25. Dirty Work (1986)

1986’s Dirty Work is the first Stones record that feels officially like product — almost entirely bereft of inspiration, with song after song seeming like a wax museum representation of the riffs and attitudes that the band realizes it is expected to produce, without any real conviction behind them. Lead track “One Hit (To The Body)” is a kind of template for what will pass as late-period Stones singles, sounding almost exactly like later efforts “Between A Rock And A Hard Place” and “You Got Me Rocking.” This is the Stones as obligatory pastiche, self-consciously attempting to sound like themselves. Even their seemingly fish-in-a-barrel cover of “Harlem Shuffle” feels perfunctory and inert. It’s not all bad — the charming blues shuffle of “Winning Ugly” retains some of the old charm — but by and large this is the worst Stones record, one stuck between an onerous legacy and a future that had become creatively uncertain.