Ace of Spades

#285 Heard Before? Yup. Notes: - as a reviewer, my first question is always "does this music succeed on its own terms?" the answer with Motörhead is, of course, FUCK YEAH! - but I'm not just a reviewer, I'm a listener, and my own feelings are more mixed. - the hilarious overuse of vibraslap on "shoot you in the back" was my favorite thing this time. - i always think I'm not really a lyrics guy until the lyrics are this terrible. then i realize i must have been hearing them all along. Verdict: Riff. Rock. Repeat. Listen Again? Probably not.

Classic

Snudd på olyssningsbart. Kommer på mig att vid upprepade tillfällen skratra uppgivet. Det är hopplöst tramsigt, som Spinal Tap scenen med elva på förstärkaren fast på allvar och i albumformat. Det är egentligen inte roligare än den gamla vanliga trista bluesrocken men den är spelad på fel hastighet med genomsmutsig nål. Hemskt!

Ace of Spades är en av historiens bästa rocklåtar. Må vara att inget annat når upp till riktigt samma nivå här. Men inget är heller dåligt. Motörhead skapade en egen musikgenrer mitt emellan hårdrocken och punken och var jäkligt konsekventa i sitt sound. Intensiv, svettig rock med fullt ställ. Lemmys kärva stämband är en viktig ingrediens för att få det att koka.

Ett av hårdrockens största problem är att den inte är hård. Mötorhead är ett undantag som bekräftar regeln. Eller kanske mest beroende på att de snarare är hård rock än hårdrock. Titelspåret är förstås en rökare av högsta klass. Sen maler det på med samma intensitet, men inte riktigt samma finess. Bristen på nyanser ligger också albumet i fatet. Uganda tid att hämta andan blir det svårare att uppskatta öset. Å andra sidan ett Mötorhead som inte har gaspedalen i botten vore inte Mötorhead. Landar i en stabil, rent av stark trea.

12 låtar på 36 minuter. Fullt ös från början till slut. Det är så här bluesrock ska låta. Alla rockmyter prickas av. Det kanske är att Lemmy är basist som gör att antalet gitarrsolon är begränsade. Det är en klar fördel när punkigheten står i centrum snarare fingerfärdighet. Någonstans mellan trea och fyra.

We are gambling everything in Balatro with this one! (sorry kids, no real gambling on my sight). Great album with a lot of speed, energy and heavy distortion that is quite simple at its core. Other than they playing fast, screaming and having guitar solos (which don't really add much I'm my honest opinion), there is not really a lot more going on, as the song structures are very very rudimentary, almost feeling like they don't have choruses because they are very well blended with the verses and the guitars and voice stay very steady with not big changes. The true differences between songs are in the styles and rhythms. Songs like "Ace of Spades", "(We Are) The Roadcrew" and "The Hammer" have super fast relentless pace and riffs, while others feel more like normal hard-rock tracks, containing great energy but not as frenetic as the aforementioned ones. A couple examples would be "Shoot You in the Back" or "The Chase Is Better Than the Catch". Between these two styles, I do enjoy way more the first one than the second, and unfortunately I think the album leans more to the latter. Another aspect worth mentioning is that Lemmy's singing style can be a bit one-noted, but at least holds a lot of attitude, so it doesn't really bothers me. Overall, great album. Can't say I love it, yet the fun and energy is undoubtedly there, except in "Jailbait", which is very gross. Why the need to be so blatant about loving teenagers...?

First two songs: This is great, how have I never listened to this album? Fourth song: Ok, these are similar. Sixth song: How many songs are on this double album??? If you're in the mood for this, it is great. Not much variety at all. 3.8

Excellent rhythm, raspy gritty vocals, fantastic guitar work. This is a top notch album. Very high energy. Would have been amazing to have seen them play live. I only know that Lemmy was supposed to be a super nice and approachable guy.

Ok. Not a favourite

Tough to open an album with a better track than THE ACE OF SPADES, THE ACE OF SPADES. Which also kind of works against the rest of it but oh well. Pretty sure (We Are) The Road Crew was in Guitar Hero?

