Rocktober Album #16: Motörhead – Ace of Spades (1980)

A pillar of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Motörhead is known for their fast beats, gritty guitars, and, of course, the gravely vocals of Lemmy Kilmister.

Ace of Spades is a classic metal album, combining the NWOBH with a punk attitude and edge. If you like hard rock and heavy metal – and frankly, I don't know why you wouldn't – then you should like this album. The version of the album I have includes three bonus tracks (tracks 13-15), so that's, well, a bonus. (And it's only $7.97 on Amazon.)

1. Ace of Spades
This is Motörhead's most popular and recognizable song, and it's a fast-paced classic.
2. Love Me Like a Reptile
This is a sweet song, although I have no idea what this means, since humans do not fertilize eggs. Perhaps, they want to be loved cold-bloodedly, which would be weird.
3. Shoot You In The Back
I love Lemmy's voice because sometimes it sounds like he is straining to get the words out, such as in this song, which I would like to think is about coitus, the physical act of love.
4. Live to Win
This is another frantic rocker, with a nice message to boot. No one likes a loser. Because losers die. You can see how this song influenced the speed and trash metal that was born in the coming years.
5. Fast and Loose
This one starts out with an awesome riff, and generally kicks ass.
6. (We Are) The Road Crew
Another solid rocker, although confusing because Motörhead is not the road crew. Their road crew, incidentally, did not release a song called "(We Are) Motörhead."
7. Fire Fire
I like this song a lot. It's fast, it's ballsy, it's awesome.
8. Jailbait
I also like this song a lot. It's also fast, ballsy, and awesome. And who can't relate to the desire to bang a tawdry teenage vixen. It's as old as time, and a theme often contemplated in rock and roll (see also, "Sixteen Candles" by The Crests, "Only Sixteen" by Sam Cooke, "Christine Sixteen" by KISS, "Seventeen" by Winger)
9. Dance
Not a title you'd expect from a metal band. Rest assured, this song does not bow to disco. It's straight NWOBH all the way.
10. Bite The Bullet
Another fast-paced, balls-out rocker about leaving someone ("you," in this case).
11. The Chase Is Better Than the Catch
This one starts out with a gritty riff and continues to rock throughout.
12. The Hammer
This is another great, fast-paced NWOBH song with a punk energy. It is probably not about Greg Valentine, but what this post presupposes is, maybe it is?
13. Dirty Love
The first of the bonus tracks is another good one. Lemmy, despite his God-given homely looks, was a notorious ladies' man. In addition to clean love, he wanted dirty love as well.
14. Please Don't Touch
This is a collaboration with the female NWOBH group Girlschool (they called the collaboration Headgirl, and you know I love word combinations). I heard this one many years ago on Pandora and have liked it ever since. It's a cover of a late '50s pop song by Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, and it's pretty catchy. There are definitely some unexpected hooks in there.
15. Emergency
The album and bonus tracks end with a solid offering, with great guitars, fast beats, and a sing-along chorus.

Interesting tidbit: After guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke left Motörhead in 1982, he formed somewhat of a metal supergroup, Fastway (another word combination), with Pete Way of UFO, former Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley, and a then-unknown vocalist Dave King, who is now the lead singer for Celtic punk stalwarts Flogging Molly.

Sadly, not many songs were available on Playlist.com, and I mixed in the live versions of a couple of the songs, since that's all that was available.