It’s quite remarkable that this is the twentieth Motorhead full-length. We all know that Lemmy is a god, older than shit and heavier than time, yet if you’d have said to the man himself back in 1975 that this new band of his would still be going strong twenty albums and thirty-six years later, you’d have been lucky just to be laughed at. I’m quite amazed at just how good The World Is Yours actually is – what an extraordinary songwriting skill, to play the same sort of music for so long and do it so well! As a collection of songs, The World Is Yours is solid as a rock, perhaps the most easily enjoyable album you’ll hear until the next Motorhead full-length doubtless comes along in two years’ time. Groovy, heavy, eminently danceable; this is Motorhead, and they play rock and roll. Do you need to know any more? You won’t find the band diverging from the punky blues path laid down on previous albums. Changes are minor, the music as ever straightforward and to the point, although this does seem slightly groovier and almost more metal in a way than before. Opener Born To Lose rides along unstoppably, the band playing together as perfectly as cogs in a machine, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee backing up Mr Kilmister’s instantly recognisable voice. From then on the album flows without a hitch, rarely departing from the high standard set – I can’t detect any filler. Get Back In Line is a great single (much better than the slightly questionable Rock Out from their previous album if you ask me) and I Know How To Die and Devils In My Hand are solid mid-album pounders. Rock N Roll Music is full of boogie, Waiting For The Snake full of sleaze and with an especially great bit of soloing. The only real step away from the formula is Brotherhood Of Man, a kind of even more depressing Orgasmatron – Lemmy’s voice dropping to a terrifying growl as he virtually spits out misanthropic and apocalyptic lyrics that castigate mankind and all but suggest that the world would be better if we was extinct: “We are worse than animals, we hunger for the kill,We put our faith in maniacs, the triumph of the will, We kill for money, wealth and lust, for this we should be damned, We are disease upon the world, brotherhood of man.” Lemmy, as I have said elsewhere, is a very underrated lyricist, and often has something meaningful to say when you look past the Jailbaits that stereotypically fill Motorhead albums. He refers to ‘the old routine you know so well’ on Outlaw, and it’s hard not to think he’s at least partly referring to the band on that song, hiding his smile behind the typically aggressive and catchy music. This may be an old routine, yet it’s a comforting one, a real injection of quality in a flagging world, and whilst the old magic classics like Overkill remain unsurpassed, Motorhead continue to play it loud and proud to a much better standard than their peers manage so long into their careers. Whether you are here to look for the subtleties or are just after a good time, The World Is Yours delivers, just as I knew it would before writing this review and just as you knew it would before you read it. |
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Killing Songs : Born To Lose, Get Back In Line, Devils In My Hand, Rock N Roll Music, Waiting For The Snake, Brotherhood Of Man, Outlaw |
Goat quoted 82 / 100 | |||||||||||||||
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