Easily one of the best rock 'n' roll albums of all time. Few bands sounded as visceral and cool all at once as Motörhead. "Ace of Spades" is more than just an anthem; it represents a lifestyle the band members themselves lived—especially Lemmy, the ultimate embodiment of rock 'n' roll. If I were to show a photo of Lemmy to someone who knows nothing about music, they’d say, "Oh, that's rock 'n' roll." Anyway, 5 stars.

motorhead meh. Merle's sang tho💔

Respect the d-beat, proper booze music

I hecking love motörhead

It’s like if the concept of dive bars were an album

It’s fun, it’s motorhead

sorry man this SUCKS

I love Motörhead

god do i need a cigarette

Absolutely not. “Jailbait” more like jail time for both the quality and the content of this Playlist add: “Ace of Spades” since something had to go

I mean its ok

I was ready to give this album a somewhat decent rating based on the music. But the lyrics…between Fast and Loose and Jailbait, I just can not. I’m no longer forgiving these sick fucks that thought during anytime it was ok to make songs about women curing your sexual desires or songs about having sex with underage women. See Fast and Loose and Jailbait for examples.

Yuk

Мотёрые ребята производят какой-то дефолт рок Прослушивание было таким же бессмысленным как умляут в названии группы

Приятно удивился, много классных рифов, есть определенное разнообразие местами, звучит хорошо и по рок-н-рольному заебато. Наш слоняра.

Пиздато

на многих повлиял конечно альбом, НО я не фанат, из уважения скорее проставлю 3.5 и округлю в меньшую сторону

It’s so fixing good, but then they start singing about having intimate relations with underage girls. Uhhh

#274/1001 🇬🇧♠️ My 3rd metal album in a row after ACDC and Venom, and whilst its a genre that i love, this has been pretty depressing. Musically its fast paced stuff and pretty relentless. It starts with an all time classic in the title track, but then goes downhill pretty quickly in the shape of Love me like a Reptile. Lyrically, the record is horrible and reaches a real low point in the inexcusible Jailbait. Best Track: Ace of Spades.

Zu krass metal für mich aber eig guet Find gitarre teil top aber de gesang nöd

I enjoyed this one. Not perfect, and the songs sounded a little samey, but overall quite enjoyable. I'd give this a 3.5, and will round it up to 4

Gritty, slaying and thrashing. Such a pure representation of metal that showcases talent, musicianship and production quality. This record is solid.

As overplayed as the title track is, that's a great fucking song. "Love Me Like a Reptile" is fantastic too. Honestly this is just an amazing hard rock album. Fantastic riffs, frenetic drums, one of the most unique voices in rock history... An absolute treat. Only thing I can think to complain about is that it's a little bit samey. But it rocks too much for me to care. Other standouts: "(We Are) The Road Crew)", "The Hammer" It's not on this version of the album, but certain versions have "Dirty Love" on it - the original B-Side to "Ace" if I'm not mistaken - and that's probably my favorite Motorhead deep track, so I'm missing it here.

I had a headache this morning and I had to listen to this, but despite it being relatively tasteless, I did sort of get into it? Hm. It's a trashy bop.

Almost 600 days ago, I got Motörhead's live album No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith. It was pretty underwhelming on account of all the songs sounding near identical. I will say, the more polished recorded version here easily overshadows their live record, since you can actually make out the sonic differences between songs even if they're very similar on paper. It doesn't help that the singing is godawful, with extremely little range and a thick, scratchy, mumbly voice that feels like a parody of a parody of passable rock. Okay, I admit it. That title track is good. Great, even. The main guitar lick, high and heavily distorted, is extremely catchy, and the guitar solo roars with energy. Love Me Like a Reptile is also excellent. Another solid guitar part, this time mainly in the low register, and tons of distortion to sate even the most hardcore hair metallurgist. The riff at the end stands out, as does the overactive drumming. I have no idea what the song title or lyrics are yaffing on about, Lemmy (the lead singer) doesn't explain himself particularly well. "He's gonna / He's gonna shoot you in the back, hey" – big if true. Shoot You In the Back is a bit forgettable but I love the conviction with which Lemmy sings these positively goofy lyrics. After three consecutive tracks with very similar moods, I'm seeking out a ballad, a different time signature, a new instrument/texture, or heck, even a different tempo. But nope – Motörhead aren't beating the allegations. At least not with Love to Win. In Fast and Loose, though, we get a lighthearted swing rhythm that blows the other tracks out of the water. I'm 50-50 on (We Are) The Roadcrew, but the deciding factor is that dang guitar solo. Very skilfully done. Fire Fire has such a great intro that it balances against the mediocre remainder. Extremely questionable subject matter in Jailbait (yep, it's what you think it is) with a riff that, strangely enough, reminds me of early Led Zeppelin. Think Dazed and Confused. The strong riffs continue with Dance, a track which despite being somewhere in the middle of the pack quality-wise, I'm surprised to see with lower streams than all but one track. After a wildly forgettable Bite the Bullet, The Chase Is Better Than the Catch grabs you by the ear and demands compliments (as long as you ignore the vocals, which are still pretty crap). We end with a punky little ditty, The Hammer. A two-note melody, terrible singing, and decent instrument playing. 3/5 Key tracks: Ace of Spades, Love Me Like a Reptile, The Chase Is Better Than the Catch

This could have been an email. But then, it probably would have been flagged as spam. Seriously though, everything worth hearing was covered in the title track. An entire album of this was redundant.

