Category: Motorhead

Motorhead – Bomber

ARTIST: Motorhead          Motörhead_-_Bomber_(1979)

TITLE: Bomber

YEAR RELEASED: 1979

CHART ACTION: #12 UK

SINGLES: Bomber (#34 UK)

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Stone Dead Forever, Dead Men Tell No Tales

LINEUP: Lemmy, Fast Eddie, Philthy Animal

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Followup to Motorhead’s breakthrough gives us more of the same, but, what’s really wrong with that?

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: The riffs are there, but not as stunning and mind-blowing. The sleaze is still there, and Lemmy’s still Lemmy.

It doesn’t reach the height of Overkill. There’s not a ‘last chance urgency’ on some of the tracks. The band had secured themselves, and cranked out some good tracks, but there’s definitely some filler creeping in here in the middle of each side.

Bomber’s a good Motorhead album, and really that’s about all you need to know.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: Producer Jimmy Miller was often late for sessions due to his heroin addiction. Heroin was the subject of “Dead Men Tell No Tales”

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: Yes – a b-side, live tracks, and alternate mixes.

GRADE: B+: It’s an album lost between a couple of classics, but it’s good for some riffin’ and head bangin’.

 

Motorhead – Overkill

ARTIST: Motorhead Overkill_(Motörhead_album)

TITLE:  Overkill

YEAR RELEASED: 1979

CHART ACTION: #24 UK

SINGLES: Overkill (#39 UK), No Class (#61 UK)

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Stay Clean, Metropolis, I’ll Be Your Sister, Capricorn

LINEUP: Lemmy Kilmister, Fast Eddie Clark, Philthy Animal Taylor

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: After several false starts, Motorhead gets a proper recording session and melts everyone’s face.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Talk about a game changer! The second full-length by Motorhead becomes a big hit, despite the hurdles they overcame early in their career. Finally, the fury and power of their sound comes to life.

Riffs? Yeah, they’re all over the place here. Lemmy being Lemmy, playing his massive bass and croaking out his lyrics with anger and vengeance? You bet. This is the record that established the formula for most of Motorhead’s early career, and it’s packed to the brim with favorites – including “Stay Clean” which may be their best song thanks to Fast Eddie’s incessant wah-wah riff and Lemmy’s bass solo.

Metal fans definitely should have this. Heck, rock fans should have this in their collection. It’s a touchstone album that has inspired so many bands of so many genres. You don’t have to look pretty, or sound pretty. You just have to melt faces!

NOTES & MINUTAE: The owner of Bronze Records let them record a single (“Louie Louie”) and he released it without hearing it first. When he heard it, he thought it was awful – but it quickly hit the charts and led to an appearance on Top of the Pops. He got over his objection to the sound soon after!

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION:  A couple are out there – one with singles attached and one with several alternate takes.

GRADE: A. Most every song here is top notch and one that almost every hard rock or metal fan wishes they would have recorded.

Motorhead – Motorhead

ARTIST: Motorhead Motorheadselftitled
TITLE: Motorhead
YEAR RELEASED: 1977
CHART ACTION: #43 UK
SINGLES: Motorhead
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Lost Johnny, Iron Horse/Born to Lose
LINEUP: Lemmy Kilmister, Fast Eddie Clark, Philthy Animal Taylor
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Loud band makes loud record in record time.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Those of you who (like me) revel in “classic” Motorhead when they were loud and fast and rifftastic may wonder about this record, and with good reason.

While many of the songs are classics, it’s just not Motorhead as we know and love. The tempos are slower, the mix is muddy – which diminishes the power of the riffs, and some of the songs don’t have the energy they should. You can tell it’s loud, very loud, but the mix hampers the enjoyment of the volume either. A song like “White Line Fever” should have been an all-timer, but it’s rendered somewhat limp due to the production.

Any record with “Motorhead”, “Lost Johnny” and “Iron Horse/Born to Lose” ain’t bad, get real. But when Fast Eddie says he wouldn’t pay four pounds for it you know there are some issues with it. The former two songs were better recorded with Hawkwind, and then the live versions of these songs blow everything away.

This is good, not great, and probably really only for those of us who are completists.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: One reason for the mix was the speed that this record was made in. They did it in 48 hours since that’s all the time they had and they wanted to get their live set on record. Everyone, including the producer and engineer, was speeding out of their heads. They thought this was going to be the end of the band – but it made enough money to save it;

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: Yes, with a B-side and outtakes, but that’s not streaming.

GRADE: B-: That grade is for the classics, and that it’s still better than most metal from that time.