The Rolling Stones Undercover of The Night

Released in 1994 to coincide with the Stones' catalog moving to Virgin Records, as well as the accompanying remastering of their Rolling Stone Records catalog (1971's Sticky Fingers through 1989's Steel Wheels – actually 1991's Flashpoint, which is the last Rolling Stones Records release, but isn't featured here), Jump Back supplants Rewind as the best single-disc overview of the Stones' '70s and '80s recordings. The nonchronological order at times is a little irritating – bouncing between "Brown Sugar," "Harlem Shuffle," "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)," "Mixed Emotions," and "Angie" nearly causes whiplash – but nearly all the big songs from this period are included. Yes, "She Was Hot" isn't here, along with a couple other singles that didn't catch hold, but this has everything that the casual follower could want, which makes up for the fact that it could have been sequenced better (that's what home programming and burners are for anyway).

As the Rolling Stones' most ambitious album since Some Girls, Undercover is a weird, wild mix of hard rock, new wave pop, reggae, dub, and soul. Even with all the careening musical eclecticism, what distinguishes Undercover is its bleak, nihilistic attitude – it's teeming with sickness, with violence, kinky sex, and loathing dripping from almost every song…