I was so bored with this. This all sounded the same to me.

One of the easiest fives I've had on this project.

Anything Motorhead ... should be 5 Stars

Motörhead may be the coolest sounding band ever. Sonically they just sound like ass-mockery. Great straight forward rock. When I think of thrash metal this is what I want. Though it may not technically fit that genre (or maybe it does, Metals weird) it’s loud, hard, and fast in the perfect way that combines what I like about Metal and punk. I had this thought with the Ramones once where “every Ramones song sounds the same - therefore every Ramones song is awesome” Motörhead is similar. Some might see sounding the same as bad or formulaic- but if you’ve get the right sound and the high quality shit - it works. I prefer Overkill and would probably give that 4 - but this is still very good.

The immortal ace of spades not withstanding this is very formulaic. Thudding guitars and drums and uncompromising vocals. It works for 10 minutes then it can be a stodgy pudding

hell yeah

EXTREMELY UNHAPPY THAT I HAD TO LISTEN TO THIS. WAS WORKING HAPPILY UNTIL JAILBAIT CAME ON. GROSS! GROSS! GROSS! GROSS!

A worrying number of albums on this list include songs about girls under the age of consent, sung by middle aged men. What's up with that? Even putting that disturbing aspect aside, all tracks blended into one, and I tuned out for most of it. Unimpressed.

Its classic

Fun album. The driving guitar riffs really elevate the album. The lyrics aren't anything to write home about, but they're enjoyable party rock'n'roll lyrics. Of course there is also the track "Jailbait," which made me go "nah" throughout the whole thing. But I am positive on the album overall.

Ace of Spades is a great track. The rest felt like a wash of hard rock grunge without much punctuation. Loses a star for the gross objectifying vibes on some of the tracks though. 4/10

Three 5s in a row, we are raining stars round here. This one is a longtime favourite so it was a five before I even started. I reckon I was probably about 7 or 8 years old when I first heard the title track. There was an old comedy series here in the Uk called The Young Ones and Motörhead appeared on one of the episodes performing Ace Of Spades. I used to rewind that scene and watch it countless times before getting back to the episode. Bloody love that song and always will. There’s nothing fancy about this but sometimes that’s what you need, some good old dirty rock and roll. Top Track - Apart from Ace Of Spades, probably We Are The Road Crew

jailbait.... this is god awful music. first album i regret listening to, wish i could give it a negative rating

Reminds me of guitar hero

I don't think I like Motorhead

All these sound the same. Which is fine. But I think Lemmy gave me an STD listening to this.

generic speedy metal. No thanks.

Great rhythm section. I love Lemmy as a personality, but hmmm, Motorhead- not really a fan.

I would give this the option for more than five stars.

Lemmy. Fun album. You can hear the road in his voice.

And don't forget the Joker(, baby)!

This is kinda fun. The cover poses the band as bad-time desert hombres, plotting their next ambush in the deserts of southwestern American frontier country... though I strongly suspect it might have been set up and shot on the edge of a disused sand quarry somewhere in the English Midlands. Same same, I suppose. Tracks like Love You Like a Reptile do little to offset the near-srlf-parody vibe. Still rocks though, too. Title track obviously huge, with plenty more good gear and solid riffs besides. Bit sexist though.

It's one thing to make guitars, bass, and drums sound heavy and badass. It's another thing to make the fucking vibraphone sound badass, borderline rivaling Lemmy's bitchin' chainsmoker voice on half these tracks.

I had never heard a Motorhead song before today, though I had seen interviews with Lemmy and generally knew about him and his personality (which I've always liked). So I really wanted to like this album, but I just didn't. There were some bright points where there was a cool riff or groove, but overall it just kinda like annoying noise. I feel like it was just recorded/produced/mixed badly and everything just sounded thing and/or empty and not full and rich. It was all I could do to get through listening to the whole record because I just was not feelin' it. Two stars.

Great rock album

Motörhead is the kind of music you thrash to in a bar fight. Lemmy shredded bass so hard he'd melt your face off. Motörhead is baby-making music for if you want that baby to have anger problems.

You win some you lose some it’s all the same to me. I didn’t know this would be a “I only like it in the context of Tony Hawk games” bands, but here we are. Rocks, but so samey it becomes dull.

