If you\u2019ve been a reader of this site for any length of time, you\u2019ll know I am not the world\u2019s biggest Motley Crue fan. I\u2019ve not been particularly kind to some of the albums of theirs I\u2019ve listened to in the past.<\/p>\n
So, I can understand there would be trepidation at the idea that I\u2019d dust off my copy of Shout At The Devil<\/i>, Vince Neil and crew\u2019s sophomore release. But the fears that I\u2019d piss all over this album like a drunk alley cat can be relieved; in fact, this could well be Motley Crue\u2019s best release (even with a few minor missteps).<\/p>\n
Following their debut release Too Fast For Love<\/i>, the band\u2014vocalist Neil, guitarist Mick Mars, bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee\u2014definitely learned the lessons from their first go-around in the studio, and worked on not only their songwriting but their overall sound. And, it has to be said: the effort paid off.<\/p>\n
From the first snippet \u201cIn The Beginning\u201d leading into the title track, Motley Crue definitely hit the ground running\u2014and to follow it with the hit single from this disc \u201cLooks That Kill\u201d is an expert move. Even now, nearly 40 years after this disc was released, these songs sound fresh, which is no mean trick.<\/p>\n
Even some of the obscure tracks on Shout At The Devil<\/i>, such as \u201cBastard\u201d and \u201cRed Hot,\u201d live up to the promise of the opening salvo. And even someone like myself who never got into the Crue like I did other bands has to admit, just possibly Motley Crue knew exactly what they were doing back in 1983, \u2019cause these tracks still rock today.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say the road is completely smooth, though. I\u2019ve never warmed up to their cover of the Beatles\u2019s \u201cHelter Skelter\u201d\u2014not a terrible effort, but one wonders why it needed to be done in the first place. (To be fair, even with Bono\u2019s line of stealing the song away from Charles Manson, I\u2019d question why U2 even covered it.) And it does feel like Motley Crue saved the two weakest tracks, \u201cTen Seconds To Love\u201d (a song which I will admit I appreciated more today than I did back in the \u201980s) and \u201cDanger,\u201d for the end.<\/p>\n
That all said, there are tracks on Shout At The Devil<\/i> that await rediscovery, even by long-time fans. \u201cToo Young To Fall In Love\u201d is a surprisingly solid and mature effort, and \u201cKnock \u2019Em Dead, Kid\u201d is one that, when you listen to it, you might remember hearing at some point, bringing back some pleasant memories.<\/p>\n
Shout At The Devil<\/i> is the kind of album that makes an old man like me think that maybe, just maybe, I missed out on something important back in the \u201980s when this disc came out. I personally can\u2019t say I\u2019d be adding it to the list of albums that is in constant rotation in my house, but it\u2019s definitely an album I would listen to again without any hesitation, and is a major improvement over their debut effort. If you had to own just one Motley Crue album, I\u2019d argue that this is the one to get that honor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5823],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46636","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-motley-crue","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46636","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=46636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46636"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}