Motley Crue was one of the best hair metal bands of the ’80s. That’s why a Greatest Hits album from the band was a good idea in 1991. The Crue’s Decade of Decadence came out 18 years ago, but the band’s still going strong, or at least medium strength, so for them to have another greatest hits album isn’t a terrible idea either. BUT FIVE? Today the band released Greatest Hits on their own management company’s Eleven Seven label. It’s the fifth hits album the band’s released since 1991. This isn’t even their first Greatest Hits album called Greatest Hits (that, for the record, was their 1998 one).
Sure, we get it. Every time Motley Crue goes to another label and/or gets their publishing back, they release a greatest hits album to capitalize on that. Or labels like Elektra take advantage of one of their former marquee acts by releasing a comp (like 2005’s double disc Red White & Crue, the best of the comps in our opinon). But honestly, is there one Motley Crue fan not alive that doesn’t have at least one of the band’s compilations of music? What are you getting if you pick up the new version? You’ll get two songs from last year’s The Saints of Los Angeles, the title track and a remix of “The Animal In Me.” In other words, pretty inessential, unless you really liked the last album, in which case you already own it. You’re better off saving your money and buying a copy of The Dirt (one of the best rock autobiographies ever) instead. Or waiting for the long-rumored film version of the book to come out and buying the inevitable soundtrack that will serve as Motley Crue’s sixth Greatest Hits album.
