Motley Crue reviewed
Motley Crue
Saints Of Los Angeles
(Eleven Seven/Motley)
With a guitarist who shows less life than Bernie Lomax, a drummer who’s convinced he’s a DJ, and a summer tour “extravaganza” with Buckcherry, Papa Roach, and fuckin’ Trapt, it’s doubtful anyone had high expectations for a new Motley Crue record. But guess what? Saints Of Los Angeles ain’t too damn bad!
Appearing: Wednesday, July 16th at First Midwest Amphitheater in Tinley Park.
Three years ago Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars, and Tommy Lee reunited to tour and proved not only could they sorta coexist (the four had to travel in separate buses), but shit, man, they still put on a hell of a rock ‘n’ roll show. New music, on the other hand? Of the two new original songs the quartet recorded for their umpteenth greatest-hits collection, Red, White, & Crue, that same year, “Sick Love Song” was so-so at best, and “If I Die Tomorrow” was actually a Simple Plan leftover. This was what it had come to.
Saints Of Los Angeles, thankfully, includes no songs written by Canadian pop punkers, and, that said, is decidedly more Crued. That’s not to say chief songwriter Sixx doesn’t depend on some “outside sources” (fellow Sixx:AM members DJ Ashba and James Michael as well as hired hitwriter Marti Frederiksen, best known for neutering Aerosmith), but he makes them color within the lines: Arena-ready hard rock (title track, “MF Of The Year”) and bratty punk metal (“Face Down In The Dirt,” “White Trash Circus”) are still signature Sixx. Sure, by now we know all about the drugs, girls (girls, girls), and fisticuffs that define Motley Crue’s career, but the fact the shit still doesn’t get old on “What’s It Gonna Take,” “This Ain’t A Love Song” (it’s a fuck song!), and “Goin’ Out Swingin'” (where Neil and the band show they still have some ‘tude in their 40s and 50s: “If you got the balls to fight/then come on bring it”) says everything you need to know about this album.
Of course, old topics are supposed to be rehashed here, as Saints Of Los Angeles is loosely based on the band’s 2001 autobiography, The Dirt. One can only assume, then, that it will also be the companion piece to the Crue’s longtime-in-the-making biopic, which, after hearing this album, we’re suddenly much more excited about.
— Trevor Fisher
