Back to Mystery City

I want to give this guy an inverse mohawk.

I’m at a 5.

I genuinely don’t hear the 2.7 on the site at all. I thought this was really well done glam rock, and looking into these guys, it seems like their tree of influence spreads pretty far. If you like Guns n’ Roses, you should thank these guys; Slash & Axl Rose & others have cited them as an inspiration & went so far as to rerelease Hanoi Rocks’ albums in the U.S. under their own label. This is THE prototype hair metal album, and if it’s the flashpoint for the whole genre, down to the looks on the cover, it’s a pretty damn good base. The guitar work is great, Razzle’s drumming is manic & anchors the whole album and Michael Monroe’s vocals sound pretty clean to me. He’s a little warbly & try-hard at times, but in an endearing way that doesn’t take away from the tracks for me.

Lyrically, I can understand being kind of a hater, especially with “Lick Summer Love” lacking any pretense & “Back to Mystery City” being awkward as hell under a certain interpretation, but most of the album is pretty straightforward stuff. If anything, it feels more like an early ‘80s glam rock take on the doowop stuff of the ‘50s & ‘60s at times, most notably on “Beating Gets Faster”. It’s a bit cheesy at times, especially on some of the more ballad-y things, but everything moves at a pretty precise pace that just feels entertaining to listen to.

Ultimately, I think it’s a pretty easy 5; you can say it’s the same-ish track for 44 minutes & I wouldn’t necessarily disagree, but you can’t tell me in good faith that this isn’t a fun listen if you’re already a fan of this style. Even if you’re not, there’s an energy to it that should easily win people over unless you hate having fun. The only argument I can see for a lower rating is that this isn’t an essential album to listen to before you die, and maybe there’s a case for that, but given the Guns n’ Roses connection, I just can’t imagine throwing it away from a historical perspective. I genuinely think it’s a great album, and an easy 5 for me. It should be on the list, and people should hopefully rate this higher down the line.

Exactly the kind if album people are talking about when they slate 80s music.

What in the peroxideperm-hell is this album doing on this list?

This has taken a bit of a beating on the 1001 site, and I seem to be in the minority of users who enjoyed this enough to want to listen again in future. Supposedly an inspiration for the likes of Guns N' Roses, Motley Crüe and Skid Row, although the choruses didn't feel overly memorable on first listen, and although there were undoubtedly a handful of weaker offerings towards the album's tail end, it broadly gave off the impression of being greater than the sum of its parts.

It sounds like a halfway house between the DIY energy of punk rock and arena-hair metal, whilst remaining slightly off-kilter and somewhat eccentric the whole way through. It also attempts, and largely manages to pull off more expansive songwriting on the likes of "Lick Summer Love".

Definitely enough of a curiosity to warrant further spins.

Ive heard some Hanoi Rocks songs but none from this album. Razzle is a good drummer, hopefully he doesnt get into a car crash with another musician that makes this type of music but worse (you know who you are).

It was fine

metal albums of all time and I felt the lyrics were not great. Good energy but it’s place here is a mystery to Not sure why this hair metal album is here. It’s not included in Martin Popoff’s top 500 heavy me.

I do like these goofball inclusions that really don't merit much of a place on the list. Hanoi Rocks didn't move the needle much and didn't make unique music and their most famous achievement is one of their members dying next to someone who should've been included instead. The album isn't that special. Not bad enough to dislike but only really interesting if you listened to all the other more famous Hair Metal acts beforehand. I don't even like Hair Metal. Godspeed to Robert Dimery for being the only person to think of Hanoi Rocks since the 1980's.

This was fun! If The Clash made hair metal. Probs 3.5 but will round up

Always pigeonholed these guys as hair metal based on their appearance and wrote them off. This actually has a lot more of a diverse sound than most of those acts, with much of it leaning hard into '70s glam and proto-punk rather than heavy metal. It's actually got a very approachable sound; fun and upbeat.

Kind of bland generic 80s glam metal/rock. It’s not bad to listen to, but I can’t imagine this existing as anything other than background to just make something feel vaguely 80s-ish

Thought this was going to be some garbage hair metal. But after reading about it, turns out it's more of a proto-hair metal album. Interesting from that point of view. Also interesting that they're from Finland. Much more of a tossed off power-pop thing. Musically, just okay. Really can't figure out what they're trying to do, maybe a T-Rex sort of thing? Has shades of Adam and the Ants also.

Kind of surprising to see this relatively obscure glam "metal" offering, I have to say I wasn't aware these guys were from finland but that's about the only intreresting thing here I'm afraid. The music is kind of mid by itself, I have heard better glam metal bands. Can't imagine anymore than 3 stars and I am being generous once again. Rated 2.5 on RYM, dead average really.

Finns

Realno možda najgora podvrsta rocka/metala, u ovo je grozno, neke dionice nisu toliko loše pa eto.

Still better than T. Rex.

I've heard of these guys, but had no idea they were Finnish. I like a lot of Finnish music, but the Finnish records I have are pretty much all folk/experimental.

So here's some Finnish glam/new wave, or whatever this is. It's mildly annoying like most glam, but it has a New York Dolls crossed with The Jam or something vibe that I can appreciate. Reasonable album, glad I got to hear it.

I loved reading that the guitarist ("Nasty Suicide") quit the band to go back to high school and then studied to become a pharmacist and is now working for a Finnish pharma corp.

3 stars

I approached this album with trepidation, which was immediately confirmed by the medieval/baroque noodling to open. This is followed by football chant drums and dated hair rock. This process is rapidly changing my opinion of the appearance of a saxophone, which i generally saw as a positive thing…. Not anymore.

From here it is just dull dated sounded drivel of the highest (or lowest?) order

Another album that I don't entirely hate, but just fundamentally don't understand why its made it onto the list.

What is there about Hanoi Rocks that makes it stand out as worthy of inclusion? I grant you that the same thing could be said of much of the Britpop that made it into the 1001 books, but at least they have the excuse of the author being British, and therefore more integrated into that music scene, and Britpop being pretty current at the time the books were made. Hanoi Rocks seems to have dated terribly and to my ear, nothing particularly makes it stand out.

If you love glam-punk or hair metal, good for you! Enjoy this. But to me it's like watching Wayne's World... just significantly less funny.

2/5 (because I can't give 1.5)