RED, WHITE, AND CRUE
To be perfectly honest, when I initially found out that MÖTLEY CRÜE was planning on reuniting, I knew that a new CD was going to hit the stores to coincide with the announcement. Obviously, the band wasn't going to put out a studio album, so the next logical conclusion was a 'greatest hits' compilation...ANOTHER 'greatest hits' compilation. With that said, I can't really thumb my nose at
Red, White, and Crue. Well, not the second disc, that is.
I didn't get into the Crue until
Girls, Girls, Girls was released, so most of the material on Disc 1 doesn't appeal to me. Disc 2, on the other hand, features a bunch of tracks that sum up what this band has really been about for the past 10 years; Reinvention. Ever since Vince Neil left the band (for the first time) after
Decade Of Decadence, the band has been trying to recalculate their sound to make them appeal to an ever-changing marketplace. I will always maintain that their 1994 disc
Motley Crue will go down as the most under-appreciated disc of all time. Sure, fans might not have loved the idea of John Corabi singing, but every track on that Bob Rock-produced disc is a monster. It's represented on
Red, White, and Crue with "Hooligan's Holiday" and "Misunderstood". Another track I love is Tommy Lee's solo track "Planet Boom". The version on this disc is a little more schizophrenic than the version on the
Barb Wire Soundtrack, but still worthy of the compilation.
I can appreciate, but never really understood why they opted for the alterna-grunge overhaul with their
Generation Swine disc, because "Afraid", "Generation Swine" and "Beauty" are three of the weakest Crue tracks (in my opinion). I would have liked to see "Let Us Pray" (a leftover from the Corabi sessions) than those three disasters.
The band once again re-tooled their sound to a more familiar melody with
New Tattoo, the only Motley disc not to feature Tommy Lee on drums. The late Randy Castillo was in the band for the release of this one.
The two new studio tracks are surprisingly fresh, despite only being written by Nikki Sixx and a few colllaboraters. The first single, "If I Die Tomorrow" was co-written by SIMPLE PLAN, and has that signature Motley ballad crunch. However, I think I would have liked "Sick Love Song" to surface first. It's just more representative of the kind of material this band is known for.
Honestly, I don't think the band's reunion/farewell tour is going to last too long; Either Mick's health or Vince and Tommy's feud will cause the whole thing to self-destruct, but until it does,
Red, White, and Crue is a nice little souvenir for one of the past two decades' most dangerous career bands.
