the majority of the fanbase (at the time!) that were looking for another party album about sex and drugs, etc... sometimes rock stars actually grow up. Every time I listen to this album, I totally love it. I think thereafter, the Stones ceased being musical artists as much as they became more of a business... which is not to say there haven't been some great songs on each album since, but Undercover, imho, is their last great LP.

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Tate
Undercover, imho, is their last great LP.

Funny how opinions can differ. For me it´s their first bad album.

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Tate
ALWAYS loved Undercover!! This theme (of Undercover being underrated) comes up perennially, and I chime in every time. I agree. I don't see it as the beginning of the end, as some others seem to, but rather the Stones most mature, smartest album and one of their best. I think this one went over the heads of the majority of the fanbase (at the time!) that were looking for another party album about sex and drugs, etc... sometimes rock stars actually grow up. Every time I listen to this album, I totally love it. I think thereafter, the Stones ceased being musical artists as much as they became more of a business... which is not to say there haven't been some great songs on each album since, but Undercover, imho, is their last great LP.

agree 100%!!!

between undercover and dirty work the death of Ian Stewart happened. one of the few people that would give mick and keith an honest opinion about the material they recorded. Stu was very important person in the stones camp and his opinions mattered to the glimmer twins. the stones never truly recovered from this loss. plus the infamous jagger/richards fued began during this time and though they made up a few yrs later , they were never as close as they used to be

This is one of the ones I bought in the Remasters, and I'm really enjoying it. I agree that Wanna Hold You isn't one of Keith's better efforts, but it benefits from what I think of as the Stones Effect - you start listening and think "this is pretty poor stuff" - and then somewhere about halfway through the sheer enthusiasm gets to you, and you realise that you're actually enjoying it...

Love Undercover, She Was Hot, Too Much Blood - and am I the only person who likes It Must Be Hell?

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Tate
ALWAYS loved Undercover!! This theme (of Undercover being underrated) comes up perennially, and I chime in every time. I agree. I don't see it as the beginning of the end, as some others seem to, but rather the Stones most mature, smartest album and one of their best. I think this one went over the heads of the majority of the fanbase (at the time!) that were looking for another party album about sex and drugs, etc... sometimes rock stars actually grow up. Every time I listen to this album, I totally love it. I think thereafter, the Stones ceased being musical artists as much as they became more of a business... which is not to say there haven't been some great songs on each album since, but Undercover, imho, is their last great LP.

I also agree 100%

From NME's Adam Sweeting:

Great album, actually. It just doesn't fit the mold for some reason.

Another fine album................I especially like Too Much Blood.


There is a version of Undercover of the Night that came out before the album that was recalled and it is one of the few songs I can not find. It just had guitars at the beginning without the drums. Anyone have or know of this version?

One of those dark mysterious records that I kept going back to over and over again. Great ramshackled affair with lots to keep you interested. The production, for an 80's album, isn't bad! Way better than Dirty Work and Steel Wheels. And when ever the Stones retreade Soul Survivor it is a gift to cherish.