Motorhead motors through album

By Lourdes Espinoza

The art of rock and roll was easily mastered in Motorhead’s new album titled “The World Is Yours.”

Throughout a musical career spanning 35 years and 20 studio albums later, Motorhead has truly perfected the formula to remaining one of rock’s most original sounds.

They have perfected this art with a power-driven drummer, Mikkey Dee, a stimulating guitarist, Phil Campbell, and a raunchy bass player/ vocalist, Lemmy Kilmister. The musical chemistry between these three musicians caters to any fan looking for a boldly defiant taste in rock and roll.

Motorhead’s strong and rowdy signature sound is prominent throughout the album. It begins with “Born To Lose” which even by this time reflects the in-your-face persona of Motorhead.  Campbell’s heavy guitar riffs and Kilmister’s original vocals, as he strums his bass guitar, surge in this fashion until midway through the album.

“Rock N Roll Music” breaks the barrier of the only problem with “World Is Yours” which is the recurrence of its similar lyrical content along with a routine structure contained on an instrumental level.  “Rock N Roll Music” makes up for what the previous songs lacked. It speaks of the rock and roll lifestyle and how satisfying it is for one to adhere to it. This is an important theme for Motorhead to introduce to its listeners for it is something that they always stress in the majority of their albums.

“Waiting For The Snake” was perhaps the only song, which resembled any newer influences due in part to its more polished guitar sound and understated drumming technique.

“Brotherhood Of Man” and “Bye Bye Bitch Bye Bye” stood out immensely. “Brotherhood Of Man” was the darkest song out of the whole album in an instrumental sense. The only song whose lyrical content holds further meaning other than that of being a rebel, an outlaw and a defender of the rock and roll faith. They took a different direction with this song and it worked. They speak of the obscure side of mankind and the bedlam it entails. “Brotherhood Of Man” states, “We kill for money, wealth and lust/ for this we should be damned/ we are disease upon the world/ brotherhood of man.”

“Bye Bye Bitch Bye Bye” was another well-established song. It truly was an excellent way to end the album It portrayed the vengeance within a romantic relationship in which the protagonist was played the fool. The aggressive tones between the guitars and the drums really help express the sentiment.

To fully understand the Motorhead formula, one must accept rock and roll as their faith, follow no rule and respect no boundaries. This is the reputation the band has built for themselves over their productive years. Their formula still works and the only opposition to this is that it begins to become slightly predictable at times. Such tracks as “Get Back In Line” and “Outlaw” became a bit routine and unoriginal in comparison to most of the album’s lyrical themes.

Motorhead is edgy, crude and shameless. It could have been more daring, but the album screamed rock and roll boldly nonetheless.

The album holds ten tracks and is about 40 minutes in length. It was released by Motorhead Music/ EMI Music Services on February 8.