Back to Mystery City

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.

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.

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.

The Mystery: What would it sound like if Poison made a Replacements album? The Answer: This record.

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.

Je ne connaissais pas, ça rock !

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

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.

Had no idea of what these folx were going to sound like, but apparently, every movie that is set in the 80s uses their styling to imply the 80s.

In an effort to keep my reviews consistent, I keep these attributes in mind when I choose an album's rating: recording, performances, and songs. The performances and recording of this album are fine but the songs are not good. Say what you want about Motley Crue and Poison, they had song craft figured out.

These guys didn't sound Vietnamese or Finnish.

Back to Mystery City Do you think the recording of the acoustic guitars in the intro to Strange Boys is supposed to sound so wobbly? I guess it might make you think you are about to listen to a vaguely pastoral album based around Blackbird. But by looking at the cover you clearly aren’t in for that sort of thing. Indeed you’re actually in for some occasionally pleasingly schizophrenic and stupid but ultimately not particularly good and quite badly recorded Finnish rock. Is it a joke or are they serious? I can’t really work it out if the dumbness is real or deliberate but I am significantly reminded of Anvil. Malibu Beach Nightmare was apparently originally a calypso. I wonder what that was like if they thought this was a better way to do it? Among the rest of it I quite like the looming (synth?) bass on Tooting Bec Wreck, Sailing Down the Tears is quite a decent pop rock song, as is Ice Cream Summer, and I don’t mind the New York Dolls influenced 60s-sih garage punk of Back to Mystery City at all. So overall it’s as completely terrible as it might suggest, but apart from some fun dumbness on a couple of tracks it’s not particularly great either. Probably a high 2, not enough to get into the 3s but not totally abject either. 🇻🇳🇻🇳 Playlist submission: Back to Mystery City

So Hanoi Rocks “Back To Mystery City” was fine, as I liked the idea of a Finnish rock band – especially since I had a really hot blond Finnish girlfriend once… : ) Was not very familiar with them – though I had heard some of their music… Remember thinking that they were one of early “hair metal” bands along with Motely Crue and a few others in like 1981 – which was cool… And I do remember hearing about them alot when their drummer was killed in that car accident with Vince Neil of Motely Crue driving, while they were on a “beer run” after a heavy night of drinking… Seems like they were never the same after that… As for the album, every track on the album was solid – though there were moments of goodness scattered throughout… The 2 best tracks IMO – we the “Summer” songs… “Lick Summer Love” – 4-stars out of 7… “Ice Cream Summer” – 4-stars out of 7… Again – a fairly straight-forward rock/punk sound, with decent musicianship and song-writing – and would have been fine seeing in a bar in the early 80’s, but certainly nothing exceptional for sure… Would probably give this a 2.25 if I could, for being part of the origin of “hair metal” – especially a commercially-friendly band as well, and Finland’s greatest contribution to rock…

Only listened to the songs available on spotify. Kinda disappointing ngl. Just some more wanna be rock stars

why i gotta listen to this

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.

Solve the puzzle! Hanoi + (Rocks - R - O + S + U) = ? I quit listening to a song when I lost interest and didn't make it to the end of a single one! Pass.

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.

Dumb glam that doesn't really go anywhere or do much interesting. A couple of fun hooks

Didn’t find it to be particularly innovative or inspiring in anyway… May have been much more so it is time, but I found it very run of the mill …. Pretty good, nothing special for me. I certainly see how others could listen and get all hyped by it ….

cool

Peacemaker rocks! :D

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 don’t know much about Hanoi Rocks, but I do know that the drummer Razzle was killed by Vince Neil’s drunk driving, who served only 19 days in jail. Mötley Crüe then went on to carry on making music. It’s one of the most bizarre things to happen in rock music and a massive injustice, and it really needs a Netflix exposé. Songs I already knew: none Favourites: Malibu Beach Nightmare, Sailing Down The Tears, Beating Gets Faster I don’t know why I haven’t listened to much Hanoi Rocks before. Glam rock and metal was a big part of my life for a good while, but I just didn’t look much into this band for some unknown reason. This album was pretty spectacular. It has plenty of catchy melodies, nice distorted guitars, and vocals that don’t tend to shriek quite as much as some similar styled bands. I liked this a lot, and I’m very glad I’ve finally given them a good listen.

Everything that I love about rock!

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.

Normalnie byłoby 4, ale 5 za kickoff ;-)

Album Nr. 10 Einfach gute Rockmusik.

This kicks ass. Early punk energy. Adding this to my collection.

