MOTÖRHEAD — 1916 (review)

MOTÖRHEAD — 1916 album cover Album · 1991 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Warthur
Motorhead don't do bad albums, but that doesn't mean every one of their releases was a classic. 1916 is a solid album of Motorhead-style rock 'n' roll - that's what Lemmy always called their music at gigs, and in some respects the production and compositional approach on here really teases out that side of their sound - this is perhaps best audible on the triptych of I'm So Bad (Baby I Don't Care), No Voices In the Sky and Going to Brazil. That's cool if it's an aspect of the band's character you're particularly keen on, but if you can take it or leave it the album can feel a little lightweight next to monsters like Bomber or Overkill.

After this set the album begins to get bogged down; Love Me Forever is a slow ballad which mostly illustrates why people tend not to think of slow ballads when they think of Motorhead, whilst Angel City seems unusally vapid by Motorhead standards. Closing number is a serious-minded tribute to the dead of World War I, which by itself is an interesting number, but it's both very uncharacteristic of the band and doesn't really seem to fit the rest of the album, feeling incongruous as a result.

In short, the album is a bit of a mixed bag. Were it all like the rock-and-roll focused material of side 1 I'd probably give it three stars, since it's in a style I'm not keen on but which is clearly competently done, but as it stands the patchy second side drags it down another half star.
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Vim Fuego wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I have to disagree with the summation of this. 1916 was a giant middle finger to Motorhead's troubles of the 80s. It opened up new avenues with 1916, Love Me Forever, Nightmare/The Dreamtime, and R.A.M.O.N.E.S. A lot of the rest was standard Motorhead, hardly adventurous, but not bad either.
UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I love this one. I think it´s in the top 5 of my favorite Motörhead albums.

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