To quote the great Ace of Spades “it’s all the same to me.” And don’t forget the joker.

Motörhead is an attitude with a band attached. Always hard, always legendary. Lemmy is G0d and all that. Usually a fun listen with one good track. This album is above the rest as there is more than one good song on the album. :)

Otro de rock/heavy de los 80 que me toca seguido. Se me ha hecho algo repetitivo. Me he guardado "Ace of spades" y en general no parece que ninguna otra canción de este disco esté en el top de 10 de Tidal de Motörhead.

Favorite Song: Fire Fire Least Favorite: Jailbait

solid speed metal. frantic and heavy just what i wanted

You ever find yourself nodding along to a sick riff, enjoying your day, only to hear the words "Teenage baby, you're a sweet young thing" and experience the worst disappointment of your life? Well as of September 18th, 2026, I have had that record scratch moment, as I wrestle with enjoying a record that essentially has a song called "I'm a hardcore pedophile, but it's illegal :(." I can't even go to the well of "it was the 70's!" because it was the 80's. I suppose, by then, trickle down economics was beginning its warpath, so evil was kind of the word of the day. Look, I can't really explain the song "Jailbait" away. It just happens to be in amongst some of the greatest hard rock/metal songs ever put to tape. It happened, and it sort of derailed the amazing time I was having going through this record. It just makes you think of the state of masculinity in North America, and the absolute worst characteristics of the worst people imaginable being the bar for male expression because of who we allow to be influential in our society. Thousands of years and billions of different people with different characteristics, and the men we let run the show enjoy fucking kids and exploiting people. Ain't life grand? Whatever. The album is great, but now I'm bummed out. 4 HIGHLIGHTS: Bropocalypse Now!

A solid rock metal blues album by thos power trio. Always pleasantly surprised when I listen to this band.

Meh. 2/5

Fast and rough. Not subtle at all but great energy.

Excellent at what it does best - bang relentlessly

All their songs sound alike hahah

Группа легендарная, и музыка неплохая, но голос и исполнение Лемми мне никогда не нравились.

I think there's some musical merit to this album, but none of it has to do with the vocal performance or lyrical content. This is a hard album to review because it's somehow catchy and pretty meh all at once. Reminds me of the meme about drinking a bunch of coffee when you didn't sleep last night: "now I'm still tired, but faster." I honestly don't get the love for this band; they have one song with many titles. The Wikipedia article has a statement by Lemmy in an interview talking about how he was sick of playing Ace of Spades and said "we have other songs too!" No. No, you don't. theyrethesamepicture.jpeg Other than listening to some either gross or inane lyrics, the hardest part part of this will be deciding if this album gets rounded up to 3 or down to 2. Oh, no, wait, the last two songs reminded me that I listened to the first 8 songs while I was writing this, and they were all the same. ⭐⭐.49

I've been getting a lot of classic metal lately and honestly I don't hate it. But two points on this one: the song "Ace of Spades" is so much better than anything else on the album; no wonder that's THE Motorhead song. But also, "Jailbait?" Jesus Fucking Christ.

Undoubtedly iconic and powerful album. Being a double album, it drags a bit but it is definitely worthy. 8/10

'Music to chop wood by'. Voegt deze schoppenaas nog iets toe aan het eerdere klaverjasboompje dat de heren van Motörhead ons gepresenteerd hadden? Meer zware metalen, variatie is niet hun ding maar als je ervoor in de stemming bent is het gewoon een kwestie van meebeuken en dan heb je er best 36 vermakelijke minuten mee.

Ik had het bij het volledig overbodige live-album al geschreven. Heb je het nummer Ace of Spades gehoord, dan heb je eigenlijk alles al gehoord.

Ik heb Motorhead 1x live mogen aanschouwen, op Lowlands. Ze waren geprogrammeerd in een tent en speelden zo onbedaarlijk hard dat ze aan de overkant van het terrein nog te horen waren. We stonden net buiten de tent en de piep die ik nu nog in mijn oren heb, is te wijten aan dat concert. Standje straaljager. En elke keer als ze een nieuw nummer inzetten, dachten we dat het Ace of Spades was, want alles leek op elkaar. Dat is natuurlijk niet helemaal waar, maar het is wel muziek van het type van dik hout zaagt men planken. Lemmy heeft maar 1 manier waarop hij kan 'zingen'. En alles is in de hoogste versnelling. Er komt naast een enorme bak herrie ook een enorme bak energie uit de muziek. Van mij mag er af en toe iets meer op de rem getrapt worden en mag het iets afwisselender zijn, zoals Thin Lizzy bijvoorbeeld wel deed. Qua muziek konden zij ook dit soort speed en thrash maken, maar wisten het tempo goed af te wisselen. Motorhead kent maar 1 stand. En op zich is dat ook zeker een kunst om het daarmee zo lang vol te houden. Je weet precies wat je krijgt en dat willen de fans. Een album van dit soort legendes mag dus zeker in een 1001-lijstje. Of het dan per se albums is, kun je over twisten, het had ook een 1001-songs kunnen zijn. Na een ruim half uurtje later mogen we weer ademhalen en uitrusten van het moordende tempo van Lemmy en kornuiten. Het eerdere live-album schreef ik hetzelfde lees ik, maar gaf ik 3 sterren. Ik wil hier dat extra puntje wel geven, omdat ik dit minder valsspelen vind dan het live-album en het toch prettiger luisteren is.

