Mötley Crüe: Every Album Ranked Worst To Best

The Sleazy Sounds off of Sunset.

motley crue
Elektra

There's a bit of contention surrounding the music of Motley Crue. Whether people are willing to admit it or not, the true sounds of hair metal would very well not exist if it weren't for this gang of misfits coming together on the mean streets of LA. However, the Crue have had one of the more interesting career trajectories to say the least.

As opposed to the generic rise to the top story, there have been a good amount of peaks and valleys when it comes to the Crue's catalog. Even if you ask the band themselves, there is a difference between albums where they've nailed it and albums where they were clearly phoning it in. However, there are still some highlights sprinkled across every one of the group's records over the years.

From the punkish roots in the early '80s to being one of the greatest hair metal bands of them all, Motley Crue's output can be a practical gold mine for any hard rock fan to delve into. You might have to sift through a bit of crap from time to time, then again you don't really turn to these guys for anything that's clean and sanitized, do you? From the boring to the badass to the classic, let's see how the back catalog of Sunset's most dangerous group stack up.

9. Generation Swine

The Crue were definitely in a state of freefall after coming off of their change of scenery with their self-titled album. Despite trying to shake up their usual formula, the loss of Vince Neil came together with a pretty audible thud when the group eventually went out on the road. Getting Vince back in the band seemed to be the just the ticket for success...if the record didn't ended up being Generation Swine.

Instead of the sleazy rock bangers that the Crue were known for, a lot of this record is the product of the band jumping on the hype train of industrial music that was just starting to get moving at the tail end of the century. While there's nothing wrong with acts like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson respectively, one of the biggest strengths to their bow was that they didn't sound anything like Motley Crue. If you put Motley into the equation, things start to really go haywire.

Rather than the grim introspective tracks of the heavy hitters of the scene, the Crue sound totally unbelievable on this outing, as some of the more synthetic elements of their sound turn into cheap parodies of themselves after being played for more than a few minutes. This did get the band back on the same page, but this is probably one of the last stops you want to make when digging through their back catalog.

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Contributor

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