You know what you’re getting with Motörhead: brutal rock’n’roll, delivered extremely loud. Not for its leader, Lemmy, the lure of jazz odysseys, world music adventures or the other things rock stars do when they start losing their hair and putting on a bit of weight, which means Bad Magic is pretty much the same as the other 21 albums in the trio’s 40-year career.
Electricity and Thunder & Lightning are the musical equivalents of a kick in the face and about as wholesome as toxic waste. The lyrics generally involve Lemmy telling anyone listening that he’ll kick them in the balls, attack them with a chair or, on Tell Me Who to Kill, simply murder them. All this from a man who last year was told he had to change his lifestyle or die, so he switched from whisky to vodka.
There’s a cover of Sympathy for The Devil, with the samba rhythms of the Stones’ version pummeled into oblivion by drummer Mikkey Dee, while Brian May discovers his unpleasant side with a screaming guitar guest spot on The Devil.
Lemmy is 69 and beginning to resemble the cadaver of a Hell’s Angel, but as long as he’s pulling on his Rickenbacker bass rather than pushing up daisies, it looks like Motörhead will continue to make this unfriendly but oddly life-affirming racket. The world is a better place for it.
(UDR Music)