Search - Motley Crue :: Music to Crash Your Car to 2

Music To Get Bloated By: Motley Milks Their Catalog

C. Karam | Loudon, NH United States | 07/06/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The first box set made sense, as it compiled the first four studio albums along with unreleased live and studio tracks that corresponded to those albums as well as the original Leathur Records mix of the first album, "Too Fast For Love." A good collection, particularly for die-hards and especially those who may not have bought the remastered Crue CDs.Once again, there are four discs in the set, but only two full albums. The other discs consist of remixes, remixes, remixes and a few choice rarities, most of which are available on the "Supersonic & Demonic Relics" CD. In all fairness, I should point out that as a general rule, remixes do nothing for me. Do we really need FOUR versions of "Hooligan's Holiday" in one box set??? Seems to me if you have the album version, that's pretty much all you'd need.When I heard another four-disc set was coming out, I assumed that the remaining four studio albums would be included along with their attendant rarities, like the first set. But it appears that since Motley Crue is pretty much over, they're milking the catalog for all its worth. The next box will be built around the two weakest albums in their catalog, the so-so "New Tattoo" and the atrocious, what-were-they-thinking-when-they-recorded-this "Generation Swine." Now, THAT'S milking it...!"

Suffers From "Sequel Syndrome"

Sampson Simpson | Canada | 10/03/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Motley Crue could have released the first volume of this three-box series and left it at that. Volume I included their four classic albums from 1981-87, plus all the associated bonus tracks. As an added bonus (or piece of bait, depending on your point of view) they included the entire Leathur Records mix of their debut, freshly mastered, never before released on CD. It was an excellent complete set of music covering the classic years. It allowed you, the Motley Crue fan, to purchase at one reasonable price every piece of music from those years, and sell your originals off if you had them. Volume II takes all these positive points, throws them out the window, and adds a heck of a lot of confusion to boot. This box technically covers the years 1989-1994. If they followed the same format as the previous box set, it would include four albums and bonus material. Instead we get two complete albums, and a lump of miscellaneous tracks from a bunch of albums available elsewhere.First of all, the two complete Motley records you do get are Dr. Feelgood and the amazing 1994 self-titled album with John Corabi. You also get all the bonus tracks associated with the Hip-O re-releases of those discs. What you do not get in completion is the other record Motley released in that time: Decade Of Decadence. (Although you do, for unknown reasons, get a fold out poster of that album's cover.) What Motley Crue have done instead is to give you all the material that was exclusive to Decade Of Decadence: Three remixes, two tracks from compilations, one live song, and the three new tracks. (You do not, however, get the two live tracks from the Japanese pressing of Decade.) They have interspersed those songs with a bunch of tracks from the Vince era of Motley that were previously released on Supersonic And Demonic Relics (1999). The majority of these songs are completely out of place on a box set that covers 1989-1994. On another disc, Motley Crue have taken the John Corabi era tracks from the Supersonic album, mixed them in with all the rare remixes from that era, and the entire Quaternary EP. Here's the good news: When I say entire Quaternary EP, I mean it. It has all the tracks from the super rare Japanese version, too. And the remixes included are generally pretty rare. The really rare one was the "Hooligan's Holiday" derelict version, which I have only ever seen once before on a numbered European single.Here's the bad news: If you're into the concept of an "album", Motley Crue have just wrecked two in one fell swoop. I've always felt that Decade Of Decadence was a great, perfect greatest hits record, well thought-out and sequenced. Now it no longer exists: can't get it on this box, and it's been deleted and replaced with the updated "Greatest Hits" CD. Supersonic is still available, but it's hard to part with your old copy now that all its tracks are jumbled up here. There's also a glaring error in the liner notes that was probably designed to make you feel like you needed this box set a bit more. "Knock 'Em Dead Kid (Demo)" is listed as only available on the Japanese Supersonic CD, but it's not. You can get it on the currently available Hip-O reissue of that CD.Like the previous box set, this one too elimates all original album artwork, packaging, and liner notes (except the aformentioned Decade Of Decadence, which puzzles me.) Instead you get yet another drooling essay about how great the band is. Like the fans need an essay to make them feel OK about liking the band, or something. You also get a mini comic book reprint, which is pretty nice.My recommendation: Only buy this box set if you don't already own these albums, or if you feel you'll have no prayer at all of finding the B-sides from the Corabi era. If you're a Motley fan though, chances are you've already collected all this stuff. There is nothing here to bait the die hard collector, like there was on the first box. This box is strictly for beginners, it seems. This also raises some questions as to what will be in box III. Generation Swine, for certain, a couple tracks from Greatest Hits, both discs from New Tattoo and both discs from the live album? Can it all be fit in? I suppose we will find out."

Not as bad as everybody makes it out to be...