5/5 - shockingly good. I can see where GNR got it from

I spent my entire 8 hours of work listening to just this artist.... good stuff

Beach boys punk rock

The infamous Glam Punk band, criminaly underatted and undeapreciate, i'm accually suprised to see one of their album here. It started with a accoutisc oppening with river and bird songs, absoluttly not preparing us for the rest, but still kinda funny. It then go with the powerfull riff of Malibu Beach Nightmare. some songs are very good, others forgettable, The best songs are: Malibu Beach Nightmare, Mental Beat, Lick Summer Love, Betting getting faster, Ice Cream Summer and Back to Mystery City. But honneslty the songs all have some cool intro, riffs and Mike Monroe always give a hell of a good vocals job. The songs are bluesy, metal, rock and punk, sometimes all at once, showing their vats music skills and influences of others bands like New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, english glam Rock (Bowie, T.Rex, Roxy Music), The Sex Pistols or more classical rock band like the Stones or Aerosmith. In addition of their songs, they have an authenticity, a street wise glam punk attitude and way of telling their songsd, that is more than just the girls and party vibe of others Glam bands (that i also like but i more authentic here). Micheal Monroe is one of the best frontman in rock, vclarly in that period of time, because all thoses band kinda immitte him. Their songs just genuily feels real and still got that good vibe of others glam band, its a shamed theyr never get big. The influenced Hanoi Rocks have, with this album and all their others, is significant, especially when you look at all the american Glam Metal scene (Especially in the Sunset Strip) its undiable, from their songs, to their attitude and their look. Huge band have praised them, Guns N' Roses in particular, memebrs have often said good things about Hanoi Rocks an sayin how much they have influence them. The list of bands is long, Ratt, Alices In Chains, Poison, LA Guns, Skid Row, Foo Fighters, Mötley Crüe and even Def Leppard. To conclude the album is very good, i dont know if its the best album of Hanoi Rocks cause i dind't listen to all of them, but this one is one of the best 80's Glam Metal album i have heard, because of the attitude, the feeling and the music. But we have to regognise their influences, but some songs are not very good, a bit repetitive and it almost feel like some songs were not at maximum potential. Anyway love it.

Energético y divertido

Sehr gut. Leider ist das Album zu kurz

I think this is an album that I might have been less interested in if I hadn't read some of the background. Knowing that this band was highly influential on the hair metal bands of the 80s, especially Guns N Roses, provides a lot of useful context when listening to it. Sonically, the album is really good. It's wel-produced, and the songs are fun with a lot of energy. So much of what makes hair metal fun is found here, and I can't really think of anywhere else I heard a lot of these motifs before this album. I don't know that this is an album that I would have ever picked up on my own, but fitted into its proper context, it's an easy album to appreciate 4/5

Det her album var superfedt allerede fra det første nummer. Jeg kunne hel sikkert finde på at vende tilbage til det senere.

You can't talk about Hanoi Rocks without mentioning Vince Neil. Ok. Done. Moving on... Back to Mystery City isn't isn't glam rock-y enough and that's the surprise here. There's no soup-y overproduced love ballads or high-pitched crooning. It's dirty, lo-fi and relatively basic. Put this against the other glam rock bands of the day, I'd choose this.

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.

With the teased up hair and glam description I kept waiting for this album to get cheesy, but it never came. This blows Mötley Crüe, RATT, Poison, Whitesnake, and the like out of the water.

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.

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!

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.

4.0

4.5 because half of the album were blocked in my country

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!

Glam rock. Está bien. Venga, un 4.

This was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it a lot

Tof hardrockalbum

interesting rock!!

enjoyed it a lot

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.

Liked this. Sad all the songs aren’t on Spotify

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.

Never even heard of this bunch before. Nice fun glam mental album.

Ooh, I liked this one. I've heard the band name many a time, but I never took the time to delve into their music. 80s glam rock with lots of energy. Will listen again.

A bit of a Brit pop punk kind of vibe. Gave me some Ramones feel. 4.5

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.

Very ska-punkish

Glam Metal is good, and it's interesting to listen to this and think about its' reverberations into the world. A shame about Razzle their drummer, the band had so much potential with this album, but this album still stands as a big success.

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!

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.

LOVED IT

хмм хмммм смесь всего

Fun glam rock album! Way to go Finland!

I love glam metal

FInnish glam rock. Surprisingly enjoyable. Need to dig deeper into these guys.

Muy bueno

'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.

Nice hardrock

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.

Pretty good. A cross between punk rock and a hair band…glam rock?

Glam rock

Mah mah mah maaaa rosalitaaaaa Loved the classic rock vibes, really great album 4/5

Didn't strike me as particularly influential but it was fun and short. 7/10

Entretenido

Pretty good compared to most of the mid 80s European post punk that we absolutely HAVE to listen to

Better than expected

For whatever reason, Spotify is missing half of this album. It is a pity because I was really enjoying what I listened to.

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

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Tooting bec wreck

One of few occasions where I'd say that Vice City missed out not adding tracks from this album

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.

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!

Jaunty 80s rock and roll which is pretty entertaining throughout and Rosalita is a classic track.

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.

Увидев столько негативных отзывов, я испугалась, но послушав мне понравилось Прикольный глэмрок какой то Звучит приятно

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.

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!

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!

this is from the 80s

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

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!