MOTORHEAD
THE WORLD IS YOURS
Released December 2010

Lemmy and Motorhead are back with a scorching album – they’re TWENTIETH studio opus, in fact - doing what they do best, but there’s something different going on, and I’m trying to put my finger on it…

Lemmy still doesn’t suffer fools gladly – his lyrics are as scathing as they are insightful as usual on “The World Is Yours”, and the music is the classic heavy rock n’ roll we’ve loved from them for many a moon now – uncompromising, catchy and undimmed by the passing years.

No, the difference here is the sound and the attitude – this new album is going global on EMI, the Lemmy movie is hitting cinemas across Europe and, soon, The States, and 29 years after “Ace Of Spades” and “No Sleep Til Hammersmith” Motorhead might almost be teetering on the brink of another honest-to-goodness hit record!

Despite – or perhaps because of – being recorded slightly disjointedly in L.A. and Wales (Guitarist Phil Campbell was back home to be with his ill father, who ultimately passed away during recording) the album is as cohesive as just about anything Lemmy and co have released over these past 35 years.

Throughout the whole album the riffs seem more vibrant, the drumming more impassioned, the songs more (dare I say it?) tuneful, than in recent times, despite the last few Motoralbums being really good.

‘Get Back In Line’ is a classy addition to the Motorhead canon of classics, showcasing a winning Lemmy lyric of distaste at the inevitable grind of society life, and when the Lemster growls “Rock n Roll Music gonna set you free, know it’s gonna knock you outta your tree, gonna get you back to where you wanna be – do it til the day I die” (on ‘Rock n Roll Music’) over Campbell’s heavy as fuck Chuck Berry-meets-and-fights-with-metal licks, you know they bloody well mean it and resistance is futile!

‘Waiting For The Snake’ sees the boys playing a Native American tribal riff – as channelled through their own speed, JD & metal looking glass, and there’s some lovely double kick drumming on ‘Outlaw’ by Mikkey Dee.

Album closer ‘Bye Bye Bitch Bye Bye’ is the perfect example why Motorhead are as revered as The Ramones in the “sometimes simple is best” stakes – great (and fast!) playing by a tight as fuck three piece, a lyric that seems basic but actually hides some tasty Lemmy gems (“You tell me that you love me, but I’m just some other fool, so bite the bullet, eat your words, I’ll teach YOU the rules”), and Campbell giving his guitar a blazing workout!

“The World Is Yours” has as much chance as any Motorhead album since “Ace Of Spades” at bothering charts around the world, and perhaps with EMI backing them now they will finally get that long-delayed follow up hit!?!

Let’s hope so – if anyone deserves it, it’s Lemmy and Motorhead!

Shane Rockpit