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When you have a band that has been around for as long and is as prolific as MOTORHEAD then you can expect that one day there will be a deluge of specialized discs designed to cash in on all those years of work, today is that day.
Actually, MOTORHEAD has seen most of its recorded work re-issued, repackaged and re-distributed in every way imaginable over the last few years starting with an entire catalogue remastering back in '96 so if your bank account has resuscitated itself since then here are three more goodies to add to the collection though I should point out that if you call yourself a MOTORHEAD fan and do not currently own last years Box set you are falling woefully short of the mark.
First at bat is the marvelously done "THE BEST OF" coming from the fine folks at Metal-Is. This compilation spans the entirety of MOTORHEAD's entire career, right on up to their current "WE ARE MOTORHEAD" album and fills every minute of two full discs. Forty songs written on speed for speed and with speed. Everything that could remotely be considered a "hit" is including the band's namesake by Lemmy's former outfit HAWKWIND.
I don't know how they did it but Metal-Is managed to get something into this package from every record label that the band has been associated with through the years and much gratification to all involved flows freely from my little Motor-heart because anything less would have felt cheap. Once again, there are great photos, check out the earliest shot of the original MOTORHEAD, even I have never seen that one. There is a decent biography of the band as well but nothing as far reaching as is available on the box set mentioned previously. In twenty-five more years be looking for another set such as this, don't doubt, it can happen!
Secondly we have the "Rare" disc featuring things that fell from the Motor-plate along the way but were still worthy of a listen. My problem with this disc is that it is only one disc and less than 37 minutes at that. With all of the value based packaging of MOTORHEAD product this one comes up short but damn it, it is all still great stuff so, for really die hards only I should think. If you want to pretend to be Lemmy you can always use the instrumental version of "Tear Ya Down" as a backing track to your own vocals. The "HEADGIRL" classic "Please Don't Touch" reiterates the need for a full re-issue of the MOTORHEAD/GIRLSCHOOL EP. Basically, I like "OVER THE TOP" but I am not in love with it like I am "THE BEST OF."
Lastly we arrive at the double disc set, "THE CHASE IS BETTER THAN THE CATCH." Most of what we have here is available elsewhere, like on "THE BEST OF," but is more than a shelf piece for collectors given the perfectly sequenced track listing and occasional B-side that truly can not be found anywhere else. It is like flipping through your imported 45's without all the hiss and hearing a Heavy Metal chronology that father time himself could not have anticipated. Do you know where you were when "Killed By Death" was released as a single? Well, if not all that information, well, not your information, the band's, is here at a flip of the finger and a perking of the ears. Lemmy, Metal royalty's Sgt of Arms constantly resharpening his sword for battle be it with the original band or any of the incarnations that followed up to about '84 or so. The only thing that is missing here is a third disc that would cover the last 16 years of singles but hell, this is really the stuff that people keep asking for anyway.
The end of the story is this, MOTORHEAD is a legendary band entitled to a great deal of respect and the appropriate way to show that respect is to throw a few dollars at these things when they come out, you still make out like a bandit in terms of bang for the buck as a whole so get all three today. If you can afford just one go for the Metal-Is comp first.

Buy these albums