Having finished the 1980’s as one of the biggest metal bands in the world, Motley Crue had undergone some significant change since, all of which if it had been handled better could have been a boon for them. The band had parted ways with lead vocalist Vince Neil and recruited John Corabi as his replacement. The resulting album, the self-titled “Motley Crue” in 1994, had been a change as a result, as Corabi not only contributed to the lyrics he also played rhythm guitar, allowing both Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars more freedom and also a collaborative partner.
The album had not been a commercial success, certainly not like “Dr Feelgood” had been, though it should be again pointed out that the music world had moved considerably since that album’s release in 1989. With the record label pushing the band to reunite with Neil as lead vocalist, something neither side was interested in at that time, the band instead made other changes, moving on their manager as well as their producer Bob Rock, feeling as though he was ‘over-producing’ the band. Scott Humphrey was hired as producer, with Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee acting as co-producers, but the resulting confusion seemed to create more problems. Mick Mars was restrained from playing the way he wanted to (which even today seems like an extraordinary step for a producer to take, or for an artist to allow), and eventually, with the record label still heavily pushing for Vince Neil’s return to the microphone, Corabi left the band, and Neil was reinstated.
And yet, the problems remained. With much of the material already written, and co-written by Corabi, Neil apparently had trouble singing many of the songs the way they were structured. He had produced two solo albums during his time away from the band, one well received and the other generally ignored, but with the music that Motley Crue produced having changed its context since he was last in the band, it became a challenge to sew his vocals back into songs that were not written for him.
The band was very careful in trying to shield this album from any comparison with grunge and alternative genres, insisting that although they experimented with the sound of the songs on the album there was no drawing of those genres nor trying to position the band’s sound in that direction. However, listen to the album a bit and you will likely come to the conclusion that if this isn’t the case, then there is a definite influence from John Corabi in the songs that is not reflected in the credits for the album.
From the outset it is obvious that this album is an extension of the previous album, but firstly in a way that tries to bring some method of the older Motley Crue sound into this album, as well as having Neil singing which automatically does that. And the first four tracks, though varies, offer a great contrast to the old the new and the newest. “Find Myself” opens up the album excellently, showcasing each member in a positive fashion from the outset. The first single “Afraid” follows, and while it does have familiar overtones to earlier Crue singles the alterative strangle does have its place here, in fact it reminds me very much of Smashing Pumpkins in its sound.
“Flush” is one of the two songs only that Corabi is credited with writing – and that seems ludicrous to believe that his influence was only on those two tracks. Indeed, he eventually sued the band for several things including claiming he wrote about 80% of the album. Nevertheless, this song sounds great but it definitely is a song that Corabi would have sung brilliantly and that Neil has had to change a lot of his usual output in order to make it sounds this good. “Generation Swine”, the title track, has a more likely bounce to it and one that Neil’s vocals sound more like themselves in.
From this point of the album, the real changes in music technique come to the fore. “Confessions” has a very alternative sound to it, perhaps exacerbated by Tommy Lee’s backing vocals in the back half of the song. This is followed by “Beauty” where Lee shares lead vocals with Neil and certainly sits in that category. “Glitter” is probably the most boring song on the album, one that seems to draw in synths and other electronica that is very unlike the band – a song that was co-written with Canadian soft rock king Bryan Adams. This is dreadfully out of place. “Anybody Out There” harks back closer to an original Crue sound, but in some ways because of this also feels out of place with how the first half of the album is constructed. “Let Us Prey” is the second of two Corabi credited co-writes, and you can hear that influence immediately as Neil tries to sing it in a way that Corabi would.
The album should have stopped there, but its final four tracks as they exist really drag down the ultimate enjoyment of what has come before it. “Rocketship” is sung by Sixx, a ballad written for his then wife Donna D’errico, a song that should have been cut from an album release. A B-side to a single, yeah go for it. But not on an album. “A Rat Like Me” is fine, and I guess at a pinch could have been used as the closing track after “Let Us Prey” in the “Music from a Lifetime” album cut. But then this is followed by “Shout at the Devil ‘97”, a re-recorded version of the great title track of their second album. Why, you may ask? Well, who really knows. Was the band trying to prove they were still a true metal band by producing this version of one of their great past tracks? And, if you can believe it, they played THIS song when they played at the American Music Awards in January 1997, to promote that Vince was back in the band and that they had a new album coming out, that the record label probably hoped would sound like this but did not. And then the final track is Tommy Lee’s solo singing ballad “Brandon” written about his song and also his then girlfriend Pamela Anderson. Really? This is how Motley Crue ends an album? With these types of songs? Is it any wonder that fans and critics alike felt that the future for the band was very dim indeed.
It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to this album. As it turns out, I have listened to “Generation Swine” now more over the past month than I had in the 25 years before this. And again, that came from first impressions, and what I was listening to when this was released, and there was another good half a dozen albums that probably presented themselves to me with better credentials than I felt this offered at the time. So, it sat on the CD shelves, and collected dust, just as I mention at the end of every one of these episodes, and as I say is the reason, or one of them, as to why I am doing this podcast. To find albums like this. Because this is nothing like a Motley Crue album from the 1980’s, and I made the mistake of wanting it to be that when I first heard it all those years ago. This is very much a product of its age, and although the band tried to distance itself from being branded as an alternative album, it most definitely is different. In fact, it is closer to their 1994 self-titled album than they wanted to admit and given that it SOUNDS like Corabi was involved in writing most of these songs even though the band did not credit him with it, you can understand why it does. So that didn’t make this a bad album when it was released, it was just different from what most of us understood Motley Crue had been.
But the more I have listened to this over recent weeks, the more I have come to understand that I missed a trick back in those days when it was released. If I had just been able to come at it with an open mindset, allowed it to play in the background while I was doing other things around the house or at work, and let the album grow on me, I think I would have found out exactly what I now know – that this is a pretty good album. It isn’t great by any means, and it does feel as though it is pulling in two directions and not actually getting anywhere. The vocals from two members who were not Vince Neil don’t enhance it or those songs, and I think Corabi could have been a great ADDITION to the band rather than dismissing him completely. A rhythm guitarist, and a great vocalist to back up and share spots with Neil? Seems like a reasonable idea, doesn’t it? But that wouldn’t have been Motley Crue.
So yes, “Generation Swine” has plenty to offer fans of the band who are willing to accept that it is a change from their other material. This change was not to last beyond this album, as the band returned to a sound closer to their roots, and tho0ugh this may not be an album I will reach for too often, I do know that I will definitely reach for it again out of my collection in the future, and that in itself has made this a worthwhile venture.