Some Gravity | Indiana, USA | 05/22/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Motley Crue has been popular for over twenty years, and they were one of the few bands that survived once the hair metal era was dead and over with and grunge had taken over. And now, thanks to all of the artists/bands from different decades who have had their own box sets, it is great to see that Motley Crue has had TWO box sets. Their first box set, "Music To Crash Your Car To", had a pretty positive fan reaction to it, but if you can't tell by reading some of the other customer reviews on here,the reaction most Crue fans have had to this box set has not been too good. I picked up a copy of this box set today, and I was really excited after I bought it. As a matter of fact, I am listening to it as I type this. So,how does this box set measure up compared to the negative reaction it has been getting from most Crue fans? Read on for my review of this:



Pros:



Following up on where Volume One of this box set left off with the albums "Too Fast For Love"(1982), "Shout At The Devil"(1983), "Theatre Of Pain"(1985), and "Girls, Girls, Girls"(1987), this box set contains the four albums Motley Crue recorded after those albums: "Dr. Feelgood"(1989, which made it at #1 on the Billboard charts),their first greatest hits package "Decade Of Decendance:81-91"(1991),their self-titled grunge album with John Corabi on lead vocals(1994),and the rare VERY hard to find "mail order only" "Queternary" EP (1994)which also featured John Corabi on lead vocals and also found Motley Crue attempting grunge. If You're new to Motley Crue and don't own any of their albums, this box set will be a great starter for you, and not only that, you will find yourself lucky enough to buy one item from Motley Crue instead of four before(or if)you buy/decide to buy the rest of their albums.



A small booklet comes with this box set, which features liner notes written by Connecticut-based music journalist and Metal Edge Staff writer Roger Lotring. Rare photos are also to be found inside the liner notes (the only one that should not have been included in there is the picture of Nikki Sixx standing next to Mick Mars, Tommy Lee, and Vince Neil wearing none or very little clothes, yuck, who would want to see that except for mothers of hormonal teenage childern???!!!)and there is info on all of the songs/albums that this box set has with it.



A poster from the "Decade of Decedance" album comes with this, which kind of showcases the career of Motley Crue and their lives outside of the band; the poster is very cool and it is already hanging up in my room.



A comic book that has THREE comic strips inside it comes with this box set; one is called "Motley Crue:West Coast Wildmen",one is called "Snotley Crue", the other is very short and is simply titled "Addiction" while it is making fun of Nikki Sixx. Both of the comic strips are not only very funny,but they are also accurate: Motley Crue did open for KISS and they did get accused of trying to be too much like them,Nikki Sixx was once engaged to Vanity, and I won't give away everything, but if You're a die hard Motley Crue fan with a good sense of humor that already knows a lot about the band, then You'll probably enjoy these comic strips.



As I already mentioned at the top of this review, "Queternary", which was a very rare EP that was a "mail order" only thing is in here, and having it here is a nice touch,because it is very hard to find, and not even Amazon or the Barnes&Noble website has it. Not only that, if that EP wasn't here,if you wanted it,You'd probably have to hunt down several die hard Motley Crue fans that do have it.



Cons:



The bonus tracks on the Japanese version of "Decade Of Decedance" are not to be found here, so even though the compilation producer of this box set was smart to include "Queternary" with this box set, what was he/she thinking when they decided not to include the bonus tracks available on the Japanese version of that album(Decade)?



While this box set covers stuff from the Motley Crue era with John Corabi, even though you will find his name in the liner notes (info on the albums and the story that comes before the info on the individual albums)they did not include his picture in there. Sure, Corabi wasn't Vince Neil,but since this box set has stuff from the Motley era with Corabi on lead vocals,it was inexusable not to include a picture of him with Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, and Mick Mars.



The first eleven seconds of "Power To The Music" off of the self-titled album with John Corabi were chopped off- the worst thing about it is that if You've payed close attention to that album being re-issued(the remastered album sold seperately has fifteen songs,the version on here has thirteen songs)then you may have noticed that they did not have to put the bonus tracks on a seperate disc-the version to be found here and the remastered album sold seperately.



A little bit of wrong information on the album notes for "Dr. Feelgood"- yes, Steven Tyler did sing background vocals on "Sticky Sweet" off of that album, but the guy who typed the info on the individual albums liner forgot to mention that he also did "Slice Of Your Pie"-if You've heard that song before You'll notice his vocals on that song, and not only that, in the liner notes for that album sold seperately,they even thanked him for doing the background vocals for that song.



Overall:



Despite It's few faults, this is an excellent box set, and it is one of the few Motley Crue compilations that is worth shelling out your cash for. Still not sure whether or not you want this box set? Then log on www.real.com,install the music program Real Rhapsoady on your computer, start listening to it, and then make the decision to whether or not you want this box set.





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