Motorhead – Rock N Roll
Album Review by Adam McCann
Label : GWR Records
Year : 1987
Oh Lord, look down upon these people of Motörhead
The tides had turned for Motörhead, the decade had begun at the top of their game with ‘Ace of Spades’, but by 1987, the band had lost its ‘classic’ line up, lost its record deal with Bronze, forcing Motörhead to sign with the hastily set-up GWR Records and dealt with poor production at the hands of a maverick on ‘Orgasmatron’. It’s safe to say Motörhead were not in a good place and things were about to get worse.
Firing Pete Gill for being a twat, Motörhead re-acquired Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor on the drums giving that signature drum sound once more for their 1987 release ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’. To give ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ its due, the production is much better than its predecessor, but that isn’t hard. However, where most of the songs on ‘Orgasmatron’ were decent, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ sounded better, but lacked the songs.
The songs on ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ feel as if they were bashed through in half an hour in the studio with the conclusion of: “yep, that’s a keeper”, moreover, even Lemmy’s sharply delivered lyrics misfire at times, the words “you wanna see my bacon torpedo” come to mind and as comical as it is on first listen, ‘Blessing’ which features Michael Palin becomes plain annoying after the second listen. On the other hand, the guitar work of Phil Campbell and Würzel are consistent throughout with the latter playing some excellent slide guitar during ‘Stone Deaf in the USA” with other highlights being ‘Dogs’, ‘Traitor’ and the title track itself.
‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ is a commercial and creative for low point for a band that stuck to its guns for 40 years. Yet below the critical slating and some relatively crap songs, there are some decent songs that just about make the album worth listening to.
Rating : 68/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
