Mötley Crüe – Mötley Crüe
MOTLEY CRUE
MOTLEY CRUE
Released on March 15, 1994 (Elektra), 2003 (Hip-O)
Billboard Chart Position #7
Track List:
01. Power To The Music
02. Uncle Jack
03. Hooligan’s Holiday
04. Misunderstood
05. Loveshine
06. Poison Apples
07. Hammered
08. Til Death Do Us Part
09. Welcome To The Numb
10. Smoke The Sky
11. Droppin’ Like Flies
12. Driftaway
13. Hypnotized (*2003 release only*)
14. Babykills (*2003 release only*)
15. Livin’ In The Know (*2003 release only*)
Band Members:
John Corabi – vocals, guitar and bass
Mick Mars – guitar, bass, sitar and mandolin
Nikki Sixx – bass, piano and background vocals
Tommy Lee – drums, percussion, piano and background vocals
Additional Musicians:
Hook Herrera – harmonica
Bob Rock – guitar and mandolin
Mark La France – background vocals
Glenn Hughes – background vocals
Scott Humphrey – synthesizer
David Steele – background vocals
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Production:
Produced by Bob Rock.
Review:
Two important points to note right off the bat: 1) Vince Neil is not on this disc and 2) Vince Neil is NOT on this disc. You’ll find the name Mötley Crüe over this release and recognize Tommy Lee, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx, but that’s about where the idea of “Mötley Crüe” ends.
I had originally bought this release when it first came out in 1994 and was totally caught off guard. Who in the hell was this? This isn’t Mötley Crüe! I’ve been had! I’ll admit, I tossed it aside in favor of just about anything else and there it sat, collecting dust. As my musical tastes started to vary and I dug deeper into my CD collection for those I hadn’t played recently, I came across this disc and decided to give it another listen. Maybe the moons had aligned themselves just right with the stars but this was exactly what I was looking for!
When rock was getting grungy this was a breath of fresh air. At this point I had no idea who John Corabi was or where he came from but his vocal style soon grew on me. It was a sound similar to something I had heard before – whiskey soaked, cigarette burned, gravel swallowing vocals yet with a much more polished delivery. His ability to blow your hair back on “Smoke The Sky” (even while gagging on a puff) was every bit as good as his anti-pretty boy rendering of the ballad “Misunderstood”. “Uncle Jack” and “Hooligan’s Holiday” received limited radio play on America’s rock airwaves as heavy metal taps started to sound from Seattle. Not even the solid rocker “Welcome To The Numb” with its hint of swagger could avoid being smothered in an avalanche of flannel.
Championing this disc as best I could I ended up losing it in the process. When I went to purchase it again it had been reissued with three new tracks. While none of the new tunes are extremely noteworthy one way or the other, the banter captured between songs is amusing to say the least.
If you’re looking to fill in your Mötley Crüe back catalog and want to hear more of Vince or tunes like “Smoking In The Boys Room”, I’m pretty comfortable in saying you probably won’t like this CD. If you’re looking for a straight-ahead hard rock, heavy metal recording that just happens to have the musical talents of Mötley Crüe backing a relative unknown, then you will love this disc. Had this band taken their cues from some of today’s successful merged groups they quite possibly could have been huge. All in all this is a great hard rock CD.
www.motley.com – www.john-corabi.net.
Reviewed by Brutus for Sleaze Roxx, September 2006.
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