Album: Mötley Crüe, Shout at the Devil, 1983

Best Track: "Looks That Kill"

Lasting Memory: I was a loser when I was 13. Full stop. No gainsaying. I was a loser.

For no other proof, you need to know that I really, really liked Shout at the Devil when I was 13.

I may still be a loser, but I no longer enjoy Shout at the Devil. The album is exactly lame as it predecessor Too Fast for Love is not lame (see below).

Vince Neil may be a pretty, pretty man, but that can't make up for the fact that he is less appealing than any of the chicks in the video for "Looks That Kill." And all of the songs on Shout fail to rock precisely because they try to rock. "Red Hot" comes closest to being closest to being unbad, but it is also the most beige of all American hard rock songs.

If anyone wanted to rock out, they could definitely do better than "Bastard," but they could absolutely do as well.

I hate to harsh on a band that I just praised highly, but I have to think that Mötley Crüe both rushed out its sophomore album and aimed for the lowest common denominator with Shout. Certainly, the band did much better with its follow-up albums, such as Girls, Girls, Girls. Or at least that's what I think every time I'm at the Hustler Club in Baltimore.


Up Next: Bob Mould, Black Sheets of Rain, 1990