Motörhead's “No Sleep 'til Hammersmith” is quite simply, amazing. At the height of the live album movement in the late 1970’s the market was saturated with them, some good, some not so good, and the occasional great one. Well “No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith” falls under that great category.
So what makes it so great? Well there’s something special about a live album when a band connects with the energy of the crowd and uses it to play more ferocious and vigorous than ever before. Well sometimes this happens on individual songs for certain bands such as “Do You Feel Like I Do” with Peter Frampton on “Frampton Comes Alive”, or for a majority of the album, as with AC/DC’s “If You Want Blood…” does. But with “No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith” this connection happens when the first note of “Ace of Spades” is struck and doesn’t give up until the last note of “Motörhead” subsides. This makes for one of the most awesome performances recorded for a live album.
Another merit of this album is the production. It is near perfect for what the band is going for. It possesses enough crowd noise to sound raw, but never becoming a nuisance. And each instrument sounds clear and crisp, and none ever gets muffled. To put it in simple terms, the production is raw without sounding bad, in other-words, great live production!
And as for song quality, this delivers with wall to wall hits! This includes of requisite favorites (most coming from “Bomber”, “Overkill”, and “Ace of Spades”, but also includes two from their self titled debut.). Another smart move on their behalf is putting “Ace of Spades” up first instead of packing it in the middle. Why is this such a smart move? Simple, it grabs your attention and doesn’t let go. All these songs on here are worthy inclusions and none will have you scratching your head as to why it was on here. Another note, is the performance: in a word, it's breakneck.
So, as you can clearly see, Motörhead's “No Sleep 'til Hammersmith”, is, with no overstatement, one of the greatest live albums ever. Period. Not only is this an essential for their fans, but listening to it will make you become one. You can’t go wrong with Motörhead's “No Sleep 'til Hammersmith”.
Originally written for the Metal-Archives (Metal-Archives.com)
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