Published on Jul 3, 1999
Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister is a genius. There’s no other way to say
it; the man is a fucking genius. You don’t survive over 25 years in
rock and roll unless you know what you’re doing and how to do it
well.
Yet for all of that, his band Motorhead is still very much a
cult classic, one of those bands that you have to discover through
a friend who’s in the know. This is a group that, whether metal was
popular in the States or not, should have been revered as a
supergroup well over a decade ago. The fact that they’re often
relegated to opening act status proves there’s no justice in the
world today.
Motorhead’s 1996 album
Overnight Sensation, their second platter for CMC
International, is just one piece of evidence I use to back up the
above statements. Despite losing guitarist Wurzel (who left after
1993’s
Bastards), the band – bassist/vocalist Kilmister, guitarist
Phil Campbell and drummer Mikkey Dee – continued to put out
arguably some of the band’s best material of their career.
Overnight Sensation is the one album that might just top
their 1986 album
Orgasmatron as their best work ever.
One of the keys to the rejuvenation of Motorhead has been the
addition of Dee (who joined the band for the 1992 album
March Or Die). His drumming is powerful, speed-oriented and
technical, meaning he is pushing the envelope for the rest of the
band to follow. Fortunately, Kilmister and Campbell are both up to
the challenge, working their way through complex time signatures,
ball-to-the-wall speed and – believe it or not – a radio-friendly
love song.
Granted, “Civil War,” a decent track itself, might not be the
most spectacular way to kick off the album, but it actually works
well because it leaves you unprepared for the musical shock that
awaits. One track later, “Crazy Like A Fox,” features the band
getting into a real groove, and puts Kilmister on the spot with a
harmonica (!!!) solo. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought
that Kilmister also handled the guitar solo at the end of the
song… but there’s no evidence in the liner notes to prove
that.
Simply put, there is not one bad performance on
Overnight Sensation. “I Don’t Believe A Word” features some
of Kilmister’s best singing in years (despite what one may think,
Kilmister still has a very good set of pipes, as well as a powerful
singing voice), and Dee’s trap work raises the song up many levels.
The title track and “Broken” both are solid, mid-tempo rockers that
highight everything good about Motorhead. “Them Not Me” is the most
challenging for the listener, going into what sounded like a 7/4
time signature in the chorus. Although I’ve played musical
instruments for most of my life, I honestly don’t know how
Motorhead could keep track of the time, playing as fast as they did
on this song.
And then, there are the all-out surprises. “Eat The Gun” is a
gung-ho, tongue-in-cheek look at war, with even a little sexual
innuendo thrown in for good measure. If anyone takes this song
seriously, they’re fools who need to stop reading between the
lines. “Listen To Your Heart,” which prominently features the use
of acoustic guitar (played by one L. Kilmister), is a surprisingly
pop-oriented song (albeit with distorted electric guitars) that
dares to show a more sensitive – even romantic – side of a band who
may not seem to be of that ilk.
I don’t know why it took me so long to pick up
Overnight Sensation (and I didn’t have the heart to ask my
colleague at CMC for a press copy of a three-year-old album), but
now my problem is that I don’t want to take it out of the tape deck
of my car.
Overnight Sensation is an album that shows clearly that
Motorhead’s glory days are by no means past them, and that they
just might be at the high point of their career right now. Check
this album out now – it’s been 25 years that Motorhead’s been
waiting to be an
Overnight Sensation, and they shouldn’t have to wait any
longer.