Motörhead - Rock 'n' Roll (1987)

It is pretty easy to see that "Rock 'n' Roll" is far from the most impressive work that Motörhead has ever done. The title is kinda meh, and while the artwork is cool as always, it just does not say very much, it is just a dark blue Snaggletooth doing his best Gene Simmons impression. Oh well, it is still Motörhead at least, so you know what you will get, and that is only the purest of heavy metal.

The first single from this album was actually written for a movie called "Eat The Rich" (which is also the name for the song), a British black comedy starring cast members of the then popular tv show "The Comic Strip Presents...". I have personally never heard of this movie before, but after taking a look at the plot, it seems pretty dark to say the least. The whole band did an appearance in the movie too, and so did also Paul McCartney, Bill Wyman, and a bunch of different fairly famous people at that time. The song itself is okay, but really safe, so I do not have much to say about it.

I got more to say about track number 4 instead, and that is "Stone Deaf In The USA", an extremely fun song with a great groove, a hooky chorus, and some fun lyrics. I also love the solo that borrows some from fellow NWoBHM guys Judas Priest. The song ends on a really weird note though, with a sermon wishing that the man above takes care of this band, it feels like it is taken straight out from Monty Python. Actually, it is taken straight out from Monty Python, because the guy doing the sermon is none other than Michael Palin. A fun, but really weird ending to the song.

It is definitely the rock 'n' roll groove that is the strength of this album, being the driving force to a lot of the songs in here, like "Traitor", "Boogeyman", and "Stone Deaf In The USA". However, there is not much of the classic Motörhead styled metal that we all have gotten used to. Ironically, the track of this album is the only one that even resembles that sound, and that is the first song right off the bat. I am not saying that this does not sound like Motörhead (it definitely does), it just is not enough to fulfill my hunger at least.

Looking at the whole picture, it just feels like the band had to rush things. This album did only take one year to make, so that might be a good reason to why the overall song and production quality is not at its peak. I just do not get the purpose of some songs, like the really bland "All For You", or the over simplified "Dogs". It all comes back to the bland album title and the non spectacular cover art, this album in its entirety is what we in Sweden call "lagom", which means that it is perfectly fine, not bad at all, but not great either. I do not dislike "Rock 'n' Roll" at all, I kind of enjoy it, but if I had to chose a Motörhead album to listen to right now, this album would be pretty far back on my list.

Songs worthy of recognition: Stone Deaf In The USA, Rock 'n' Roll, The Wolf

Rating: 6,5/10 Blackhearts

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