Dancing Undercover

1986’s Dancing Undercover was Ratt’s third consecutive platinum album in as many years, but the good times couldn’t go on forever. The album shows signs of Ratt’s concession to a younger, more sugary form of pop metal, embodied by Cinderella and Poison. “Looking for Love” and “Enough Is Enough” are more blatantly poppy than anything Ratt had done in the past, while “7th Avenue” and “Take a Chance” also show signs that the band was kowtowing to trends. Fortunately, the majority of Dancing Undercover hews to Ratt’s original vision. “Dance” is the band’s best single since “Round and Round,” and “Body Talk” is a ferocious attack that is nonetheless catchy. “One Good Lover,” “Drive Me Crazy” and “It Doesn’t Matter” show that Ratt still believed that hair metal should be sneering and gritty — of the Sunset Strip bands, only Mötley Crüe shared that conviction. In a few years, everything would change, even Mötley Crüe. That leaves Dancing Undercover as the third part in Ratt’s glorious hair metal trilogy, one of the most impressive runs in mid-'80s hard rock.