“See Me Burning” starts the album off on the right foot and at the right pace, rushing along to its conclusion. “Slow Dance” immediately pulls back into a contemporary Motörhead tempo, setting up a head-bobbing lick and hard rocking riff from Phil Campbell’s guitar. “Stay Out of Jail” continues on with the harder edge to the album that recent efforts.
I’m not sure I understand the reasoning behind the recording of the cover versions of the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen”. Was it just to fill up the album or was it a tribute to the days when the band first formed and started gigging around. Either way, as covers go, it’s a good one. Following this the album jumps straight back into high gear with the fast paced and loud “Out to Lunch” which has just about everything that I think are the best parts of Motörhead. High tempo, high velocity, great solo licks and the drums driving the song along with plenty of bangs and crashes. Songs like this have been few and far between over recent releases and this is a joy to hear each time I play the album.
“Wake the Dead” has an unlikely double kick and tom drum rolling drum lineage which dominates the track and lower drainage vocals from Lemmy, creating an unusual atmosphere for the band’s usual intense rock sound, before breaking out through the end of the song with Campbell’s solo spot. At five minutes plus, it’s probably a tad over lengthy. “One More Fucking Time” dials back the start of the song to that uncomfortable clear slow guitar where Lemmy’s vocals go into an awkward phase where they are trying to be in a ballad tone but can never quite reach it. Yeah I know, just get over it and accept it for what it is, and I do. But I still often wonder why the band would play songs like this. Because they want to? Because they think they need to? I don’t know, but this is a ‘skip’ song if ever I’ve heard one, and that make it superfluous to an album if you are going to be thinking this from the start. It also is far too long, clocking in at almost seven minutes. It’s a lot to expect the listener to struggle through this. It’s not such a bad song once you get through it but there are only so many times I want to listen to it.
As a pay-off, the last three songs on the album bring us back to where we ought to be, as the short sharp shock that Motörhead does so well. “Stagefright / Crash & Burn” is terrific, harnessing the best of Lemmy’s vocals and lyrics as Mikkey crashes along on the drums and Phil hammers along on guitar. Great stuff. “(Wearing Your) Heart on Your Sleeve” rolls along in a different method but still each of the three members deliver the goods, while the closing title track of “We Are Motörhead” ties up the album in old fashioned way, starting off with Lemmy’s wrangling bass and leading the rest of the band almost in a tribute to the old days.
Overall I think this is a terrific album. I think that perhaps two songs, “Slow Dance” and “One More Fucking Time”, just hold it back from being a really top shelf album, and yet neither is a bad song. But the winners here outweigh the slight misdirection of those tracks. Songs like "See Me Burning", “Stay Out of Jail”, “Out to Lunch” and “We Are Motörhead” make this a real joy to throw into the CD player and give a spin. Not everything can work, but here for the start of the new millennium this album brings forth the best that Motörhead can offer and prove that they are still able to get in the ring and produce some ripping tunes.
Rating: “Out for blood, out for blood, out to lunch and no damn good”. 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment