Motley Crue – The Dirt Soundtrack (Album Review)

Posted on March 21, 2019 by Gareth Williams

Motley Crue – The Dirt Soundtrack
Released: March 22^nd, 2019

Line Up:

Vince Neil / Vocals
Mick Mars / Guitar
Nikki Sixx / Bass
Tommy Lee / Drums

Online

Ah Motley Crue, I’ve been out of my head without you…

If you thought we’d heard the last of the LA bad boys after their farewell tour you were wrong, so very wrong. Not only are the Crue releasing a film version of their best-selling autobiography The Dirt – (available March 22^nd worldwide on Netflix) They’ve thrown in an added bonus of the movie soundtrack. So here we have Motley Crue The Dirt Soundtrack. It’s essentially a greatest hits package with the addition of four new songs. So let’s have a look at what the boys have dug up for us…

The song selection is pretty good, if I had to list my favourite Motley Crue songs off the top of my head it would be pretty close to what’s on offer. The album kicks off with a new song, one that was written for the movie ‘The Dirt (Est. 1981)’, featuring rapper Machine Gun Kelly – hands up who had to Google Mr Kelly, I know I did. But apparently, he’s a bit of a big deal, and he plays Tommy Lee in the film. This is a straight out Crue song, sleazy lyrics with Mick Mars unmistakable guitar sound. Because it was written about the film, it’s basically lyrical highlights (or lowlights depending on your point of view) of just about every song Motley Crue have written. Strippers, big tits, red lips, cocaine and tattoos, you get the idea. It’s actually a pretty decent song, I’m not entirely sold on the rapping and there are worse things you could do to a song, but more on that later.

What follows as I mentioned is a swag of some of the best tunes the Crue has to offer covering albums from 1981’s debut Too Fast for Love through to 1994’s smash hit Dr Feelgood. You’ll find classics ‘Live Wire’, ‘Shout At The Devil’, ‘Home Sweet Home’ and ‘Kickstart My Heart’. Even though The Dirt (the book) covers Vince Neil leaving and being replaced, John Corabi’s effort the self-titled Motley Crue doesn’t make the cut. This isn’t entirely surprising as the album as largely forgettable, and fans generally ignored it. If it was released as a Corabi solo album or under any name other than Motley Crue it might have had a chance. But as we’ve seen with metal heavyweights Judas Priest and Iron Maiden trying to replace singers with such unique voices will send fans scattering.

Onwards and upwards… the final three songs on the album consist of two more new songs and a surprising cover. Track sixteen introduces us to ‘Ride With The Devil’, lyrically the song deals with the story of Motley Crue as laid out in the book, and now movie. It sounds like ‘The Dirt (Est 1981)’ part two, this time without Machine Gun Kelly’s rapping. It’s not a bad song by any stretch, it just kinda seems unnecessary.

Next up its time to ‘Crash And Burn’, musically it’s that straight up classic Crue sound with a modern twist. But it’s missing that edge all good Crue songs have, the danger, dirt and grit. If you’re anything like me you’ll forget this track as it gets crushed under the weight of the fan favourites, hits and classics that come before it.

Ok folks, we’ve had the good, the bad and now we get to the ugly. If I can start with a couple of reactions I saw on Twitter, firstly old mate and Wall of Sound writer Jim ‘Plugga’ Birkin:

Give me back my 3 minutes of life. WTF is this shit @MotleyCrue ??!! Fuck u, fuck you @NikkiSixx fuckn horrible! https://t.co/UJQm7SzPOH

— Plugga73 (@KeepnTabs73) March 17, 2019

Tell us what you really think Plugga! Next up was a reaction from another Wall of Sound writer who’s never afraid to say it as he sees it, Kaydan Howison with this gem:

Bravo. They managed to turn one of the most iconic pop songs of the '80s into a creepy rapey anthem about 50-year-old men thirsting for virgins.

— Kaydan Howison (@Unicorn_Christ) March 17, 2019

My two cents: I’m not sure whether it’s some A-grade musical trolling from Hollywood’s bad boys or a genuine effort to cover Madonna’s 80’s classic ‘Like A Virgin’. Either way it’s an absolute fucking dumpster fire. In the past Motley Crue have never been afraid to take on the odd classic, putting their own spin on The Beatles’ ‘Helter Skelter’ and tackling Sex Pistols’ ‘Anarchy in the UK’, in both cases they didn’t stray too far from the originals and the results were pretty good. Not this time. The best thing that can happen to this song is to sacrifice it to the Metal Gods and pray for forgiveness.

But don’t let one crappy cover overshadow what is, a solid selection of Crue classics and the soundtrack to a large part of any fan’s life. The book The Dirt sits solidly in my top five music autobiographies and I can’t wait to Netflix and chill to the movie version.