With the 1980 release of
Ace of Spaces,
Motörhead had their anthem of anthems -- that is, the title track -- the one trademark song that would summarize everything that made this early incarnation of the band so legendary, a song that would be blasted by legions of metalheads for generations on end. It's a legendary song, for sure, all two minutes and 49 bracing seconds of it. And the album of the same name is legendary as well, among
Motörhead's all-time best, often considered their single best, in fact, along with
Overkill.
Ace of Spades was
Motörhead's third great album in a row, following the 1979 releases of
Overkill and
Bomber, respectively. Those two albums have a lot in common with
Ace of Spaces. The classic lineup --
Lemmy (bass and vocals),
"Fast" Eddie Clarke (guitar), and "Philthy Animal" Taylor (drums) -- is still in place and sounding as alive and crazed as ever. The album is still rock-solid, boasting several superlative standouts. Actually, besides the especially high number of standouts on
Ace of Spades -- at least relative to
Bomber, which wasn't quite as strong overall as
Overkill had been -- the only key difference between this 1980 album and its two 1979 predecessors is the producer, in this case
Vic Maile. The result of his work isn't all that different from that of
Jimmy Miller, the longtime
Rolling Stones producer who had worked on
Overkill and
Bomber, but it's enough to give
Ace of Spaces a feeling distinct from its two very similar-sounding predecessors. This singular sound (still loud and in your face, rest assured), along with the exceptionally strong songwriting and the legendary stature of the title track, makes
Ace of Spades the ideal
Motörhead album if one were to choose one and only one studio album. It's highly debatable whether
Ace of Spaces is tops over the breakthrough
Overkill, as the latter is more landmark because of its earlier release, and is somewhat rougher around the edges, too. Either way,
Ace of Spades rightly deserves its legacy as a classic. There's no debating that. [Earmark released a special picture disc LP for collectors.] ~ Jason Birchmeier