Artist: Motörhead
Label: Bronze Records
Released: 1980
Ace Of Spades is surely one of the greatest rock & roll albums of all time (hm, if nothing else, you’ll find its famous cover of three horribly stinking cowboys on every list of the filthiest albums ever, right next to a collection of Claydermann’s greatest hits). With Ace Of Spades, Motorhead managed for the first time to capture in the studio the essence of their monstrous stage power, which drew metalheads, punks, lunatics, and the rest of the inner circle of the more conservative faction of the English royal family to their gigs across the British Isles like a magnet. Ace Of Spades has it all: it’s a nasty, vulgar piece of musical testimony, boiling over with plenty of good old rock n roll, fired up with all the magic of typically English aggression.
Like most Motorhead albums, Ace Of Spades starts off bashfully, with a lovely serenity, well, to be honest an unbearable droning, like the eerie melodiousness of a Junkers 88 caught in action somewhere in the middle of October 1940 over London, warning us of the uncompromising avalanche of horrifying napalm that’s about to pour down on your unsuspecting earwax. Lemmy’s band knows no mercy! Live To Win would probably be best understood by passionately sweaty and, therefore, all the more permanently settled colonists of gulags and other similarly luxurious destinations, while for a closer explanation of the deeper meaning of Shoot You In The Back you’d best ask Comrade Trotsky himself. The unpredictability and excitement of The Chase Is Better Than The Catch would suit a whole host of Neanderthals down to the ground, while there’s also plenty of room for a perverse show of Motorhead’s sexual lust, taken care of by the poetry of Love Me Like a Reptile, a perfect blend of humor and eroticism that, quite by accident, seems to manage a revolutionary reshaping of what rock & roll even means. Once again, Lemmy wins you over with the incredible inventiveness and fun of his dirty rhetoric, which never sounded so unclean before or since (the gentleman only comes closest to its unholy form years later with the far more famous Orgasmatron).
The rest of the album shows no letup, at least as far as the sharply dictated tempo goes. Fast And Loose, Fire Fire, Jailbait, all three unforgettable “motor” blooms, proudly defy the unscrupulousness of Bite The Bullet, and amid it all, (We Are) The Road Crew proves the most emotional, Lemmy’s dedication to the loyal crew of roadies and all the overworked backstage riders, a song that will force you to use up the very last of your golden reserve of tranquilizers. But careful, not too fast! Last on this colorful list of wonderful trench laments is The Hammer, with which Lemmy and company nail us to the wall one last time, which, given such an intense, depraved, and sincere display of malicious intent, you can hardly blame them for. Glory!
Lineup
Lemmy Kilmister: bass, vocals
Eddie »Fast« Clarke: guitar
»Philty Animal« Taylor: drums
Production
Vic »Chairman« Maile
Track List
1.Ace Of Spades
2.Love Me Like A Reptile
3.Shoot You In The Back
4.Live To Win
5.Fast And Loose
6.(We Are) The Road Crew
7.Fire Fire
8.Jailbait
9.Dance
10.Bite The Bullet
11.The Chase Is Better Than The Catch
12.The Hammer
Album length: 36.48
