Now that Halloween is only a week away and the smell of rotting pumpkins is in the air, I thought..hmmm, what a better time to write my first Motorhead review. I have to admit, even though I own many of their albums and have even written a tribute to them and dig Lemmy's sense of humor, I'm not the biggest Motorhead fan. I think that many of their songs and albums sound too much alike and I even have problems trying to tell the difference between some of their album covers! Motorhead generally prefer one volume....VERY VERY LOUD, and one speed....veryveryveryveryultrafast. And let's face it, even those of us who like Lemmy's sandpaper on gravel on metal voice, a little bit of his..err..singing, which consists of mainly snarls, gargles,grunts and howls, goes a long way.
All of that being said, I do have to admit that there are exceptions to most of the above and that this band has a number of great songs, several of which can be found on this album 1916, which came out in '91 and features Lemmy, drummer "Philthy" Phil Taylor (his last album with Motorhead) and guitarists Phil Campbell and Wurzel. There are only three songs on this eleven song album that I really love and I'm recommending the album for those three songs..and for a few other reasons, as well. The tunes that stand out are:
Nightmare/The Dreamtime- Featuring some backward vocals( which probably translates into "All work and no play makes Lemmy a doughboy" and "I think it's time for Philthy Phil to bathe again"..wish this came on vinyl so I could find out!) and minimal percussion, this somewhat atmospheric scary monster song sounds like something Lemmy could have done with his former band Hawkwind (the song Lost Johnny comes to mind). A bit repetitive, but very effective and very heavy, with some very twisted guitar solos. Excellent song!
Ramones- A very fitting minute and a half tribute to the band of the same name. Motorhead actually manage to out-Ramone The Ramones on this, who thought so highly of it that they would later cover it on their album We're Out Of Here. Love the lyrics for this and the way they spell out The Ramones during the refrain.
1916- 1916 ends on an unexpected note with the very sombre title track, which portrays a dying young soldier in WW1. No guitars on this, just drumming, vocals and keyboards (and cellos!). I think this song contains one of Lemmy's most beautiful vocal melodies ever...imagine what somebody with a smooth crooning voice could have done with it.
Elsewhere, we get a Chuck Berry like rock-n-roller with Going To Brazil and the usual assortment of ultra fast and ultra heavy rockers. Lemmy basically sums up his bad boy attitude in the refrain for I'm So Bad( Baby I Don't Care), another enjoyable tune. This morning, I was listening to Angel City (on which Lemmy wants to eat dirt and drink Bon Jovi's booze for free) and thought I heard a piano during it and....is that a horn section that I hear at the end of the song?
This is one of their better sounding albums...the production( by Pete Solley and on a few tracks, Ed Stasium) is very loud, but very clear and not overly distorted. And Mr. Kilmister shows off his wonderful sense of humor again in the liner notes. I particularly like it when he says "If you laid all the people I know end to end some of them would be extremely embarrassed!"!!!
As I said earlier, there is the usual amount of filler here and I hardly ever listen to the album all the way through, I just play a few tracks here and there when I do listen to it. With the exception of "Nightmare" and the title track, Motorhead really seem to have fun on this. I think it's one of their more upbeat albums. Still, I think a three star rating is appropriate.
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