As I have pointed out before in these pages, the album was hailed as a return to form at the time. The NME said it revealed Keith Richards ‘a man with his head screwed on and his grip unimpaired’
I’m immensely cheered to see all the praise for the album in recent post on this thread. It has been depressing lately to see hating DW become almost an article of faith on this board.

Listen to ‘too tough’ with its feeble, by-numbers guitars and distant lead vocal. It sounds like it’s being performed from inside a coffin. Then listen to ‘Fight’ - there is far more life and vitality. The guitars are ‘in your face’. Mick is totally engaged. It sounds like someone blew the lid off the coffin.

That was how it seemed back in ‘86, and I still feel that way. .

It's on Hold Back where Jagger, the “voice of experience”, really lets it rip. That Keith and Ronnie add particularly sympathetic fills to a song defending self-interest underscores its malevolent irony. Jagger, “caught in this tree of promises for over 40 years”, gives us lesser mortals the sort of advice that only a plutocrat who’s never worked a day in his life can offer. See, since Stalin and Roosevelt “each took their chances”, you gotta trust your gut reaction, so don’t hold back. Mick’s performance is irony-free; he’s pissed about something, shouting and braying like he wants to gnaw at the microphone. Lilywhite earns his paycheck: the guitars surround, taunt, and goad; the drumming by Watts or Wood or whoever shoves Jagger down a flight of stairs. The rhythm guitar coda is superfluous, an afterthought; how could it be anything else? In “Hold Back” the Stones, finally, embrace their image: they’re dangerous, they don’t wanna hold your hand, they want your money. It’s a masterpiece.

Alfred Soto, "On Second Thought", Stylus Magazine, 2004



ROCKMAN

I haven't heard the album in about a decade, but this thread has got me fired up and wanting to listen again!

Which I will do within the week, when I have some free time, cold beers and tolerant neighbours!

I'm already looking forward to it!

When I became a Stones fan after buying Hot Rocks, Steel Wheels had just come out and Dirty Work on cassette was discounted to ten guilders. I was 12 and didn't have money for SW, so I bought Dirty Work, and that became my first Stones studio album.

So I probably have a somewhat different connection to the album than most people here. At the time, I thought it was a raw album, a lot harder than what I was used to from Hot Rocks, but I did appreciate it. I especially liked songs like Fight, Had it with You, and Too Rude. As I delved deeper into the Stones catalog, I naturally realized that they have made much better albums than DW, but the album still holds a special place in my heart. I listen to the album a lot more often than, for example, IORR, Undercover, or Bridges to Babylon

It's not a great album but it could have been because it has a lot of potential, more than any album post-DW. Especially the guitars, because Keith and Ronnie sound great on the album. And so does Mick quite often.
Taking out Hold Back and Back To Zero would already be a big improvement.
Taking away the 80's sound production, especially from the drums and bass would be another huge improvement. Throw out any unnecessary keyboards, synthesizers etc...
Good songs like One Hit, Harlem Shuffle and Sleep Tonight would sound even better and make One Hit an excellent song.
Next, work a little bit more on things like Too Rude, Winning Ugly (potentially a great song), Dirty Work and Had It With You.

I wish the Stones would release the stems of the tracks and let us remix the songs.

That would be a lot of fun, remove the gated reverb on the drums, the horrible DX7s etc. There could be a pretty good album under there.

It was also make an interesting news story and get the band some attention.

But... lawyers, legal shit, reluctance etc....

Whoever’s playing drums, the mix is too jarring for my ears. I think a better texture would have helped immensely.

Fight, Harlem Shuffle, Hold Back, Too Rude, Winning Ugly, Dirty Work, Had It With You and Sleep Tonight. That’s a pretty good album……but those drums

Nothing wrong with the drums on Fight, Dirty Work, Harlem Shuffle and Had It With You, imo.

So, if they polished the turd it would become a diamond?

Who's claiming it would become a diamond? A ''pretty good album'' was my own description. Your point is a straw man, man.

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Stoneage
So, if they polished the turd it would become a diamond?

I agree with the comments that the drums, the snare that sounds all cannon-like, are dreadfully mixed on this album. The songs sound rushed to production and unpolished (and not in a good way), and Mick Jagger's vocals at times are really harsh (and... not in a good way).

Harlem Shuffle is a great single, though.
Too Rude is a great reggae-ish song, as well.
Sleep Tonight is lovely.
Fight is a nice punkish rocker, if it weren't for those dreadfully mixed (wayyyy too loud) drums.

Hold Back is my vote for the worst Rolling Stones song ever recorded.
Back To Zero might be 2nd place in that same category.

I wish this album could be massively re-mixed...

Winning Ugly and Hold Back sound like She's the Boss leftovers.

I honesty like Back to Zero



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2026-03-17 11:22 by Skikkert.

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Skikkert
Winning Ugly and Hold Back sound like She's the Boss leftovers.

I honesty like Back to Zero

At some point during the pandemic, for the first time ever, I finally made it past the intro. Honestly, whatever it is (a keyboard?), it's the most cheesy, dated, piece of music they've ever produced. Anyway, despite the horror, the track certainly does pick up and somewhat redeem itself.

Back To Zero is the only real stinker to me, as Winning Ugly has some Motown type charm.

That said, the odor of BTZ smells up the whole album.

