Salı 24 Haz 2008, 10:31

I thought that after a few listens of the entire album I would write a journal entry containing my thoughts on The Crüe's latest effort. On the first listen, sometime last week, I think it was more my excitement and anticipation to hear it than the actual quality of the music that led me to write that it was "rock solid" in the shoutbox. Since then, I’ve listened to it 6 or 7 times more and I really think it’s missing something, but I can’t quite identify what that is. Maybe you could try listening to Shout At The Devil followed by Saints of Los Angeles to understand what I mean. My biggest problem with SOLA is that it just doesn’t sound right, I don’t know whether it’s to do with the actual recording or production of it but you can barely hear Vince sing over the music on some tracks and his voice is severely lacking in charm and charisma, not to mention his already limited supply of vocal power. Again, compare a song like Danger or Ten Seconds To Love with anything from SOLA to understand exactly what I mean. Aside from that, the muscianship is of a reasonable standard, Mick especially (some of the riffs are really good and reminiscent of Mötley’s heyday ) and Tommy more so than Sixx, as the basslines sound quite muffled on most of the album.

Also I'm not sure whether I enjoy the storytelling concept (borderline plugging) of The Dirt (Mötley Crüe’s autobiography) in the songs either. The odd reference e.g. girls passed out, naked in the back lounge, everybody's gonna score is quite fun and enjoyable but it’s just awful on a track like Down At The Whiskey.

My picks, and the only songs I really enjoy from SOLA, are:
Face Down In The Dirt
Saints of Los Angeles
Chicks = Trouble
Goin’ Out Swingin’

The rest are lacklustre, even by name, for example what type of track titles are “Welcome To The Machine” and “Just Another Psycho” for Mötley Crüe songs? Now Raise Your Hands To Rock, Louder Than Hell and Piece Of Your Action are what I call song titles.

More than anything, I get the impression that Sixx in his wild ambitions of trying to appeal to the nu/alternative/emo listening generation is forcing Mötley Crüe away from their true sound of Too Fast For Love and Shout At The Devil and towards more Sixx:A.M. orientated material.

Now for some facts about the album:
It's produced (rather poorly) by Sixx's close collaborator, "friend" and Sixx:A.M. bandmate James Michael.
It’s the second Mötley Crüe album to be released on the 24th June, the first being Generation Swine. Which doesn’t exactly set the standard does it?
The majority of the songs on SOLA are written by Sixx with his A.M. goons and long-time Aerosmith co-writer Marti Frederiksen. No wonder it's missing something: actual input from the band.

So in short: 5/10 for Saints, and the first 5 albums until I die.