Motley Crue ~ Girls, Girls, Girls (album review) ... Vince sings about what he knows best!

Style: hard rock, hair metal
Label: Motley Records
Year: 1987
Home: Los Angeles, California

Members: Vince Neil ~ vocals
Mick Mars ~ guitars
Nikki Six ~ bass/b. vocals
Tommy Lee ~ drums/piano/b. vocals

Additional: John Purdell ~ keyboards/b. vocals
Tommy Funderburk, Bob Carlisle, Phyllis St. James, Dave Amato, Pat Torpey ~ b. vocals

MC's Dr. Feelgood might be one of the best albums of the 80's hair metal scene. But, the boys from L.A. didn't walk out the door with this classic but had to build up to it, wander around a bit & get their sound down & their sleaze factor up. The four albums before it, their debut in 1981 to 1987's Girls, Girls, Girls, would all be given near classic status while moving MC to the top of the heap & crowning them the kings of the sleazy world of girls & music & anything else in the L.A. mix. But, the reputation of MC eclipses the fact that these albums really aren't the classic Dr. Feelgood is, as retrospect shows. In the moment they were great, but now sound weak with too much filler. The ingredients are there, but listening to Girls, Girls, Girls it's almost as if they were afraid to take the big jump away from sounding like their peers. They play it safe, most obvious in the super slick production values. It's too safe as the rough edges are washed away & all the sleaze of the band is in Vince Neil's vocals (for example, "Dancing On Glass") & he even plays its safe too often. Their reputation as bad boys makes up for where the music lacks. Three hits came off of this album ("Wild Side", "Girls, Girls, Girls", "All In The Name Of...") plus a live take of "Jailhouse Rock" that is a live set standard for MC, however out of place it seems, but what this album screams is how much of a jump the boys took to make Dr. Feelgood, while it also demonstrates that while they had a bunch of hits their energy didn't take them far in creating a strong album overall. Too many songs sound alike with lackluster riffs & even the hits blend in. Everything musically climaxed with Dr. Feelgood & part of the secret was not just strong songs with lots of dynamics & memorable licks, but also the thick super overdubbed guitar sound that gave the music an extra punch & texture. Previously MC sound more like their peers than not with the traditional rhythm/lead guitar lines versus the later album thick swamp of guitars creating a landscape. Girls, Girls, Girls almost sounds flat because of this dual traditional approach. The irony is that this album is closer to the MC sound as it really is. The fact that the final track being the live "Jailhouse Rock" doesn't sound odd, going from an overdubbed studio album to a one guitar live track, says it all for that territory. If you have the other albums from MC from these early days then Girls, Girls, Girls will surely end up in your collection, if for no other reason than its Spinal Tap-ish title, but it shouldn't be your first buy & probably won't be your favorite listen. This was the point where they were imitating themselves imitating the hits & this album is surely more successful due to what came before than its own few merits. Thankfully a few hits managed to slip out & only one album of rehash for album after lost album.

Vince Neil ~ Carved In Stone (album review) ... Where is Steve Stevens when you miss him?

Style: hard rock, industrial, electronica
Label: Beyond Records
Year: 1995
Home: Los Angeles, California

Members: Vince Neil ~ vocals
Brent Woods ~ guitars
Robbie Crane ~ bass
Vik Foxx ~ drums

I find there's nothing worse than seeing a musician jettison the one thing they had going for them. VN joined that club with his
second solo album Carved In Stone. His first album only swam ashore safely because it had the great guitarist Steve Stevens motoring riff & intricate riff. What a great captain to the ship ... oh, wait, he's only the second mate. The problem was the songs weren't as great as the one playing them so all the focus went on Stevens. VN was a second class citizen on his debut album, a captain who couldn't get the respect of his crew. But, it's his debut. We can forgive a first misstep, right? No surprise, the album soon sunk with all hands aboard. So, VN updated his sound with a more electronic industrial flavor outing, motor instead of sails, with loops, hip-hop scratches & beats & bursts of guitars. It could work. It has potential. It's paying more attention to the scene than what the scene was or even the music VN is famous for via Motley Crue. Opener "Breakin' In The Gun" sounds like VN grabbed from what was popular in Brooklyn & introduced it to L.A.. It's not so bad, not really ... then there's the rest of the album. & you thought he couldn't do worse than his solo debut? Where have you been hiding? VN is out to prove you wrong! That was just a trial run! When the songs work VN's voice is good but predictable, honestly once you've got VN's voice in your ear there's not much variation, & his creativity is interesting & certainly there's tracks here I'd return to for later listens. But, the others get deleted from my hard drive. As for keeping the full CD it's not really worth it unless you're a collector. It's one of those select the songs you like albums. The songs aren't any better than his debut, but the samples keep it interesting like Stevens did to the first. But, its sad that the reason we come to the album is to hear the singer & that's the last thing you ended up listening to. I do appreciate VN trying to update his sound, though really all he needed to do was fine tune the debut as that at its worst is better than this. Compared to some rockers who have gone into the sampling world this is one of the better outcomes. It does have potential & doesn't overdose the beats with the rock. & VN kept some of the sleaze (i.e. "The Crawl") & the rock guitars he's known for, not abandoning all. But, really, VN's solo outings have been the weakest out of everyone in Motley Crue. The worst moments, or those I'd recommend you to avoid, include" the industrial loops of "One Way" that could be better utilized by Marilyn Manson or NIN on a bad day; the horrible piano ballad "Skylar's Song"; "Make U Feel" which borrows without shame a riff from Black Sabbath's "Iron Man", but actually has a good chorus); "Find A Dream" what I call aka 'Find A Sample' & you'll see what I mean when you listen to it; "One Less Mouth To Feed" is a ramshackle hard rock affair; while the alt rock ballad "The Rift" must have been one of those last minute writing affairs so nobody realizes how bad it is. After such a list I almost feel bad ... knowing you're probably going to go to those tracks first & be so horrified you won't get to the good ones which I haven't mentioned. I love Motley Crue ... where the best songs are penned not by VN. While, as I said, other musicians have experiment with far worse outcomes, but also far better. But, the difference is they knew what their sound was to be able to move away from it. VN has no sound outside of Motley Crue & thus his solo albums are always trying to fly before they know which direction to fly in, or in the middle of the ocean without a compass ... but you can follow the little Stevens bird, he'll get you somewhere. Okay, I give VN credit for a cohesive vision for the over-all project. It's not a disjointed affair of many styles ... it is disjointed, though, in the fact of many bad songs & some good ones.

