Motorhead-1916, 1991

A Motorhead album with a cello on a song (the title track), a song about another band (Ramones) and love song that's over five minutes long (Love me forever). How can this be and maybe a better question is how can this be true and the album still be as good as it is? Well, some time around 1988 Motorhead had problems getting off their record label. This lead to the band spending several years in court trying to get out of the contract. During this time they could not release any new studio tracks. Finally in 1990 they got out of the courts and were free to sign with Sony music. I think the years of being tied up allowed the band to spend time on ideas. So that's my view on why this album is more varied in the styles of the songs. We get tracks like "The one to sing the blues" and "Shut you down" which are traditional Motorhead style songs. However many of the other songs show a different side of the band. The title track is about World War One and the style is different from anything the band has ever done, but it works completely. Tracks like "I'm so bad (Baby I don't care)" and "Angel City" show that sense of humor that Motorhead have. "Nightmare/The dreamtime" is an odd, offbeat track somewhat similar to "Orgasmatron" from the 1986 album of the same name. Varied it may be, but I like every single track and it was great and welcome return for Motorhead. I listen to it now and can't believe it came out almost sixteen years ago, but it still manages to be fairly fresh. One of the most interesting albums in the band's long career.