Motorhead - Motorizer (Album)
I am sure Motorhead are unlikely to apologise for not reinventing the wheel here on their 20th studio album and why should they? Motorhead have one sound and that is Motorhead – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it applies to them more than most. Within a few seconds putting on Motorizer you know what you are in for with Lemmy’s trademark gravel laced vocals and distorted bass backed by long-time band members Phil Campbell (guitar) and Mikkey Dee (drums).
Motorhead’s massive influence on the punk/metal/rock scene is undeniable and it is reassuring that they can still put out a record that, whilst being somewhat predictable, still stands up as some of the loudest, ear-pounding rock’n’roll you will ever hear.
The album was recorded in Dave Grohl’s 606 studios in California and was produced by Cameron Webb who has worked with the trio on their previous two albums to this release. The production level is high and mixed brilliantly. The band is obviously very comfortable with Webb and he has produced a huge sound for the trio. It a strange way it is one of the cleanest yet dirtiest sounding records I have heard in many a year.
Opening track Runaround Man is classic Motorhead and can easily be filed next to the likes of Ace of Spades. Rock Out is another full paced affair with a chanting chorus and let’s face it, there are very few singers that would get away with the lyric...’rock out with your cock out’ but somehow Lemmy does. Things slow down a bit on One Short Life with a massive sounding bluesy shuffle and possibly one of the best solos on the album with Campbell‘s lead wailing over a big chunky slab of a riff. Other standouts include the bludgeoning Buried Alive and English Rose, the album’s big anthem.
Lyrically nothing much has changed – nasty girls, drinking, fighting and anti-establishment themes. Lemmy will never win a poetry prize for his words but it’s the way he delivers them that make you want to sing along regardless of how daft they may be.
So Motorhead show no signs of going away 33 years into their career and are sounding as uncompromising and brutal as ever. Whilst many 62 year olds would be thinking about which retirement village they would like to move into in a few years, Lemmy is still blasting out some of the nastiest, high octane rock’n’roll out there.
