By the time 1986 rolled around Ratt were one of the biggest, most successful bands on the planet. With two monster records behind them and two massive tours they were riding high. But the pressures of the record industry and the non stop writing, recording and touring schedule began to take it’s toll. And the band would soon start fracturing quickly. And while they were one of the biggest bands in the world at this point their popularity would soon start to very slowly diminish. While their peers, Motley Crue and Poison would grow and take over the planet, Ratt would start to miss out on their success. Enter the one of the most underrated and overlooked albums of the decade: ‘Dancing Undercover’.
First off I must say that personally ‘Dancing Undercover’ rivals ‘Detonator’ as my favorite Ratt album. It’s thirty-six minutes of all killer, no filler. Truly all killer. From ‘Dance’ all the way through ‘Enough is Enough’. The riffs are unreal. The chords, strong and catchy. The vocals, tight. And the leads, downright inspiring at times. And it’s a miracle that the album even exists. All the members of the band were fractured at the time. None of them were communicated or seeing each other. And all the parts were written separately and put together by producer Beau Hill.
Where ‘Dancing Undercover’ lacks in growth for the band, it makes up for in sheer song quality. And for a band that wasn’t doing any writing together, they wrote a terrific album. Ratt were always the most talented of the Sunset Strip scene. And it shines through in ‘Dancing Undercover’. And they were also very consistently true to their sound. They never keyboarded up or sold out on that level. So of course, the critics were never going to give them their true credit. That being said, there is a slight lack of growth. ‘Dancing Undercover’ isn’t a step backwards, but it’s not exactly a step forward either. And I think that hurt the band. Not to mention the growing drug problems of Robin Crosby and ego clashing of other members. But all of that still doesn’t take away from the fact that ‘Dancing Undercover’ is an amazing album.
Some of the greatest grooves and riffs of the entire decade are on ‘Dancing Undercover’. ‘Slip of the Lip’ is one of the baddest grooves in hard rock. And it still hold up. ‘Looking for Love’ is an absolutely addictive riff. The bass line melody during the verses is exploding with energy and catchy quality. ‘7th Avenue’ is such a bad ass throw down, sex driven, swag filled groove riffing song. It never gets old. And it’s a great sample to show someone who may not know a lot about the genre. It’s a strong example of how good that decade of music could get. ‘It Doesn’t Matter’ is simply a strong riff. ‘Take A Chance’ is oozing with swag. And the album closes strong with the sexy ‘Enough is Enough’. All in all a perfect example of a great 80’s hard rock album. And as Warren DeMartini said, ‘It doesn’t deserve to be as good as it is.’ ‘Dancing Undercover’ is a testament to Ratt’s natural ability to write great songs. They made a great record, even through all the struggle and strife.
