Back to Mystery City is the fourth studio album by the Finnish rock band Hanoi Rocks, released in 1983. It was produced by ex-Mott the Hoople members Dale Griffin and Pete "Overend" Watts, and was the first with Razzle on drums. Besides Hanoi Rocks, the album also features keyboardist Morgan Fisher, and Miriam Stockley on backing vocals, who had also sung with Pink Floyd.
I'm genuinely confused by this album, or at least its inclusion on this list. Nothing I heard seemed new, novel, or influential. The recording quality was mediocre, and song writing basic, the execution lukewarm. Maybe I missed something, but I don't think I'll be listening again to find out.
Not really sure how this made it onto the 1001 list, but I can only assume it's bribery.
Bad 80s Glam. The sound of doing blow off of a Macy's credit card
Never listened to this band, but this is stupid glam metal and I am absolutely here for it. This was better than I thought and influenced Poison/Motley Crue and others. Great album as long as you are willing to have fun with it.
I was going to give a two, but then when I heard the saxophone I decided to add another star.
Um, interesting choice for this list. I have never heard of Hanoi Rocks but they aren't terrible. This album feels like one on your guilty pleasure list - don't really want to tell anyone you like it but deep down there's something about it that you're drawn to. For that reason, it gets an average rating. But nothing more. I just can't justify a higher rating for a fun sounding album by, from what I can tell, just another 80's glam rock band with some tragedy. Really don't know why they're on this list.
Pretty dumb but... fine I suppose. I dunno, I think there's better stuff out there in this style.
I loved this album, even though the first time I listened to it tracks 2-8 were not the correct songs. Seems Apple Music has the wrong songs associated with tracks 4-8 were the wrong songs. Whatever songs those were I listened to the first time sounded like Hanoi Rocks and I really liked them... After re-listening with the correct tracks (than you YouTube): I LOVE THIS ALBUM. This band is really amazing. Some pretty strong rock tracks in here ("Malibu Beach Nightmare") with some punk and glam and 50s stuff - all blended together into BACK TO MYSTERY CITY. There are touches of Queen, Meat Loaf, the B-52s, the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack - all have done some similar mixing before… What's great here is Hanoi Rocks has their own spin on these winning combinations. I loved every song on here. The styles varied a bit but still felt like a cohesive album. Some wild fun sound-effect shenanigans in the opening and scattered here and there - like the farm animals in "Tooting Bec Wreck", the spacey echoey effects in "Until I Get You,” the bells in “Ice Cream Summer.” Well done without being overdone. This is some of the best punk/rock/glam/50's style music around. I wish I had discovered them in the 80s as I think it would have enhanced my adolescence. Nevertheless lots of fun now, the lyrics were interesting, and I will listen to this often. And after being exposed to some additional Hanoi Rocks through the misidentified mystery tracks, will follow up with some more of their albums. HANOI ROCKS ROCKS!
Hanoi Rocks delivers a delightfully catchy glam rock record, with favorites coming out of 'Until I Get You' and 'Mental Beat'. The arrangements are quite methodical and measured, with Razzle's familiar classic rock drum patterns fastening the album. A Finnish band singing in English could make you mistake Hanoi Rocks for a Brit band, which affords it extra substance as a generally pleasant listen.
Not on Spotify, and the track order is backwards on the YouTube playlist. Fuck you, nerds. This guys hair is so amazing. I wish I had enough hair to rock that look. This is an otherwise solid rock and roll album from the 80s. Definitely worth the listen.
Another reviewer describes this album as "dumb glam." I mean, yeah. Isn't it great? Well, I had a blast listening to this album, but it turns out if you're listening on Spotify, this is not Back to Mystery City. About half the tracks are mislabeled. With a little digging on YouTube, you should be able to find the others. These are the actual songs Spotify shows as being on the album: 1) Strange Boys Play Weird Openings; 2) Malibu Beach Nightmare; 3) Mental Beat; 4) Don't You Ever Leave Me (mislabeled); 5) Lost in the City (mislabeled); 6) First Timer (mislabeled); 7) Cheyenne (mislabeled); 8) Beating Gets Faster; 9) Ice Cream Summer; 10) Back to Mystery City. In spite of the annoyance of having to find the right tracks, I really enjoyed listening to this. Hanoi Rocks gets associated so much with 80s glam metal that I was expecting not to like this, but they're better than a lot of those bands. This album has a Mott-Meets-Sweet-Meets-New York Dolls vibe to it, ramshackle but with a surprising pop sensibility. The songs are glammy and trashy and tongue in cheek, all of it in good fun. Fave Songs: Tooting Bec Wreck, Beating Gets Faster, Until I Get You, Ice Cream Summer, Mental Beat, Malibu Beach Nightmare
Dumb glam that doesn't really go anywhere or do much interesting. A couple of fun hooks
Um yeah, not too sure. Some sort of 80s punk/hair metal from Finland. If this has any relevance to the world of music, it must be lost on my ill-informed ears, but this could safely have never been made.
