Mötley Crüe: Discography. 9 Studio Albums (1981-2008) [Non Remastered] Re-up

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Mötley Crüe: Discography. 9 Studio Albums (1981-2008) [Non Remastered] Re-up

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The band credited with spawning the "sleaze rock" lip-gloss and hairspray style that emerged from the Hollywood Strip (Los Angeles, California) at the dawn of the 80s and came to dominate rock in that decade. The most famous of those that followed included Poison and Guns n' Roses.

They celebrated a decade of decadence (all the sex, drugs and rock n' roll it's possible to have) in 1992 by sacking vocalist Vince Neil and struggling to survive as grunge became the new flavour of the month. But a new vocalist and a rawer sound weren't enough and the band slowly disintegrated over the next few years. However, the success of a reunion tour in 2004/05 took many by surprise and Mötley Crüe have since re-established themselves as one of the world's biggest rock bands.

For those never into the '80s rock scene, the band is perhaps most famous because their drummer Tommy Lee married Pamela Anderson and their honeymoon video started the internet celebrity sex video craze.

Their decadence continues to be legendary, as Denis Leary put it: "You could put them in a room with two tons of crack. They come out a half an hour later, 'Rock on man!'"

~ discogs

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Mötley Crüe: Discography. 9 Studio Albums (1981-2008) [Non Remastered] Re-up

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On their debut album, Mötley Crüe essentially comes across as a bash-'em-out bar band, making up in enthusiasm what they lack in technical skill. Yet that's part of the appeal of Too Fast for Love, a chance to hear the band without the glossy production of their later, most popular work, showcasing their down-and-dirty roots. The fact that pop-metal songwriting was not really a consideration helps the album come off as more genuinely trashy and sleazy, celebrating its own grime with exuberant zest. This is the Crüe playing it lean and mean, effortlessly capturing the tough swagger that often came off a bit more calculated in later years, and it's one of their most invigorating records

by Steve Huey, AMG

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Mötley Crüe: Discography. 9 Studio Albums (1981-2008) [Non Remastered] Re-up

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Shout at the Devil displays Mötley Crüe's sleazy and notorious (yet quite entertaining) metal at its best. When compared to its predecessor, Too Fast for Love, one can see that the band's musical range certainly widened over the course of its first two albums; the record features catchy, hard-rocking songs, but also includes an instrumental ("God Bless the Children of the Beast") and a powerful cover of the Beatles' "Helter Skelter." While such later albums as Dr. Feelgood would achieve a higher amount of critical acclaim, no Mötley Crüe album surpasses the quality of Shout at the Devil.

by Barry Weber, AMG

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Mötley Crüe: Discography. 9 Studio Albums (1981-2008) [Non Remastered] Re-up

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Mötley Crüe: Discography. 9 Studio Albums (1981-2008) [Non Remastered] Re-up

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Girls, Girls, Girls continued Mötley Crüe's commercial hot streak, eventually going quadruple platinum as its predecessor, Theatre of Pain, had; meanwhile, the title track brought them their second Top 20 single, and "Wild Side" became a popular MTV item. In general, the Crüe really plays up the sleaze factor on this album, trying to recapture some of the street-tough grittiness that fueled Too Fast for Love – even appearing on the cover astride motorcycles and wearing leather; this time around, the influence of Aerosmith is felt to a much greater degree. The production is too polished to really give the record a raw, dirty feel, but the raunchiness comes through all the same. Again, there's a bit of filler, as though the band knew they didn't have to make a completely consistent record to maintain their popularity, but there are enough high points along the way to make Girls, Girls, Girls an entertaining party-metal platter.

by Steve Huey, AMG

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Mötley Crüe: Discography. 9 Studio Albums (1981-2008) [Non Remastered] Re-up

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Mötley Crüe's albums were a lot like episodes of Married with Children – they may not be great works of art, but they can be darn entertaining. With Bob Rock serving as producer, the L.A. headbangers savored the joys of trashy, unapologetically decadent fun on Dr. Feelgood – an album that made no pretense at being anything else. While nothing here is quite as commanding as "Shout at the Devil," "Wild Side," or "Live Wire," such hook-oriented MTV smashes as "Kickstart My Heart," "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)," and the title song are infectious and hard to resist, and helped make this the best-selling Mötley Crüe album ever, as well as providing their first Top Ten singles. Unfortunately, the album would be lead singer Vince Neil's last album with the band for several years, thus marking the end of Mötley Crüe's heyday. Neil's departure – and pop-metal's decline in popularity during the mid-'90s – proved to be severe blows to Mötley Crüe, but Dr. Feelgood is still a fine curtain call.

by Alex Henderson, AMG

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Mötley Crüe: Discography. 9 Studio Albums (1981-2008) [Non Remastered] Re-up

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On Mötley Crüe, the band's first album recorded without vocalist Vince Neil, the group revamped its trademark dirty but melodic heavy metal, adding elements of '90s grunge and alternative metal, as well as the group's new vocalist, a hoarse shouter named John Corabi.