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Elmo Lewis
Back To Zero is the only real stinker to me, as Winning Ugly has some Motown type charm.

That said, the odor of BTZ smells up the whole album.

Winning Ugly is great already just for the guitars. The bass line is great too, but gets ruined by the sound of the bass. Jagger sings it well, although admittedly on the brink of self-parody (but staying at the right side of it). The element of self-parody is nothing new with Jagger and sometimes it even adds value to the song (Angie is an example of that).

The entire DW is drenched in something that smells of the 80s, easily the worst decade as far as music, tv and fashion is concerned, but it affects some songs more than others.
I don't have the ear to pinpoint really where the devil is in the musical production, it's sometimes the drums, sometimes the bass and sometimes some undefineable synthesizer/keyboard/something.
BTZ is unsafeable.

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matxil
BTZ is unsafeable.

They used to do something stupid from time to time. Or maybe that is not stupid but experimental. Feel On Baby, Continental Drift, Might As Well Get Juiced...
Just accept those weird oddities .

But that overall 80's mix/mastering/production surely can drive one mad.

Until 20-30 years ago, the 80s had the worst reputation of all time, but since streaming took off, new generations love the 80s. It's the decade with the best streaming numbers on Spotify, better than the 70s, 90s, and even the 60s.

Times change, and so do generations.

Back to Dirty Work, the album suffers from being a Stones record and being compared to the rest of their catalog. With at least 20 albums that are better than Dirty Work, it's completely relegated to the margins, only appealing to die-hard fans.

There are albums a thousand times worse than Dirty Work, just from the 80s, that have better press or reputation, but they're by artists with discographies of fewer than five albums. Everything changes when you have so little to compare it to.

Dirty Work didn't get bad press or negative reviews at the time as far as I remember. It didn't sell or chart that bad either. That insight came later. Years after.

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Stoneage
Dirty Work didn't get bad press or negative reviews at the time as far as I remember. It didn't sell or chart that bad either. That insight came later. Years after.

Just like any album from Undercover onwards, from that group (Undercover up to HD, 8 albums), Dirty Work is in the bottom, but as I said before, the problem is the Stones' discography and there are at least 20 albums that are better.

As is usual with the majority of Stones records-at least from 1973 onwards-the outtakes are infinitely better and more interesting than most of the actual released tracks. Look at the albums, then the leftovers. The band was, simply put, a pretty dire judge of what to release and what not to release. DW, which I like, was a prime example. VL and BTB also. Even SG. EM certainly. Man, what could have been.....

Unlike many music fans who belong to the ‘Boomers’ generation (I’m one of them myself), in real time I didn’t have a slightest idea that the music scene of the 80s was crap. To me, it was as interesting as the 60s and 70s but in a different way. I still go along that line, basically. Sure, some of the 80’s music hasn’t aged well, but that’s the way trends are.

Like Stoneage comments, negative viewpoints often come on board and take hold retrogradely. As well, nobody called the Steel Wheels Tour ‘Vegas’ back in time AFAIR.

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Stoneage
Dirty Work didn't get bad press or negative reviews at the time as far as I remember. It didn't sell or chart that bad either. That insight came later. Years after.

We could say all of those things - getting good press and positive reviews ("best since this or that") and selling and charting rather nicely - to any album since I guess UNDERCOVER. Or it could be that DIRTY WORK actually was the first album they start using that 'best since SOME GIRLS, if not even EXILE' dictum. As some point it started to be 'best since TATTOO YOU', but it took some time, maybe until the late 90's until the unique quality of TATTOO YOU started to be seen (= there've been enough lesser albums by then...)

Funnily, if we are going to find bad press and negative reviews, we have to go to the 60's and the 70's...

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026-03-17 19:28 by Doxa.

Over here VL and B2B got pretty bad reviews. Undercover, DW, SW and ABB got good reviews. HD as well.

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Stoneage
Dirty Work didn't get bad press or negative reviews at the time as far as I remember. It didn't sell or chart that bad either. That insight came later. Years after.

...you're right....because of Mick comments...!

Harlem Shuffle and One Hit were huge MTV videos, selling albums back then was like shooting fish in a barrel.

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Maindefender
Harlem Shuffle and One Hit were huge MTV videos, selling albums back then was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Big Hits BOTH, Harlem Shuffle was #1 on MTV and One Hit Top 10:

Bill Wyman was interviewed for Dutch TV (was it Adam Curry for'Countdown'?) about the upcoming album in 1986. As I remember it Wyman was really grumpy, stating they were in New York recoding but were only fighting and not working, and that he didn't like the recorded material at all. He was asked to play something on the bass he was holding and refused due to 'squeaky strings on a Japanese bass' or something like that.

Mathijs

-”I wanna be on top, forever on the up
And damn the competition
I never play it fair, I never turn a hair
Just like the politicians
We’re winning ugly…”

-”There's something filthy living in your mouth
Pushing your buttons, you get away for free
You let somebody do the dirty work
Find some loser, find some jerk…”

-”So you want to blow us all to pieces
Go meet your maker, head hung down
And give him all your explanations
Go ahead, throw down
Back to zero, back to nothing
Straight to meltdown, back to zero
That's where we're heading…”

-I had it with you

-You better get some sleep tonight

If these lyrics were released in 2026, they would describe perfectly the state of one particular president. It would be The Stones most political record yet.