The first album I'll be briefly discussing is the most recent, coming out four months before the death of legendary Metal bassist and vocalist Lemmy Kilmister. However, before I start that, I should mention that whilst writing this blog post, original guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke passed away too. He may not have been involved with this album but he did record the classic riffs and solos for Motorhead's classic albums such as Overkill, Iron Fist and Ace Of Spades.
R.I.P. Fast Eddie Clarke.
1. Bad Magic - Motorhead
I'd been meaning to check out Motorhead's final album ever since the news of Lemmy's passing broke but, without meaning to sound disrespectful, part of the reason I'd been avoiding it was I'd already listened to a Motorhead album. In fact, before listening to Bad Magic, I'd listened to three separate records and a covers album. If there's one thing I can tell you from each of these albums all released in different decades, it's that Motorhead never changed what wasn't broken and the few times they did tinker with things slightly always reset back to its original condition like a JD and tobacco stained memory foam mattress. Bad Magic does absolutely nothing to mix up the formula, making it as much a Motorhead album as anything else in their back catalogue.
Album opener "Victory Or Die" pulls no punches and does a good job of pointing out what's on the tin so you can expect to get exactly what the rest of the album says, if you'll pardon the muddled metaphor. However, there's something missing from Bad Magic that prevents it from being a top notch Motorhead album; a truly great guitarist. Don't get me wrong, Phil Campbell is top notch at playing the thing, I'm just not convinced he's got the musical talent to keep creating excellent riffs for an extended period of time. When you're literally recycling the exact same riff from "Smiling Like A Killer" for "Electricity"or recording generic, interchangeable solos for each track, it's going to let the album down.
Fortunately, Lemmy's bass still rolls out hard and heavy and even though his vocals were beginning to sound noticeably more like those of later years Johnny Cash than early years Lemmy Motherfucking Kilmister due to his health problems at the time, they hadn't completely gone to shit like many Hard Rock outfits that have gone on just a bit too long (looking at you, Deep Purple). Plus, it means we get songs like "Till The End" where we have the pleasure of actually listening to Lemmy sing as well as a banging cover of "Sympathy For The Devil", a highlight of this and their recent covers album. As far as swan songs go, Bad Magic is arguably not the guns blazing celebration of pure Rock & Roll that you may have expected from Motorhead but it's far from a tepid whimper too.
1. Victory Or Die
2. Thunder & Lightning
3. Fire Storm Hotel
4. Shoot Out All Of Your Lights
5. The Devil
6. Electricity
7. Evil Eye
8. Teach Them How To Bleed
9. Till The End
10. Tell Me Who To Kill
11. Choking On Your Screams
12. When The Sky Comes Looking For You
13. Sympathy For The Devil
ALBUM RATING - 5/10
2. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars - David Bowie
Much like the previous album, this is a record I'd been convincing myself to listen to for years before this blog post...and that's pretty much where the similarities end. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Overly Pretentious Album Title is the story of a bisexual Jesus-like Rock star who learns of the Earth's impending doom from aliens but becomes one with them on stage because of the spiritual journey he's undertaken throughout the album. Oh, and this Rock star is represented by David Bowie because he was humble like that. Everybody loves this album but to me, it's a competent collection of things I personally hate about Rock that prevent me from getting the most out of it.
For starters, album opener "Five Years" is more of a symphonic grandiose overture than a Glam Rock track to set the tone for what is ultimately a Glam Rock album. It reeks of self-importance without keeping me engaged enough to ignore that facet of Bowie's musical persona. Allmusic called it one of the greatest album openers ever recorded, meaning they've clearly never listened to any Megadeth or they'd realise how fucking wrong they are. Secondly, Bowie's writing style is painfully present in many of these songs and it just doesn't fly with me. For those unaware, Bowie used the cut-up technique where he'd take sentences (or just words), jumble them up and rearrange them into poetic sounding lyrics. When you listen to tracks like "Moonage Daydream" and "Ziggy Stardust", they'll either sound like genius ahead of its time or sporadically assembled nonsense and, unfortunately, it's the latter category for me.
Finally, there's the knowledge that some of these songs probably could've been amazing if written for other bands. Most of us probably know that David Bowie wrote the hit song "All The Young Dudes" for Mott The Hoople around the time of this album (the lyrics actually refer to events in this album because a bit of cross promotion never hurt anyone) but many of those may be unaware that he actually recorded versions of the song himself. They all fucking suck. I can imagine songs like "Star" being incredible by similar 70s Glam or Classic Rock artists that weren't trying to intentionally be art but at least some tracks work with the Bowie touch like "Suffragette City".
Ultimately, my opinion of this album may change over time but my initial reaction to The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Fawning Music Critics (besides one of childish mockery) is that it's not bad. It's a tidy collection of meticulously assembled material that you can blast through in a relatively short amount of time and get some joy out of. It hasn't given me any insight on any of the touched upon themes, nor will it be a record that I feel I must own or even revisit in a year's time. I like a few songs on it and would recommend listening to the second half as if it's a plain old 70s Rock album...unless you're the kind of wanker that says "bravo" without sarcasm, then you'll probably adore it and will want to see copies of it in museums and on space probes and carved into cliff edges so the wind will play melodies from it for all eternity. That's probably what you think, you ponce.
1. Five Years
2. Soul Love
3. Moonage Daydream
4. Starman
5. It Ain't Easy
6. Lady Stardust
7. Star
8. Hang On To Yourself
9. Ziggy Stardust
10. Suffragette City
11. Rock 'N' Roll Suicide
ALBUM RATING - 7/10
Finally, we have the middle child released in 1989. Even though this musician had already released plenty of studio albums with The Heartbreakers, this was Tom Petty's first solo record and it's pretty damn great!
3. Full Moon Fever - Tom Petty
Tom Petty might have been guilty of frequently committing one of Rock's worst sins (fading out on a guitar solo) but damn, did he know how to make a great solo record. It's a well built collection of Heartland Rock; nothing aggressive, just a feel-good collection of gentle Rock with a couple of standout rockers. Album opener "Free Fallin'" sets the easy tone perfectly with a slow tempo, pleasant melody and cracking yet simplistic chorus; in other words, the thing iconic Soft Rock songs are made from.
One of the main differences between his solo material and a standard Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers record probably comes down to the production. Even though we had Tom Petty and Mike Campbell involved as usual, Jeff Lynne (ELO, Traveling Wilburys) also did his fair share of producing and songwriting so many tracks contain elements of those bands as well as Tom Petty's signature style ("Love Is A Long Road", "Depending On You", "Zombie Zoo"). However, there are also tracks where Tom lets loose and busts out the proper Rock riffs ("Runnin' Down A Dream", "A Mind With A Heart Of Its Own").
There's something for fans of all types of Classic American Rock here and whilst it's unlikely that every track will land with you on the same level, Full Moon Fever knows what its doing and is easily one of the most cohesive, well crafted Rock albums in existence. Whilst it might not be on my personal favourites list due to the softer nature of most tracks and the lack of complex or technical music work to enjoy, I can appreciate the talent that went into making it and would recommend it to pretty much anyone, even those who aren't really into Rock but don't dislike it.
1. Free Fallin'
2. I Won't Back Down
3. Love Is A Long Road
4. A Face In The Crowd
5. Runnin' Down A Dream
6. Feel A Whole Lot Better
7. Yer So Bad
8. Depending On You
9. The Apartment Song
10. Alright For Now
11. A Mind With A Heart Of It's Own
12. Zombie Zoo
ALBUM RATING - 8/10
There you have it. Three decent albums by three great artists/bands who are no longer with us. What a way to start the year!
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