You have to wonder if the members of Mötley Crüe actually like being in Mötley Crüe. Between Tommy Lee’s drum’n’bass dabblings, Vince Neil’s strip club and Mick Mars’s battered old bones, you can virtually hear them counting down the days until their supposed ‘farewell’ tour ends.
Credit to Nikki Sixx: the bassist has never lost his passion for music, even if the Crüe’s detractors wish he had. And with the end of the road in sight for that band, Sixx AM look set to be promoted from a side project to his main gig. That’s no bad thing. Where Mötley exist in the shadow of their own past, Modern Vintage comes without any such baggage. Tracks such as Let’s Go and the truly tremendous Gotta Get It Right are properly contemporary, cheese-free anthems.
Their cause is helped by the fact that they have, in James Michael, a singer who can find a tune without the aid of an expensive SatNav system. Granted, it’s front-loaded with the best songs, and the cover of The Cars’ Drive is a turd on the windscreen, but, for Sixx at least, the road ahead looks bright./o:p
