Ace of Spades

Motörhead is simply an icon of rock ‘n’ roll, and *Ace of Spades* is their most iconic album. Of course, you have to be familiar with this album, and naturally, you have to recognize the riff from the title track after just two bars. And much like with Elvis Presley’s debut album, what comes after it doesn’t really matter when it comes to evaluating it.
Still, a few words on the matter: Culture must always be viewed in the context of its time. For this reason, I believe it is misguided to criticize Lemmy for the lyrics he wrote in 1980: his mindset - especially toward women - is easy to understand even from today’s perspective, based on his work from the ’90s and his actions.
Rather, “Ace of Spades”—perhaps even more so than Iron Maiden’s debut album of the same name—has defined the style of harder rock since the 1980s. "Legend" is the only appropriate description!

There’s not much depth here, but there’s almost enough attitude and power to make up for it. I was gonna give it 3 stars, but Jailbait earned it 2.

Starts with an iconic songs and never reaches those heights again. 2.5/5. Raising to 3.

♠️♠️♠️♠️

Dam this guy needs a cup of water

"philthy animal" on drums

Ace of Spades by Motörhead is pure, unfiltered rock and roll, its loud, fast, and unapologetic. Lyrically it’s largely about sex, excess, and life on the road, and it doesn’t pretend to be anything more profound than that.

This album isn’t designed to make you think. It’s there to hit you hard and keep going. The riffs are relentless, the pace rarely lets up, and Lemmy’s snarling delivery gives everything that raw, gritty edge. It’s heavy, high-energy and undeniably fun.

Favourite tracks: “Ace of Spades” is superb — an absolute monster of a track and easily the standout. “(We Are) The Road Crew” is also strong, capturing that chaotic touring lifestyle perfectly. The rest of the album is ok, though nothing quite reaches the level of the title track.

Least favourite tracks: Nothing was terrible, it’s consistently good and much more enjoable than I thought, but much of it blends into one high-speed blur behind the iconic opener.

Album artwork: I love the album cover, angry and full of leather.

Started well but got very samey

“Ace Of Spades” is one of the all-time great rock & roll songs. It is everything rock & roll should be- it starts at full force, never relents even an inch, and it’s under 3 minutes long. For that reason Motörhead will always be royalty… even though they might be the least good famous band to ever exist. Seriously, and I say this with love, Motörhead is like an even lower-brow version of Slade or AC/DC and I suppose that’s an accomplishment all on its own. That little bit of punk rock really does a lot to punch up the ‘party rock’ sound.

This is a fun album except that the ‘sex with minors’ stuff kinda dampens the vibes. Maybe you could curate a Motörhead playlist though? Please just do it better than that live Motörhead album I listened to a few months ago which sounded like 8 attempts at recreating “Ace Of Spades”. I guess that’s better than 8 versions of “Jailbait”, but it still gets tiresome after 30 minutes.

I think I've noted my love for Ace of Spades (the song) previously. Maybe it's fond memories of The Young Ones. Anyway, I think I liked this studio album a bit more than the live one (although "Jailbait" - dodgy as fuck).

-Incredible-. It's just straight up metal goodness that never goes out of style.

Then the friend I'm doing the challenge with pointed out the lyrics to Jailbait, and uhh... Shit.

I had a live album from Motorhead a while back and gave it 4/5 which sort of surprised me. I know I've heard this album but it isn't really something I would listen to normally.
Ace of Spades is a great song. What it is about Lemmy's awful voice that works so well? And his bass tone is always amazing. The lyrics throughout this entire album are laughable. So juvenile and dumb. Don't even get me started on Jailbait. The title of that song alone should be a big red flag. Shows how much the times have changed and I think that's a good thing.
Other than Ace of Spades I don't think I would listen to any of this album again. I don't know, maybe my tastes have matured, maybe I'm old and grumpy. This kind of rock just doesn't do it for me. Lemmy was a hell of a bass player though, that's for sure. Unlike any other. 2.75/5.

Dumb, but it does it well.

Not going to overthink this one, as far as metal goes it’s a 5 if there ever was.

I really liked some songs to an extent that surprised me (because Motorhead have influenced so many other bands I can't stand). I love the raw, stripped down power trio energy. I bet this band was incredible live. But also, this album contains some all-time dumb lyrics. Whenever I could make out what Lemmy was saying, it sounded very Spinal Tap-esque.

Age hasn’t dulled the power of this. Still rocks hard.

Can’t argue with it. Just goes for it from the first note and then hits you in the face over and over! Pure Rock…..not even trying for anything else.

4

I loved the instruments but the vocals weren’t really my style. It did feel slightly repetitive in my opinion.

I had the live motorhead album not too long ago, which I didn't care for much, so the same thing here.

You Play Track 1 some, play Track 4 some it's all the same to me

but I like it

Honestly don't got a ton to say. Just a fantastic slice of classic speed metal. Songs like Ace of Space and (We Are) The Road Crew are fantastic.

Album does get a little repetitive, but that's not a bad thing with a band like Motorhead. If Motorhead didn't sound like Motorhead, that'd be a huge problem. Some bands you don't want them having music that all sounds the same. But some you do. AC/DC is another example of that. I want every AC/DC song to sound like Back in Black. And Motorhead is the same, every song should sound like Ace of Spades.

But anyways, yeah. Amazing record. I probably wouldn't have given it a five anyways, but having a song like Jailbait makes it easy to not give the five. What's with 70's and 80's bands having a pathological need to make a song about wanting to get with underage girls? Embarrassing and gross.