This album rocks like a motherfucker, tracks 1-3 are hard hitting, high energy hard rock played with punk rock intensity. Serious stuff. Banger

Ok

This album brings back a lot of memories. It's definitely a record that sounds completely different depending on how loud it's played. I absolutely agree that there isn’t a huge amount of stylistic variation between the tracks, with the same relentless bass, distorted guitar and barking vocals running throughout. And some of the lyrics are very much of their time, but Motörhead albums were always primarily a menu for their live shows, where they were imperious. I'm not surprised that Lemmy was pretty hard of hearing by the time we lost him. 4 for the album. 5 for the shows.

Who would win a fight between Lemmy and God? TRICK QUESTION! Lemmy IS God!

RIP Lemmy, for better or worse he epitomised the sex drugs n rocknroll lifestyle.

FUCK YES!!!!!!!!!!! RIP LEMMY

makes me excited for halloween

Wild how many people are willing to not only write, but then publish a song about how they’re a creep towards kids

Pretty much a distillation of Motörhead's sound: loud, fast, and rude rock 'n' roll pushed to its absolute limits. Lemmy's "lead bass" playing is probably at his most direct hear, as half the time the main riff of the song will be driven by his distinctive bass sound going directly through your skull. And those riffs are mean as hell, while a main complaint that many have is that Motörhead have too many songs that sound the same to each other, what makes me not care as much is simply due to how catchy and powerful the riffs of every song tends to be. This is helped extremely well by the production, which very well might be my favorite production on a Motörhead album. Each instrument already sounds gritty and powerful by themselves, but when put all together it just creates this storm of rock 'n' roll that just blows nearly every other record out of the water. That said, this record has a massive Achilles heel in the infamous track "Jailbait", where Lemmy describes his desire for a "teenage baby" that he doesn't even dare ask the age of but she's old "enough" to be backstage where he has sex with his other groupies. Obviously this song is very distasteful lyrically and there's good enough reason to suspect that Lemmy most likely has had sex with at least a few underage girls due to his claimed sexual exploits of sleeping with over 2000 women over the years. However, Phil Taylor and Lemmy have also claimed in an interview that that track was in fact to dissuade men from committing any sexual offenses with minors who ended up backstage, and Lemmy even wrote a song in the 90s called "Don't Let Daddy Kiss Me" which very bluntly speaks out against child sexual abuse. So what do we do with this information? Undoubtably even if "Jailbait" was meant to be a cautionary tale not to entertain any sexual advances made by underage fans, the song's cheeky delivery and the exclamations of "you're so fine" and "I just can't wait" just end up muddying the waters. But at least it wasn't as bad as Ted Nugent's "Jailbait", where he explicitly brings up the age of a thirteen year old girl who he "knows is clean" and even offers to share her with the police officer arresting him at the end of the song. So yeah, I guess what I'm saying is that if you're able to divorce "Jailbait" as an extremely dated product of its time that didn't portray its apparent intended affect, you'll be able to enjoy 11 pretty damn fantastic rock songs.

Enjoy some Motorhead but this was a lot of Motorhead.

A one trick pony for sure, but it’s a pretty fun trick

3.5

It was decent but it all was very same like. Felt the run time. Gonna go light 3

I enjoyed it!

I have never listened to Motörhead. Of course I know and have listened to Ace of Spades and probably I've heard other songs as well. On the one side I really like the powerful rock they play. But they tend to do everything (at least on this album) in a very similar way, i.e. the songs have quite a similarity. And that's the other side I am a bit annoyed about. But overall a fine album.

Good album, didn't necessarily stand out. Somewhat easy listen. 6.3/10

Quite enjoyable. It's energetic and fun but after a while, it felt like a lot of the songs blended in to each other.

Love the ace of spades. Such a good song, good album as well