55. Motörhead / 1916. 1991. 2.5/5

By this stage Motörhead had reached middle age as a heavy metal band. With so many classic albums behind them, coming up with albums that could stand up in comparison to them was always going to be a difficult thing.

1916 contains and mixes some different styles for the band, which can be either seen as a bold statement of intent, to show that the band can grow and is not afraid to show another side to it, or that the band had run out of ideas and had sold out in regards to the material it was writing. I admit I don't really know whether either of those ideas are correct, but I know that I have always had a problem trying to reconcile this with other releases by the band. There are still the songs which are unashamedly Motörhead, those like "No Voices in the Sky" and "I'm So Bad (Baby, I Don't Care). The cracking tribute to The Ramones, simply titled "R.A.M.O.N.E.S", is a ripper, which amusingly was eventually covered by The Ramones themselves.
Then there are the tracks where changes have come, and for me they just don't work. "Love Me Forever" is a ballad, but more than a ballad written and performed by the plethora or European power metal bands, this is sung by Lemmy, who - and let's face it, there is no getting around this - does not have the voice for such a song. Combined with the stereotypical ballad solo, it is so NOT Motörhead that it feels like a slap in the face. You can't begrudge the band from doing this kind of song, given the credits they have built up over the years, but it really is almost on the Metallica scale of debauchery and betrayal. No, no, no. "1916", which closes the album, also falls into this category, and while I admire a track such as this, being it is a tribute to the fallen in the war of the title, it is just not what you go looking for when you put a Motörhead album on.
As a result of some of this experimentation, this album is fairly tame compared to what had come before it. It was Motörhead's first studio album for four years, for various reasons. To be honest you would have hoped that the length of time between releases would have allowed a volume of work to have been collated and the best parts brought together to produce a ripping album. The time though appears to have gone into other ideas creeping in, and perhaps watering down the album's effectiveness.

For me, 1916 was a disappointment. Motörhead toured Australia on this album back in June 1991. Unfortunately, the night they played Sydney, I was about to fly out for Bali, and as such missed them. That was a disappointment as well. But moreover, the music just doesn't grab me on this album. It was a changing time in the metal world, and this album for me fell on the wrong side of the line.

Rating:   "Black leather, knee-hole pants, can't play no high school dance"   2.5/5.