The Mystery: What would it sound like if Poison made a Replacements album? The Answer: This record.
Wondering how this got onto the list. The band was known but never really suggested anything original. For this album the band doesn't seem to know whether it should be rock, not powerful enough or pop, lacking memorable catchy tunes. So it fails on both.
why i gotta listen to this
Only listened to the songs available on spotify. Kinda disappointing ngl. Just some more wanna be rock stars
Everything that I love about rock!
Normalnie byłoby 4, ale 5 za kickoff ;-)
Long time music listener, first time glam rock enjoyer. Seriously, the 80s form of glam rock has never really jelled with me, but *man* did I enjoy this album. Sounds like it was made for huge stages and big festivals, insert your own crowd chanting while listening. I'm not sure if it's the use of the name "Rosalita" and the killer saxophone solo in "Ice Cream Summer", but man, it sounds just like Springsteen went glam. Early on in the record, I thought, "this isn't bad," and near the end I was super into it. Fuck it. I'm feeling generous tonight. Favorite tracks: "Mental Beat", "Tooting Bec Wreck", "Beating Gets Faster", "Ice Cream Summer"
I spent my entire 8 hours of work listening to just this artist.... good stuff
Yeah, this is great. Due to the fatal car incident with their drummer and the Motley Crue singer, I somehow always associated this band with MC and never paid it the attention it deserves. Turns out: it does not have those silly glam rock sing along refrains, but it is much more rock n roll: think New York Dolls a decade earlier. My bad.
cool
Peacemaker rocks! :D
Je ne connaissais pas, ça rock !
FInnish glam rock. Surprisingly enjoyable. Need to dig deeper into these guys.
Rather enjoyed this album.
Never even heard of this bunch before. Nice fun glam mental album.
Better than I expected, influences of/on the clash, manics, ultrasound, maybe even the jam. Didn't know they were Finnish before this, makes them 77% more interesting!
Nice hardrock
enjoyed it a lot
Better than expected
LOVED IT
Fun glam rock album! Way to go Finland!
Muy bueno
Mah mah mah maaaa rosalitaaaaa Loved the classic rock vibes, really great album 4/5
Rock on!
03/23/22
this is from the 80s
Better than I expected, influences of/on the clash, manics, ultrasound, maybe even the jam. Didn't know they were Finnish before this, makes them roughly 77% more interesting!
Pretty good. A cross between punk rock and a hair band…glam rock?
Normally I wouldn't give the time of day to heavy guitar oriented rock from the early 80s but something about this caught my interest. At the end of the day I'm happy Spotify had only half the tunes available since I would have likely got bored if I had to listen to an hour of this.
Never even heard of this band but damn if this album wasn't a lot of fun.
I really need to stop judging a book by its cover. This band looks terrible by all accounts and I was ready to hit the 1, maaaybe 2 star button. Boy was I wrong, this wasn't 80s synth heavy glam, but a rock album through and through. Fast guitars, driving drums, a singer that can belt, this was a fun listen to aside from one or two songs that didn't land. Hanoi Rocks sounds like what Kiss looks like.
This is a weird album. It seems as though Hanoi Rocks was unsure of what kind of band they were. It's glam, it's rock, it's pop, it's punk. It's a really odd, and at times exceptionally awkward, stew of genre tropes and my initial impressions were not good, to be honest. But, as the album progressed, it started to win me over. "Back to Mystery City" is very strange but, on balance, it's fun and interesting. I think the novelty is worth a star.
I know Hanoi Rocks from the "Peacemaker" show. So I was kinda prepared for HR... ...what I was not prepared for was the fact that I was going to actually like the album. Yeah, it's very 80s, but it hit something in me that I kinda was missing. I really kinda dug it. Can't explain, really, Maybe it was the other stuff I was listening to previously today, I don't know. But I really enjoyed it.
Hell yes. Toes that very fine line between shambolic and inspired, a sleazy, poppy, dirty little diamond that draws equally on punk and glam heritage. 'Mental Beat' is a brilliant track. You know why? Because it's basically 'Next Big Thing' by the Dictators, which also ruled. They wrote 'Lick Summer Love' themselves though, which also smokes. Great record!
Very ska-punkish
Pretty good actually 3 Love it 4
Really enjoyed this punkish dose of proto hair metal.
Really great stuff. It’s a shame I can’t listen to Apple Music. YouTube ads kind of ruined the flow a bit but there’s some killer tracks on here!
Gets a lot of hate, but enjoyed the ride
Big hair, big riffs, big fun. Rating: 3.5/5 Playlist track: Malibu Beach Nightmare Date listened: 31/08/22
Chips and hooks and charisma
I've got a soft spot for 80s glam rock. Lot of this sounds like it could be on a GTA vice city radio station and that's no bad thing Tacky but enjoyed it!
One of few occasions where I'd say that Vice City missed out not adding tracks from this album
Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Tooting bec wreck
This would be a fun, 3 star-worthy album if it were just some guys from, like, Branson Missouri. The fact that they're from Finland bumps it up to 4 stars for me. They do such an excellent job of imitating/replicating that early 80's American sound of punk-leading-into-glam-rock. It's good!
