Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister is a genius. There’s no other way to say
\nit; the man is a fucking genius. You don’t survive over 25 years in
\nrock and roll unless you know what you’re doing and how to do it
\nwell.<\/p>\n
Yet for all of that, his band Motorhead is still very much a
\ncult classic, one of those bands that you have to discover through
\na friend who’s in the know. This is a group that, whether metal was
\npopular in the States or not, should have been revered as a
\nsupergroup well over a decade ago. The fact that they’re often
\nrelegated to opening act status proves there’s no justice in the
\nworld today.<\/p>\n
Motorhead’s 1996 album
\nOvernight Sensation<\/i>, their second platter for CMC
\nInternational, is just one piece of evidence I use to back up the
\nabove statements. Despite losing guitarist Wurzel (who left after
\n1993’s
\nBastards<\/i>), the band – bassist\/vocalist Kilmister, guitarist
\nPhil Campbell and drummer Mikkey Dee – continued to put out
\narguably some of the band’s best material of their career.
\nOvernight Sensation<\/i> is the one album that might just top
\ntheir 1986 album
\nOrgasmatron<\/i> as their best work ever.<\/p>\n
One of the keys to the rejuvenation of Motorhead has been the
\naddition of Dee (who joined the band for the 1992 album
\nMarch Or Die<\/i>). His drumming is powerful, speed-oriented and
\ntechnical, meaning he is pushing the envelope for the rest of the
\nband to follow. Fortunately, Kilmister and Campbell are both up to
\nthe challenge, working their way through complex time signatures,
\nball-to-the-wall speed and – believe it or not – a radio-friendly
\nlove song.<\/p>\n
Granted, “Civil War,” a decent track itself, might not be the
\nmost spectacular way to kick off the album, but it actually works
\nwell because it leaves you unprepared for the musical shock that
\nawaits. One track later, “Crazy Like A Fox,” features the band
\ngetting into a real groove, and puts Kilmister on the spot with a
\nharmonica (!!!) solo. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought
\nthat Kilmister also handled the guitar solo at the end of the
\nsong… but there’s no evidence in the liner notes to prove
\nthat.<\/p>\n
Simply put, there is not one bad performance on
\nOvernight Sensation<\/i>. “I Don’t Believe A Word” features some
\nof Kilmister’s best singing in years (despite what one may think,
\nKilmister still has a very good set of pipes, as well as a powerful
\nsinging voice), and Dee’s trap work raises the song up many levels.
\nThe title track and “Broken” both are solid, mid-tempo rockers that
\nhighight everything good about Motorhead. “Them Not Me” is the most
\nchallenging for the listener, going into what sounded like a 7\/4
\ntime signature in the chorus. Although I’ve played musical
\ninstruments for most of my life, I honestly don’t know how
\nMotorhead could keep track of the time, playing as fast as they did
\non this song.<\/p>\n
And then, there are the all-out surprises. “Eat The Gun” is a
\ngung-ho, tongue-in-cheek look at war, with even a little sexual
\ninnuendo thrown in for good measure. If anyone takes this song
\nseriously, they’re fools who need to stop reading between the
\nlines. “Listen To Your Heart,” which prominently features the use
\nof acoustic guitar (played by one L. Kilmister), is a surprisingly
\npop-oriented song (albeit with distorted electric guitars) that
\ndares to show a more sensitive – even romantic – side of a band who
\nmay not seem to be of that ilk.<\/p>\n
I don’t know why it took me so long to pick up
\nOvernight Sensation<\/i> (and I didn’t have the heart to ask my
\ncolleague at CMC for a press copy of a three-year-old album), but
\nnow my problem is that I don’t want to take it out of the tape deck
\nof my car.
\nOvernight Sensation<\/i> is an album that shows clearly that
\nMotorhead’s glory days are by no means past them, and that they
\njust might be at the high point of their career right now. Check
\nthis album out now – it’s been 25 years that Motorhead’s been
\nwaiting to be an
\nOvernight Sensation<\/i>, and they shouldn’t have to wait any
\nlonger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5666],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-39221","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-motorhead","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39221"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39221"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}