Vince Neil ~ Exposed (album review) ... As having a great guitarist by his side!

Style: hard rock
Label: Beyond Records
Year: 1993
Home: Los Angeles, California

Members: Vince Neil ~ vocals
Steve Stevens ~ guitars/bass
Vik Foxx ~ drums

Guitarist Steve Stevens of Billy Idol & Atomic Playground should be an immediately recognizable name in the legions of guitar slingers ... should is the key word. If Exposed was his debut solo album ... he would be, undoubtedly. Sadly, it's former Motley Crue frontman VN's first solo album & all the focus lands in the wrong place & the album ends up sinking when it should ride the waves & shine in the sun. It may have VN's name on it, but with Stevens on all but drums & layering powerful guitars over guitars, amazingly intricate riffs & rhythms that he composed & not VN, this is essentially a Steve Stevens solo album with VN as guest vocalist, as any simple listen will show. Anyone could have been the vocalist of the moment for this outing, as the vocals are almost lost in the mix & there's no non-clichéd 80's lyrical message worth hearing more than casually. It's no dig into VN's voice, as if one likes his sound & style there's no not liking this, but it's like vocals on a Satriani or Malmsteen album - that's not what you're there to hear. But, here, being a VN solo album you're supposed to be listening to the vocals & there's nothing there & the boat sinks. It also doesn't help matters that the songs themselves are basically all cliché 80's L.A. hair metal trying to imitate Motley Crue with hopeless abandon. The glimmers of something different are too few as Stevens doesn't strong enough material to work off of, though when he flies he challenges any guitarist out there. At the time people might have said check out the guitarist on VN's new album, but as time progressed it's the name on the cover that attracts new listeners ... or doesn't, while whispers of who else is on the album are lost to time. It doesn't help the fact that Billy Idol isn't a name that brings attention & Atomic Playground is another lost band. Upon its release it got some modest attention because of VN's reputation, obviously. In the long run few are are going to want to dig into his solo career so the gold in the mine, aka Steve Stevens, isn't getting found like it should be. The essential problem is one that plagues many solo albums - we all expected something better from VN other than an imitation of the band he'd just been dismissed from. We turn to an artist's solo career for a new offering, a different offering, to see a new side of their personality, a contrasting side of their personality. It's always interesting to hear how much musicians change when they go solo & in turn one gets a feeling of how much they contributed to their band. Exposed only exposes the fact that VN seems to have no other side to show. It takes the ears a few tracks into the album to get beyond VN & pick up on Stevens amazing guitar prowess & that's when the album flies home, though at the same time the disappointment sets in that the best VN has done is rely on someone else, which he did in Motley Crue via Nikki Sixx's songwriting. If VN's name wasn't on the project it could have risen so much farther & we'd have another great guitarist to add to the popular arsenal ... even given the fact that it hit the shelves during the 90's alt rock revolution. For a show of the greatness the tracks "The Edge", "Can't Change Me" & "Set Me Free" show off Stevens guitar playing to the max with intricate Spanish guitar openings that lead into some heavy shredding & rhythmic prowess out of the Satriani/Vai school. "Living Is A Luxury" goes a step further with a complete jazz solo. They are the true hits of the record & show just how weak a character VN is in his own project ... which is probably why they come in the middle of the album when many folks have already determined whether they like an album or not. There's a lot of hair metal bands that would love to produce a guitar album like this. But, then there's VN's foolish idea to end the album with an anti-climactic & unnecessary take of the Ramones' three chord "I Wanna Be Sedated" which knocks the air out of the album & is far below Stevens, almost like VN has to end the album on the note that we're supposed to be listening to him if we'd forgotten. This solo album, the first of three studio albums & a live album, followed VN's dismissal from Motley Crue following the tour for their masterpiece Dr. Feelgood. When the band's follow-up without VN failed to bring continued success VN rejoined & his solo career was essentially over. When he went to record a second solo album Stevens was absent & in his place electronica beats. It's not a bad follow-up, though incredibly different & his dreams of a magical solo career essentially dead. As for Stevens ... go look up his work with Billy Idol & his own project Atomic Playground cause this is a guitarist who needs to be rediscovered & not be another Motley Crue casualty.