Pretty good compared to most of the mid 80s European post punk that we absolutely HAVE to listen to
Entretenido
Glam rock
Jaunty 80s rock and roll which is pretty entertaining throughout and Rosalita is a classic track.
Увидев столько негативных отзывов, я испугалась, но послушав мне понравилось Прикольный глэмрок какой то Звучит приятно
Didn't strike me as particularly influential but it was fun and short. 7/10
7/10. I thought this was pretty cool. Only gets a 7, but it's like the 7 I gave Bat Out Of Hell where it's way more interesting than a 7, but that doesn't actually make me like it enough to be an 8.
I saw a Finnish band from the 80s and thought another tedious Gen X nostalgia thing that sucks, but I actually kinda liked this one
хмм хмммм смесь всего
Pares de tot el moviment hair metal dels '80. Curiosament des de Helsinki, molt lluny del glamour i estètica de L.A., bullidor de tota aquella escena. Discografia molt curta però impecable. I aquest tercer disc és una bona mostra de la seva facilitat per les bones melodies i per uns temes irresistibles. La veu de Michael Monroe és de les millors del rock 80's, i les guitarres d'Andy McCoy fan la resta. No hi ha tema a saltar en els seus poc més de 40 minuts de música. És impossible de no disfrutar
This is labeled as glam metal on Wikipedia, but it's so goofy and all over the place I'm not sure that's an accurate way to pigeonhole it. There's almost a punk energy to their irreverence, but it mostly sounds like some bizarre strain of sarcastic power pop. If this is hair metal, I enjoy it a helluva lot more than almost any of the other big names of the genre. This went from 3 to 4 stars on second listen. I appreciate that they don't take themselves too seriously. Fun stuff.
Liked this. Sad all the songs aren’t on Spotify
Song #1, "WTF is this, Jethro Tull or something?" Song #2, "No wait, it's like the Bay City Rollers or Van Halen. Actually sounds a little like Tom Petty. Or Springsteen maybe?" Song#3, "Alice Cooper! That's what it reminds me of." Song #4, "I don't care what it is, I like it!" 4 stars.
I love glam metal
interesting rock!!
Tof hardrockalbum
I thought it was going to be rubbish 80's glam based on the cover, and the first few 1 star reviews on here... but I really liked this! They've got something about them. They have a real manic energy, with tons of personality and attitude. Nice rocking guitars and rock vocals. Plenty of 'waows' in there and so on. Good stuff!
'Until I Get You' sounds like a classic glam metal song of it's day, the rest of the album is decent listen
Está chulo.
This was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it a lot
4.5 because half of the album were blocked in my country
My Mrs loves these, and she turned me onto The Cramps so her taste must not be questioned. However I haven't heard much of them, and mention of Motley Crue doesn't fill me with confidence. Surprisingly though, this is a much more punk rock record than I expected, the glam cock rock stylings are around the edges rather than the main thrust. A few songs remind me of Pink Grease, obviously influenced by these, and they're great.
4.0
Glam rock. Está bien. Venga, un 4.
This was a fun listen! Obviously not an album that takes itself very seriously, but was still fun all the same. Kinda raucous, kinda dirty minded. But a fun romp throughout. In a weird way, it kind of reminded me of the New York Dolls and the Replacements, very similar energy. I'm not sure I feel like it is a particularly important or influential album, but still fun all the same.
ah, another fourth studio album and a band that references itself in song. I could see myself loving this punk rock sound back in the day if I had my hands on this album. pretty derivative sound, but still pretty good.
I enjoyed this album far more than I expected. It’s cheesy at times, sure, but it’s like a more distorted take on new wave and New Romantics, and I’m here for that.
1984. Key Songs: Malibu Beach Nightmare, Back To Mystery City
3.5
Enjoyable but not enough to leave a lasting impression
Record is good but the album they did after this one has way more bangers on it. Very underrated band but didn't age as well as Motley Crue.
Another familiar name with little context that comes to mind. Finnish glam rock? Extra points for weirdness, especially in the first half, and a really first tier album title.
not my cup of tea but had some enjoyable moments
more 80's meh... at least it doesn't have those synths
rock de los ochenta. No esta mal.
rock. from the 80s. some songs missing on spotify. nothing lifechanging
Nothing too special but some enjoyable glammy punk. I managed to get the whole album on YouTube as Spotify didn't have it all
better than expected
Not a huge fan of hair metal, other than the aesthetics, but this album was a pleasant surprise.
Très sympa n'en deplaise à l'horrible Rob Wuppert qui n'aura décidément jamais rien compris à la musique
Some solid 80s rock 'n' roll. 7.9/10
I don't think I've heard of this band before, and all of the music seemed new. There was some decent rock on this album. There were tracks that hinted at hair metal of the 80s ("Strange Boys Play Weird Openings") and other tracks that fit in with tracks from Billy Idol ("Back to Mystery City"). The album was okay, but I don't think I'd ever sit down to listen to the whole album again.