The Motels - All Four One

The Motels. At best I was a casual fan. I always sort of liked "Only the Lonely" and although the two songs aren't anything alike, it always reminded me of "Harden My Heart" by Quarterflash. Then again for whatever reason I would confuse Martha Davis (yes, I did know her name, but couldn't tell you how or why this little bit of trivia got lodged in my brain) as the Martha in Martha and the Muffins. Yeah, I know - sacrilege.

When I found All Four One in the dollar section I snapped it up. There was a little bit of water damage to the back of the jacket, but the vinyl itself was mint. There were no liner notes, so that sucked, but dagnabbit the internet would have whatever I needed so it wasn't really an issue.

So after a clean I dropped the needle, and the first track "Mission of Mercy" wasn't what I was expecting. It was a really crunchy new wave song with a lot of over the top guitar that was goofy fun. "Take the L" had some of the broody elements that would be found on "Only the Lonely" with a rock edge and some nice keyboard work. So far this is really solid. "Only the Lonely" is such a crisp song it does not sound like a something from '82 (of course it was). The guitar solo in this song is so good. Funny how the new wave elements didn't seem as prevalent in my memory, but hearing it now in the context of the first couple of songs it fits right in. "Art Fails" continues the momentum and has a great sequenced rhythm running through the song that's really cool. The closing track on the first side was a bit of a surprise "Change My Mind" has Martha Davis dimming the lights while the band plays to a smokey room. Her voice may not have the richness of some of the jazz greats, but it was a cool song and showed the range of the band.

Side two opens with "So L.A."another new wave slow burn. This is a quirky song that has more going on than you'd expect for a simple pop song. To bad they decided to fade the song as the guitar solo was about light things up. Speaking of quirky, surf new wave is a new one for me. "Tragic Surf" is a lot of fun, and good lord you gotta love a twangy guitar. I'm surprised the guitar wasn't drenched in spring reverb, still it sounded pretty cool, and the the solo here makes up for the early fade on the previous track. I'm not sure if this is just me reaching, but "Apocalypso" kind of reminded me a little of Blondie's "Rapture" in tone and swagger. I'm not sure why I started adding notes to each song, but since I'm almost done I may as well finish. It's interesting the band decided to cover "He Hit Me (and It Felt like a Kiss)" a song that when it was first released drew some backlash for the subject matter, and even Carole King who co-wrote the song was sorry she'd written it. From what I've read Martha had a pretty rough go of it at an early age and this was her using the song from the first person. For all that, musically it's a good song, you just have to play deaf to the lyrics. The album closes with a sour note, actually a whole song full of them. "Forever Mine" plays like an updated version of "Can't Hurry Love" that just feels lifeless. Although there are people who really like songs like this, so maybe it's just my bias. I couldn't stand the Phil Collins version of "Can't Hurry Love" either. Still it really is the only song on the album I didn't care for.

This was a really pleasant surprise, and there are some wicked songs here. Not least is "Only the Lonely" which has managed to stay fresh after all these years. They were all so good, and I have a new found appreciation for the band