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AMG

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Mötley Crüe: Discography. 9 Studio Albums (1981-2008) [Non Remastered] Re-up

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No other band embodies the successes and failures of '80s metal better than Mötley Crüe. After Dr. Feelgood made them one of America's biggest rock bands, the group won a record-breaking, multi-million dollar contract from Elektra in 1991. Within months of signing, Nirvana banished hair metal from the charts, and, shortly afterward, singer Vince Neil left the band. They struggled through a virtually ignored album in 1994 before reuniting with Neil in 1996. According to rumor, they were pressured by the label to reunite, which makes sense: their investment was completely blown, and their only chance to make any money at all was to have the original band come back together and market that as an event. Of course, it benefited the band as well, since by the time they released Generation Swine in the summer of 1997, it was nearly a full decade since Dr. Feelgood – there was no other way they could get any attention. Not that the Crüe doesn't try to shake things up, hiring Nine Inch Nails keyboardist Charlie Clouser to bring some alternative and industrial textures to Generation Swine. It doesn't work at all, because Mötley Crüe is tied down to their sleaze metal, which wouldn't be a bad thing if they had come up with any catchy riffs. Instead, they're simply recycling old ideas and sounds. And while Neil does sound better than John Corabi, the man who briefly replaced him, it sounds like the band made the tracks for any singer at all, as if his presence was just a coincidence. (At least that problem doesn't plague "Brandon," where drummer Tommy Lee sings a shockingly mawkish tribute to his first son.) Consequently, Generation Swine is nothing short of an embarrassment.

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AMG

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Mötley Crüe: Discography. 9 Studio Albums (1981-2008) [Non Remastered] Re-up

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Forget the stylistic dabbling and forced attempts to fit the '90s rock market that plagued Mötley Crüe throughout the decade. New Tattoo is a full-fledged return to their trademark sound: sleazy hard rock with a slight glam tinge (although not quite as much as before). And it's really sleazy, the band apparently having decided to return to their bread and butter with a vengeance. In spite of a couple of sentimental ballads, odes to prostitutes, S&M, erotic-cabaret stars, glue-sniffing trailer-park teenage girls, and even a corny nod to Internet porn dominate the record. It seems like a conscious determination on the band's part to outdo themselves in the lewdness department, perhaps because they've realized that making concessions to '90s trends isn't really their forte, or perhaps as a pointed reaction against the lack of hedonism in the vast majority of '90s rock. There's more than a hint of bitterness about all of that on "1st Band on the Moon" and "Fake"; the former is more playful, lamenting the disappearance of party-hearty arena rock and horny groupies, while the latter is an angry, unfocused rant against greedy record-industry hypocrites (ironically, "Fake" seems dissatisfied with the rock & roll lifestyle the band spends the rest of the album singing about). The songwriting is occasionally somewhat lackluster, but never as erratic as Generation Swine, and even if there aren't any classic singles here on the level of the band's best work in the '80s, the material overall is pretty consistently melodic. By this point, anyone who still follows Mötley Crüe is likely to be a rabid diehard, and that (actually rather substantial) fan base will be ecstatic over New Tattoo.

by Steve Huey, AMG

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Mötley Crüe: Discography. 9 Studio Albums (1981-2008) [Non Remastered] Re-up

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Since their last hit record, 1989's Dr. Feelgood, Mötley Crüe fans have endured countless live albums, "greatest-hits" collections, reissues and B-sides packages, a record with John Corabi on vocals, one with Randy Castillo behind the kit and one with the original lineup that sank with barely a trace (1997's Generation Swine). The most successful thing the band produced in those ensuing years was its tell-all autobiography, The Dirt, a story so drenched in sex, drugs, and rock & roll that it elicited a venereal disease and a contact high just through picking it up. That book is the impetus behind Saints of Los Angeles, the first record to feature the group's original lineup since Swine, and it's a welcome – though spotty – return to form for these aging miscreants. The Crüe are at their best when they mine the manic, punk-infused glam metal of the pre-saturated, mid-'80s Sunset Strip, something they get right on opening cut "Face Down in the Dirt," complete with a Shout at the Devil-era, "In the Beginning"-inspired intro. "Down at the Whisky" echoes the West Coast excess of Girls, Girls, Girls, managing to wax both nostalgic and devious while dutifully summing up the band's rise from local pranksters to international bad boys, while the rousing title cut, though a bit forced, manages to drum up the kind of chest-thumping bravado that sparked some of the best metal anthems of the late '80s. Like all Crüe albums, things start to go south about halfway through, and while the performances and subject matter are as raucous and sadistic as the book upon which they're based, it's all a bit too deliberate. Mötley Crüe have been trumpeting their hedonism for so long and so loudly that it's become more of a caricature than a way of life, and while Saints of Los Angeles is the best thing they've laid to tape since their codpiece heydays, it's more of a walk down memory lane/Sunset Strip than a legitimate call to arms.

by James Christopher Monger, AMG