This album sandwiched in between Some Girls and Tattoo You and obviously not as good but I really like it its solid. I put it on my ipod and listened all the way through and to me there is not one bad track on it. Some of them like Summer Romance are typical Stones rockers but I lik it nonetheless. Why does this album get so much bad publicity its really pretty good. I know I'm in the minority but I like Indian Girl and All About You is one of Keith's best.

In recent years I have enjoyed `Emotional Rescue' and `Undercover' more and
more.

The ER songs may not be classics, with "She's So Cold" being the only good
'Stones song' on the album, IMHO, although I was happy to hear "Let Me go,"
"Dance," and "All About You"done live over the years.

Mick's falsetto does bother me a bit on ER, tho.....

That said, I like to listen to the album because of its sound.

The drums and bass are mixed up in a concession to the then-disco world, and I
love following Bill's rollicking and sinuous bass lines.

Pretty sad, eh, when you can find a reason to enjoy a second-rate album because
of the way it is mixed!

At any rate, "Indian Girl" is a good example of a cringe-worthy song where the
way those shimmering sound waves break over you makes up for the oh-too-hip 'I
will now sing about the poor and downtrodden of Nicaragua to show you that
Bianca may be gone but I still care about the country and its people's fight
against oligarchy and dictatorship' lyrics.

What surprised me recently was that ER and `Undercover' seem to have been
produced to the same general template.

`Undercover' seems to be a slice from the same loaf as ER, although it was
interrupted by the polished left-overs of `Tattoo You' and the Still Life tour,
and shares the same general sound/production values that make it an enjoyable
listen for me.

On `Undercover:'

- You have "Undercover" as the disco-ish rhythm driven number (and I was
shocked when it came out live on the 89/90 tour; didn't think you could really
get that beat in a live setting, but I underestimated Charlie!) paired to
"Emotional Rescue" on ER;

- "'She Was Hot" as the contrast to "She's So Cold;"

- "All the Way Down," "Tie You Up," "Too Tough," and "Too Much Blood" as the
'love gone bad' and 'let's explore the kinky side of sex' counterparts to the
more conventional romance/sex of "Summer Romance" and "Where the Boys Go;"

- "Feel on Baby" as the equivalent to "Indian Girl" as the cringe-worthy song
I love to listen to because of the lush sound of the mix....

(You also had an 'I am PO'd at you all and would just like to kick somebody's
butt' element appear in "Pretty Beat Up" that would fully flower on `Dirty
Work.')

But, back to the ER - `Undercover' templates:

- "Wanna Hold You" is superb, (particularly at the San Diego '98 show) and
beats the stuffing out of ER's "All About You" for the paired Keith song.

ER and 'Undercover' are fun listens for me because of the smooth way all the
sounds fit together, but it was interesting to me to realize how much they
seemed to be `two-of-a-kind' in structure/theme.

....entirely different to the raw mix and in-your-face impact of `Dirty Work.'

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Never liked the song Emotional Rescue. Thats the kind of song that comes on and I laugh at how horrible it is. But thats just my opinion, alot disagree.

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gordianus57
- "Wanna Hold You" is superb, (particularly at the San Diego '98 show) and
beats the stuffing out of ER's "All About You" for the paired Keith song.

Glad you pointed that out. Keith's performance of that song on that tour was amazing. It would be a good subject for analyzing the (alleged) decline in his playing skills on subsequent tours if someone has time.

Couldn't disagree more strongly as to the "cringe worthiness" of both Indian Girl and Feel on Baby.

1st, Feel On Baby was mind blowing to me as a 15 year old who didn't really know shit from shinola about dub or Sly and Robbie or anything like that. Absolutely listened to the hell out of that back in the day as it was my first album where I was prepared for "The NEW album". I was already a huge fan (5' 10", 215), and was waiting at the store when they opened. I bought two copies of the album and two copies of the 12" single with the dub version on the back and felt like I knew something that none of my fellow 9th graders who were arguing about Billy Idol vs Duran Duran had any idea about. It was completely different to anything I'd heard at that point.

