THE ROLLING STONES/EMOTIONAL RESCUE CUN 39111 (-80) UK

To my taste the last really great Stones album was "Goats Head Soup" (see earlier post). Not that I think all after that is bad, but as their songbook started to include more ballads and disco and the audio went increasingly cleaner the dirty old rock band I loved wasn't there anymore. My first real disappointment was "Some Girls", one I'm still not all in with. After that I didn't expect much from this follow-up two years later, but it took me by surprise then and remains an album I spin and enjoy. Audio still a little too pure, but if I skip the mock disco and ballads there are a couple of really good catchy rock songs to enjoy with a fair share of filth attached. "Summer Romance", "Let Me Go", "Where The Boys Go" and She's So Cold" come out like melodic punk rock. "Send It To Me" a messy enough raggae and even if "Dance" has some terrible octave bass and may be called disco it's made with a let-go attitude making it more Stones rock than glittery dance floor support. Maybe not up there with their old masterpieces, but in my head still one of the better albums from the period. Issued and reissued on about every format through the years all over the world. Premiere UK had label as shown here and thin matt cover with huge "thermo pic" poster. (RÅ*)