Disco de The Rolling Stones: “Emotional Rescue”

Released in 1980,"Emotional Rescue" was dismissed as a lazy,uninspired retread of "Some Girls" by rock critics.The public couldn't care less about their opinions-it topped the Billboard album chart for 7 weeks,and produced hits like the delightfully campy disco-ish title song,the aptly-titled funk number "Dance (Pt. 1)" and the stuttering rocker "She's So Cold".Other highlights include the reggae number "Send It To Me",the bluesy "Down In The Hole" and the uptempo rockers "Where The Boys Go" and "Summer Romance".It may not be a "classic" Stones album,but it's still a listenable,fun effort.The 2009 UMG remaster is a noticable improvement over the 1994 Virgin-the muddiness is lifted,and it sounds sharper,clearer and more lifelike this time around.

The 1980's opened for the Rolling Stones with their Emotional Rescue album, released three days after my 12th birthday. To say that Emotional Rescue is Some Girls leftovers warmed over is somewhat harsh. Now granted, the two albums have a similar sound, rock with some disco leanings, and Some Girls is a much better album than its successor, but ER isn't an album to be totally dismissed because it pales alongside its parent album.

Far from it, this was better than expected, although I will make references to songs from Some Girls.

"Dance (Pt. 1)" opens with the funky disco beats that coloured "Miss You", but with a harder-edged sound-call it Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" meets Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Underfoot." A strong opener good for dancing and jamming to.

The reggae-flavoured "Send It To Me" seems to be a sequel to "Some Girls." Where the latter described what different kind of girls were like based on ethnicity and skin colour, the other song is kind of like a dating service. There's some humour at the end, when Mick sings "she could be Romanian, she could be Bulgarian, she could be Albanian, she could be Hungarian, she could be Ukrainian, .... she could be the Alien, send her to me." OK, Mick, you can have the Alien, I'll take the Romanian girl.

A rumbling guitar opens the rocker "Let Me Go," which is this album's "Respectable" about a girl who doesn't seem to understand the words, "it's over between us." "Indian Girl" is this album's "Beast of Burden" with some country inflections and some horns, though with the sober topic, nothing singleworthy. It's a portrait of the hardships inflicted on the indigenous population of Latin America by soldiers: " Lesson number one that you learn while you're young/Life just goes on and on getting harder and harder."

The most engaging track is the hard-driving "Where The Boys Go," which is this album's "Lies" with a chanting harmony refrain. This macho guilty pleasure gets raunchy towards the end, where the refrain goes "a little piece of..." Then it's cooling off time with some slow blues of "Down in The Hole" of hard life in the American zone (of Berlin I presume).

The title track, which reached #3, is the analogue of "Miss You," featuring some disco beats and Mick's falsetto, and is arguably one of the two best tracks. The other one, the rocker "She's So Cold," is this album's "Shattered," with the same quick-paced drums and drums. "I'm so hot for you and you're so cold," comparing her to an ice cream cone, and lines of his hand freezing when he touches her are featured in this ice queen song. This bettered "Shattered" by peaking at #26.

Emotional Rescue has been reviled alongside Black And Blue, Undercover, and It's Only Rock And Roll as one of the Stones' weakest albums, but maybe that's because it is repeatedly compared with Some Girls or Tattoo You, the albums it is chronologically sandwiched inbetween. With songs like the two singles, "Dance," and "Where The Boys Go," such is not the case. Major reevaluation required.

Why this album is so maligned among Stones fans will forever baffle me. Maybe because it was the follow-up to Some Girls and some feel it pales in comparison? Maybe because there happens to be no major statements from the authors of "Gimme Shelter", "Street Fighting Man", "Wild Horses" (and plenty of others)? Because they feel there's a surplus of filler?

These are valid arguments, but what it overlooks is that this is the sound of the Stones simply enjoying themselves. It's worth noting that during this period not only were the Stones enjoying the fruits of their commerical and artistic triumph with Some Girls, but also that both Mick and Keith had new love interests in their lives, and Keith was a free man, having recently gotten off his Canadian charges for possession of heroin with intent to traffic.

So why not have some fun? From the first moments, "Dance" presents itself as a groove. Then Mick and Keith actually have a discussion over the track, evetually Mick getting to proclaiming "Get up, get out, get into something new". No, it's not "You Can't Always Get What you Want"...but who said it has to be? A lyric like "When I touched her, my hand just froze" from "She's So Cold" may not be "My name is called Disturbance/I'll shout and scream, I'll kill the king, and rail at his servants", but so what? It's still a killer tune.

Throughout the album, the funny, goofy, New Wave-influenced songs work best. "Send It To Me", "Let Me Go", "She's So Cold", the title track. When Mick's sense of humor is on - the goofy spoken section of the title track, the reggae-influenced laundry list of types of women Mick would like to meet (including "ukranian, albanian, even alien") - the album is absolutely engaging, charming, and absorbing.

However, with material like "Summer Romance", "Where the Boys Go" (where with a bunch teeny-bopping female back-up singers the goofiness goes a little too far), "Indian Girl' (good lyrics, banal song), and "Down in the Hole", there IS an abundance of filler. Even Send It To Me and Let Me Go can be reagrded as filler - but hugely entertaining, well-crafted filler.

The most sophisticated, sincere piece of music is the closer, Keiht's "All About You". A sensitive ballad with bitter lyrics, it's a sad, heartfelt farewell to a lost relationship. A very touching, very stirring, and emotional way to end an otherwise fun, light New-Wave album.

Emotional Rescue is hardly the Stones at their peak, but it remains a very good, enjoyable album nonetheless. Recommended listening for those late spring/early summer house parties or while driving with the top down (and maybe with a CD burner closeby to omit the filler).

It appears it wasn't until 1980 when this record was released that the Stones fully digested the massive disco, funk and soul influences of the 70's. Sure, "Miss You" is their best dance track ever, but the "Emotional Rescue" album has a much stronger overall dance vibe than any Stones record, past or present. "Dance (Pt. 1)" is their noisy, sloppy dance intro, with jagged guitars and rising horns. The disco influences appear again on "Send It To Me" and "Where The Boys Go", but they still always sound like the Stones. Mick's amateur falsetto on the title cut gives excellent weight to their attempt at funk with Wyman's bass laying down a dirty groove (the bass work on this album is considerable overall). And of course, no great Stones album would be complete without a signature Keith Richards ballad, this time Keith closes the record on a somber note.

There are the expected Stones-y tunes though. "Indian Girl" is their usual "lazy country" song, and "She's So Cold" is the obvious crank-it-up rocker. This is slightly a more adventurous album, but a great guitar-slop fest nonetheless from Mick & Co.

A lot of listeners are divided about this record, which is the middle part of a trilogy of albums (starting with 'Some Girls' and ending with 'Tattoo You') that were written and recorded during the same time frame. True, the stonger songs probably ended up on the other two records, but 'Emotional Rescue' deserves repeated listens as it is initially too easy too dismiss. First of all, "She's So Cold" is one of their best songs ever -- very underrated. Many of the other songs are interesting, including Keith's "All About You", which he said was written about his dog but could also be directed at an ex-lover. If you choose this over "Some Girls", "Exile On Main Street", or "Sticky Fingers", you'll probably be disappointed. But its better than "Undercover", "Dirty Work" (which is awful), and "Goat's Head Soup".