2nd, Indian Girl is a tremendous piece of art. I don't get the consistent hatred for this tune. The music is fantastic and the vocals are equally excellent. The lyrics are of the time. This is was what was happening at the time and its one of the great truths I've ever heard that, bet your ass, life does keep on get harder and harder. But beyond all that, the music is so excellent. Adventurous, searching, and absolutely dialed in.

I reject and dismiss your cringieness.

Crap mostly, 'cept for "Dance" and "Cold".

IMO Down In The Hole is like a forgotten classic,great groove, great vocal.still love it every time I play it.Very underated.I know some people really don't like it, but hey that's what makes life interesting - Opinions.

ER and UC are both great albums. Fits easily into top ten in my list.

Both albums are Great, ESPECIALLY ER.

might be my favorite stones album. not saying it's their best. there's a diff between faves and bests.

I think the alternate take of Indian Girl is very very pretty.

not a big fan of emotional rescue, but i heard a great live version of dance on one of thier recent tours and it was superb. never really liked that song previous to that.

Much prefer ER to Tattoo You, a minority opinion I know

I like 'Dance', 'Let me go', 'Down in the hole', 'She's so cold', 'Indian girl'. 'Emotional rescue'(the song) sounded very experimental to my ears back then. Very STUDIO. Strange guitar sounds, strange voice, strange drum intro.I think it was the Stones fooling around with 'plastic' music. Interesting when played on an acoustic guitar.

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Rip This
I think the alternate take of Indian Girl is very very pretty.

That's the LP version unedited.

I've always liked this album. And yeah, it does sound really good! It's probably their best sounding album. Let It Bleed sounds really damn good and so does Tattoo You but for some reason ER has something about it.

I love All About You.

ER is a good album. But for those of us who can remember, "Some Girls" was so damn popular, and of course the pre-release hype leading up to ER was so strong, and expectations were very high. I like it now, but it surely wasnt SOME GIRLS and the critics/Rolling Stone kind of trashed it back then.

To date I love ER and UC as much as any Stones album. They are great albums... Bashlets is right, they were both kind of strange follow-ups to their previous albums, but in time they proved their brilliance. I think it shows a band's musical maturity when an album does that... really improves with age. I think UC was their most mature, smartest record of all. Both are such goddamned good albums!! Not a track on either of these I would discard.

Compare to their last 4/5 albums this is a great one....but not there best....Down In A hole is great.....(didn't we had this topic before?)....or is it just a Déjà vu?

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-11-06 01:32 by NICOS.

Oh, I think this one has gone around a few times, but some topics are worth revisiting. And NICOS I agree not their best (like, say, Let It Bleed, etc), but I think I enjoy and love these two albums as much as those of the 'golden era.'

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Tonstone
IMO Down In The Hole is like a forgotten classic,great groove, great vocal.still love it every time I play it.Very underated.I know some people really don't like it, but hey that's what makes life interesting - Opinions.

Yes, definitely.

I think the single ER with its disco beat & BeeGee's like falsetto vox didn't sit well with the disco sucks Stones fans. I think it has aged much better, and that disco "stigma" is not prevalent anymore. As already said some really great songs including Down in The Hole. Was always surprised that Undercover gets beat up. The title track was a MTV staple for awhile, Too Tough is classic Stones R'N'R. Tie You Up, typical raunchy Stones.....

It's so very lonely, you're 2,000 Light Years from home

"Emotional Rescue" another great Rolling Stones album

I love Emotional Rescue.

I think it was the first Stones song I ever saw on TV as a video and I was mesmerised. I stayed up really late just to see it - I was probably 16 at the time.

Then I was blown away by Start Me Up and Undercover.

Not necessarily high points in the overall Stones catalogue of work, but all A+ as far as this humble fan is concerned.

I know, it's only RnR, but we like it!