Motley Crue Motley Crue Released – 1994 by Elektra Track List 1. Power to the Music 2. Uncle Jack 3. Hooligans Holiday 4. Misunderstood 5. Loveshine 6. Poison Apples 7. Hammered 8. Til Death Do Us Part 9. Welcome to the Numb 10. Smoke the Sky 11. Droppin’ Like Flies 12. Driftaway 13. Hypnotised (unreleased track) 14. Babykills (from Quaternary) 15. Livin’ in the Know (unreleased track)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s enough deep bass-y sounds on this album to make you incontinent! This is a great hard rock album and really never received the recognition it deserved at an uncertain time in music.

Originally I was like most people thinking I wouldn’t like this record because it wasn’t “Motley”. Sure it isn’t “classic” Crue but it is a classic album. The extra guitar brought in by John Corabi really helps to thicken things up and gives this album more of a wall of sound vibe.

The production is great too with a crisp and sharp sound to everything while keeping their individual places in the mix. Tommy’s drums are the best I’ve heard and I’d really like to know what went into capturing such a pounding sound. I’m a stickler for punchy drums and love it when I feel knocked about by them.

Every song including the bonus tracks originally left out are pretty good but the standouts for me are ‘Power to the Music’ ‘Hooligans Holiday’ ‘Misunderstood’ ‘Hammered’ and ‘Smoke the Sky’. ‘Poison Apples’ and ‘Driftaway’ have to get a special mention too with the latter being a beautifully written song.

The harder songs have a deep bottom end and a good dynamic range right up to the crunching riffs of Mick Mars and John Corabi. 'Crab's' vocals are raspy and jagged suiting this new direction well and I see what Nikki and Tommy were on about when talking of this period in their book 'The Dirt'.

I’m really surprised that given the mid-nineties had moved on from good time party rock that this album didn’t crack the charts wide open. That really says more about the direction things were going at the time within the industry more toward Pop than the quality of the material here.

This album is heavy and strong with some good turns. 'Motley Crue' (the album) has grown on me so much that I rate this up among my favourite albums of all time even though I love "Classic Crue". But this disc is just such a heavy hitting one and has something about it that I still can't get enough.

Visit: www.motley.com - www.myspace.com/thecrue

Dirty Rock review by ‘Jonni Starr’ 2007

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