Motley Crue-Saints of Los Angeles

Motley Records
2008

It doesn’t seem that long ago that the members of Motley Crue seemed distant from one another and certain members seemed very much involved in other projects, actually that was last year. It was beginning to feel like another studio album might be a long ways away if ever. Then all of a sudden Tommy was back in, the band was working hard (and apparently rather quickly), they crank out a new album glistening with nude bodies on the cover and everyone is throwing up their hands in praise proclaiming that the old Crue is back. Whoa, let’s back up a little bit and see what’s really transpiring here before we start tugging on our old faded “Shout a the devil” pentagram shirts, strapping on studded bracelets and flashing devil horns like it’s 1983 again. There are thirteen tracks on the new disc so they have given us a lot to absorb, but quantity doesn’t necessarily equal quality. Not to get too far sidetracked, but a good portion of this album reminds me of Ozzy’s "Ozzmosis" album in a way. Granted the Crue’s album is better, yet both albums have a number of songs with a thick (not altogether heavy) sound that is almost like a shell around the song. At first it seems sort of heavy, but really it’s just a rather tacky glob of production that’s covering up a rather mundane riff. They try this tactic on several tracks and I got the impression that the thought this was a stab at a “modern” sound, but really that style just came across as being rather lazy. However, there are few tracks that are rather heavy including the title track, “Goin’ out swingin’” and a few others. Now these songs are nowhere near a “Shout at the devil” or “Too fast for love” level yet they work. Is the old attitude there? I think their attitude was always rather fake, but they do a good job of believing in what they are doing for a few songs on the new release. Okay, that’s probably descriptions of the worst and best type of songs on this disc. The rest is largely filler that varies from tolerable down to “this is going nowhere fast”. I would have welcomed a return to form for this band because those first two records were two of if the best hard rock albums of their decade. Still at best we get a few tracks here that might be as good as some of the material on “Dr. Feelgood” which is a plus, but unfortunately it’s just a few tracks. There are also several very moderate songs and a few groan worthy clunkers. In the end “Saints of Los Angeles” is a little above average and would fall right around the middle if I were ranking their albums. Return to form? For a few tracks only, but unfortunately it contains far too much padding and limp noodles hiding behind some generously slathered production work. So for Motley Crue their once glorious past remains a peak they will never likely fully achieve again in their career.

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