Published on Jun 18, 2000
N.B.: The version reviewed is the RoadRaced Revisited
reissue.
By 1983, Motorhead was experiencing inner turmoil. Guitarist
“Fast” Eddie Clarke had departed the band the year prior, not long
after bassist/vocalist Lemmy Kilmister recorded a cover of “Stand
By Your Man” with punk high priestess Wendy O. Williams. Clarke’s
departure was the first major lineup change since 1976, when Clarke
joined the band and guitarist Larry Wallis left.
In was former Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian “Robbo” Robertson, a
musician who, in retrospect, was as out of place in Motorhead as
Pee-Wee Herman at a rave party. Musically, his style was much
different than the balls-to-the-wall blues/rock that Motorhead had
been bashing out for nearly 10 years. Add to this the fact that
Robertson refused to play some of Motorhead’s classic songs in
concert, and you knew that things had to get worse before they got
better.
The one album Roberston recorded with Motorhead,
Another Perfect Day, is hardly the band’s masterpiece – but
it is also no waste of time. If anything, this could well be
Motorhead’s attempt to be Thin Lizzy – and, for the most part, the
result is forgettable.
There are moments on this disc where things work out incredibly
well. “One Track Mind” has a groove that refuses to die, and allows
the band – Robertson, Kilmister and drummer Phil “Philthy Animal”
Taylor – to really bring things to a musical head. Likewise, “I Got
Mine” is a track that features Motorhead in a shuffle on speed, and
it’s a track that will have you banging your head in sheer
pleasure.
These two tracks – featured on a home video released around the
same time as
Another Perfect Day – make me wonder why these tracks
weren’t featured on the eventual best-of
No Remorse. “Shine” – a third song featured on the same home
video – has never been one of my favorite Motorhead tracks, though
there are enough people who get off on this one. The same goes with
“Dancing On Your Grave,” a track that almost has Kilmister
wondering which direction the band is going in.
In a sense, Kilmister lost some control of the band, as the
songs started to get more complex and – dare I say it? –
pop-oriented. “Tales Of Glory” and “Another Perfect Day” are songs
where you could almost hear Phil Lynott singing instead of the
instantly-recognizable rasp of Kilmister. It definitely was a
stylistic change for Motorhead – and it just didn’t work. Even the
throttle-down tracks like “Back At The Funny Farm” and “Die You
Bastard” fail to hit the bullseye.
So was Robertson a mistake? Maybe, in one sense, he was just the
thing Kilmister needed. In recent years, Motorhead has gotten more
daring with their music, breaking out of the three-minute
verse-chorus-verse patterns they based their career on and have
taken risks such as ballads/acoustical numbers and all-out
songwriting. Maybe, had Robinson not come through, this would have
eventually happened. But what Robinson’s addition to the band did
do was it forced Motorhead to look at other musical options. It
wasn’t the right time in their history for such a change,
though.
Another Perfect Day is not a terrible album, and is worth
picking up to complete your discography of arguably the best
British metal band to ever grunt across the planet. But if you’re
like me, you’ll probably end up digging this one out every few
years just to remind yourself of where Motorhead was immediately
following Clarke’s departure from the band.