It seems Motley Crue is taking a bit of a beating from some fans over the fact that instead of getting together and banging out one last full album with the original members and then going out on their "farewell" tour, they threw together a two disc greatest hits/best of package instead. These fans point out that there are already three compilations of Motley's best moments, why the need for a fourth? I'll tell you why: because no single disc compilation previously released had gotten it right, that's why.

And after reading about how the new tracks included here were recorded (essentially, the band kept singer Vince Neil and drummer Tommy Lee the hell away from one another), it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why a full new album wasn't going to happen.

The previous Motley collections were nice attempts, but they had their flaws. Since the "Millenium Collection" release is by far the worst, we'll skip right over that one. 1991's Decade of Decadence got it right in terms of the amount of old stuff, but they missed some of Dr.Feelgood's biggest hits while including too many "new" tracks, be it actual new tracks, or alternate versions/mixes. 1998's Greatest Hits got the latter days right, but barely paid attention to the early (and greatest) days of the band. And to make matters worse, the band included a new recording of Shout at the Devil in the place of the classic original.

So thankfully, Red, White & Crue takes care of these flaws. Organized chronologically, the two discs cover every phase of the band's career, including the John Corabi experiment, as well as the band's one album without Tommy Lee (New Tattoo).

Needless to say, I'm much more oriented towards disc one. From the time I was five or six or so, I've always enjoyed Motley's singles, though it took me a while to get into their harder edged early stuff (after all, I was only five or six). I've now come to appreciate the early Motley as the best Motley though. In terms of early 80s mainstream metal, Looks That Kill and Live Wire are as definitive as it gets. The band wasn't beyond writing an out and out solid rock hook at that point though, as evidenced by a track like Toast of the Town, which is a solid sing along anthem in its own right.

As the band moved through the 80s, their sound softened a bit, and they began writing with more of a pop edge. The first sign of this was with their cover of Smokin in the Boys Room (a track I loved back when I was six, though now I'm rather indifferent to it), but the final transformation came on Home Sweet Home (which appears not until disc two because it's the 1991 "remix" version...one of the few dumb things about this compilation is that fact), the band's best ballad to this date.

As glam became more and more in, Motley decided to go another route, starting with the Girls, Girls, Girls record. Ironically, while they moved their image away, their sound started to mimick the biggest bands of the time. Girls, Girls, Girls was as poppy as anything else on the radio at the time. Thankfully, Wild Side, one of the band's truly best all around songs (featuring probably the band's best lyrics ever), brought the band back to their heavier roots.

Dr. Feelgood would be the band's best selling album ever, blowing up the tune of five hit singles, including the rocking title track. Kickstart My Heart was just the shot of adrenaline every rock fan loves to get, while singles like Without You, Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away) (truly one of the best song titles in rock history) and Same Ol' Situation continued the band moving into poppier territory while maintaining enough of an edge to not be considered total sell-outs.

Disc two begins with the two "new" tracks that were put on the Decade collection. Some have called their cover of Anarchy in the UK weak, but hell, if any band actually deserved to be singing a song like this, it was Motley Crue. Compared to Motley Crue, the Sex Pistols were a bunch of p*ssies, not to mention inferior musicians.

Primal Scream may just be the best post-Feelgood song the band has written, propelled by a down and dirty bassline from Nikki Sixx and some nice guitar work from Mick Mars.

Disc two begins a bit of a downhill slide after the Home Sweet Home remix mentioned above, though. I'm sorry, but John Corabi apes Scott Weiland doing Dead and Bloated for all he's worth on Hooligan's Holiday, and Misunderstood is a rote, by the numbers power ballad. With that being said, Corabi does show off a nice voice on the song.

I can't say I've ever heard of the Quarternary EP, but two songs from it appear here. Planet Boom is a lame attempt at rap/rock four years before it would blow up. Bittersuite, on the other hand, is a terrific instrumental track, with some gorgeous blues licks from Mars over some nice understated rhythm section work. I doubt the band would want to resurrect this live, but if they feel the need to do a "guitar solo" section to the show, they should honestly consider giving this that time.

Almost as embarrassing as most of the Corabi tracks are the tracks from the band's 1997 reunion album with Neil, Generation Swine. Between sounding constipated on most of these tracks, and the utter craptastic production and musical quality, the three songs from that album are the worst on this entire collection.

Things get much better though. Both Bitter Pill and Enslaved, the "new" tracks from the 1998 Hits album, are a bit of a throwback to the Girls Girls Girls/Dr Feelgood era, with instantly memorable choruses and plenty of hard rock chops. These lead into the two songs from the New Tattoo record, and both of these are pleasant surprises as well. Hell on High Heels is an AC/DC inspired rocker, by far one of the songs with the most swagger in the entire Crue catalog. The title track has an acoustic and bluesy bent to it, and while some may say it's nothing more than a power ballad, I don't think it's quite as cheesy as a classic power ballad.

We then get to the new songs recorded for this compilation, and that's where the embarrassments REALLY start. If I Die Tomorrow was written with Simple Plan, which should be all you need to know about it. However, the song does have a crunchy musical backbone behind its chorus, although that's about the only good thing about the song.

Sick Love Song is a sludgy mess, though calling the package closing cover of Street Fighting Man that would be too nice. The band absolutley butchers this song in a lame attempt at making it their own. I don't know what's worse: the removal of the driving, recognizable chords in favor of squawking feedback, or how bad Vince Neil sounds in singing it.

Despite these mis-steps, Red, White & Crue is well worth a purchase from the casual fan. The first disc is just about all essential (minus the rather blah Helter Skelter cover), while disc two has a lot more punch to it than I ever thought it would. While they get lumped in with the hair bands, the fact is is that Motley Crue was a hard rock act to be reckoned with in their prime, and even a decade past their prime, they still managed to release some choice cuts.

4 stars.





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