The Rolling Stones

The 1989 comeback may not be their worst record, but let's face it, anyone who wants to hear good songs by the Stones needs to go back a few years and listen to everything before Dirty Work. Still, there are some OK moments, including the radio single "Sad Sad Sad" and the album-cut rocker "Hold On To Your Hat."

Nothing reinvigorates Sixties icons like having something to prove. In the past few years the
reverence typically shown both the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan has worn perilously thin.
The Stones' last two albums, Undercover and Dirty Work – not to mention Mick Jagger's
solo recordings – ranged from bad to ordinary, and Keith Richards's bitter public baiting of
Jagger suggested that this particular twain might never again productively meet.... More >

All rancor and bad vibes, Dirty Work was the Stones; all impartiality and bad boys grown up, the reunion is an amazing simulation. Charlie's groove enlivens--and IDs--the mature sentiments while gibes at "conscience" and "reason" hint obliquely at self-awareness. But for Mick, self-awareness means above all accepting one's status as a pop star. Maybe he thinks "So get off the fence/It's creasing your butt" saves "Mixed Emotions" from its own conventionality. Probably he thinks giving Keith two vocals is democracy and roots. Certainly he thinks he needs the money. Wrong, wrong, and wrong again. (Grade - B-)