\u201cThe conversation begins<\/i>.\u201d With those words begins the career of Martha Davis and the Motels. Helping to usher in the energetic \u201980s, their debut album is a carefully constructed set of ten songs that straddle the line between pop and new wave brilliantly. The four backing musicians flex their considerable muscle, providing the perfect foundation for Davis\u2019 vocals to shine. A smart move was to use keyboards sparingly, giving Marty Jourard the option to play the Motels\u2019 trademark saxophone on more tracks. On the first couple of songs, it\u2019s all guitar, bass and drums, provided by Marty\u2019s brother Jeff Jourard, Michael Goodroe and Brian Glascock, respectively. Of the two, the single \u201cKix\u201d is makes the biggest impression. The producer, known only as Carter, wisely follows that upbeat tune with what is now a Motels staple, the solid-as-nails sax-drenched ballad \u201cTotal Control,\u201d which Tina Turner herself memorably covered for the USA For Africa project six years later.<\/p>\n
The middle portion of this eponymous first album is the weakest, but that\u2019s all relative. Tracks like \u201cAtomic Caf\u00e9\u201d and the directionless \u201cCelia\u201d could be considered filler, but they\u2019re far from glaring. They just don\u2019t have the same initial impact that the other cuts do. Also, \u201cDressing Up\u201d doesn\u2019t work at all and should have been left off the album entirely. On the other hand, the Motels\u2019 stab at reggae, \u201cPorn Reggae,\u201d takes an unexpected jazzy turn, making it something of a standout. You would never expect jazz and reggae to merge, but miraculously, the Motels make it happen.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s address Martha Davis\u2019 vocal abilities for a second. She doesn\u2019t have the greatest range in the world as a singer, but she more than makes up for it with her coy delivery and personality. When you hear her voice, you automatically know it\u2019s her. That\u2019s what the best pop vocals should be: distinctive. Yes, perhaps her vocal style could seem a little nasal or pinched to the uninitiated, but she could out-sing Britney Spears, Ke$ha or Iggy Azalea any day of the week.<\/p>\n
Personally, I miss real singing voices like Martha\u2019s or Ann Wilson\u2019s of Heart. You don\u2019t hear rock songs played on the radio anymore, you just don\u2019t. Nowadays, it\u2019s all wisecracking and in-your-face obnoxiousness. Plastic and canned dance fluff or rap made on a computer, set to a sledgehammer beat. Melody? What\u2019s that? I may be stuck in a time-warp, but at least I know what real music is supposed<\/i> to sound like.<\/p>\n
The Motels never really became critics\u2019 darlings or made a lasting mark on the Billboard<\/i> charts during their initial tenure, but earned enough popularity that Davis \u2013 last year rejoined by Marty Jourard \u2013 has kept the Motels flame alive with touring and recording in recent years. To this day, the band is primarily known for their mid-tempo hit songs \u201cOnly The Lonely\u201d and \u201cSuddenly Last Summer,\u201d and that\u2019s kind of a shame. There\u2019s so much more to this group then those overplayed tunes. All it takes is a little faith and curiosity. It doesn\u2019t even matter which Motels album you pick up, all are reliably consistent listens that have the potential to surprise and pay dividends. That\u2019s what the best Album Oriented Rock is supposed to do. I\u2019ve always been dumbfounded that bands like theirs didn\u2019t make more of a mark. Oh well, I don\u2019t mind keeping this a best-kept secret to myself!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":31989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9416],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-43724","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-motels","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43724","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\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43724"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}