“Saints of Los Angeles”
Mötley Crüe
Motley Records/Eleven Seven Music
By Thom Copher
For the Gazette
Mötley Crüe is one of those bands that have always done things their way and somehow managed to survive. The band recently unleashed its ninth studio album, “Saints of Los Angeles.”
In many respects, “Saints” can be viewed as The Crüe’s most important offering in its 28-year career. It’s the first disc in 11 years to feature all four original band members (vocalist Vince Neil, drummer Tommy Lee, guitarist Mick Mars and bassist Nikki Sixx).
Though the band’s 2005 hits package, “Red, White & Crüe,” and the ensuing killer “Carnival of Sins” tour were both gargantuan successes, the Crüe’s last two original albums — 1994’s self-titled collection and 2000’s “New Tattoo” — were flops.
Now the band’s back together — but can the Crüe still deliver the goods?
Well, following the intro prelude that eulogizes bands who didn’t make the cut in the early ’80s (“100,000 fallen, drowning in a cesspool of awareness that they have failed”), it takes 10 seconds for “Face Down in the Dirt” to firmly jam a middle finger in the face of skeptics. The tune hits like a round-house right and speaks of the arrogant vibrancy the band surely felt as it began its launch to fame.
From there, “Saints” serves as a soundtrack for The Crüe’s autobiographical book, “The Dirt.” Waxing poetic through multiple media forms seems to be a good fit for Sixx. His lyrics recall the good times and baggage accumulated along the way — all rather tongue-in cheek because, after all, it’s so tough being a rock star.
Sixx also devotes words to his personal turmoil with drugs (“The Animal in Me”) as well as the band’s realization of its corporate place during metal’s “Golden Age” (“Welcome to the Machine”).
It appears, at face value, anyway, that Sixx has chosen to bring the band full circle back to the streets from which it was born and explore them through now-sober eyes. “Down at the Whiskey,” “What’s It Gonna Take,” “White Trash Circus” and the title track are more reflective of the impact of the rock and roll fast lane rather than glorifying the hedonistic participation therein. As they say, hindsight is always 20/20.
As bands age, self-revelation is oftentimes repetitive and pointless and can be a sign of the well running dry. But rest assured, this introspective version of Mötley Crüe isn’t going to be rubbing elbows with Kenny G on the FM lite station anytime soon.
Thom Copher is a local musician who last reviewed Mötley Crüe and the band’s “Theatre of Pain” album in 1985 for WVU’s Daily Athenaeum.