MOTORHEAD

BOMBER

Contemporary culture seems to be focused on smothering people with safety.

This is fine if you're shopping for a new family car, though good music should move people to a place where there's a little more action, even a hint of danger.

Looking for some rock and roll?

Arse-kicking from start to finish, Bomber is just the ticket. Lemmy, Phil and Eddie hit a ferocious groove throughout, delivering on the LP cover's promise that the bad-ass trio intend to carpet bomb everything in sight.

I was a teenage metalhead

Yes, I proudly owned every Motorhead release (on cassette) right up to Another Perfect Day. Out of that amazing run of discs, this one just hits the spot. Strip away all of the artifice and you have three aggressive instrumentalists hitting their marks hard with no regard for anything but the thrill of making beautiful noise together. The band works like a Swiss watch.

Despite the violence of each attack, Lemmy delivers catchy melodies with hooks that you can hang your hat on. His vocal coach may have overdone it with the "carton of cigs washed down with Jack Daniels" regimen, though that part just adds to the authenticity.

Wouldn't be Motorhead with Pat Boone out front now, would it?

There is a wit at work here that those who write off anything louder than Coldplay are missing out on. The title track always brings a twinkle back to dimming eyes.

You know we do it right
A mission every night
It's a bomber...

It actually plays like a fleet of bombers.

Lemmy lets Fast Eddie Clarke take the wheel for a tune ("Step Down") and fires scattershot verbal barbs in all directions. There are a clutch of classics on this record ("Lawman" "Poison" "All the Aces") that remain satisfying thirty years on from their creation. These guys didn't bother with being trendy, which has payed handsome dividends in terms of musical shelf life. Kids in 2034 will still be picking up on the energy of Motorhead because it's real. Simple as that.

Jimmy Miller produced this mighty work in between trips to the land of nod.

Would your lawn die if Lemmy moved in to the house next door?

Definitely.

No amount of description is a substitute for the real thing, so velcro yourself in and enjoy some rock and roll in the way it was intended to be heard.

LOUD