By 1985, Motley Crue were in a tough place. Though they'd achieved success, wealth and worldwide fame thanks to their first 2 albums Too Fast For Love and Shout At The Devil, the band were suffering from some setbacks. Vince Neil had driven his Ferrari while drinking and caused a crash that ended up killing his friend Razzle Dingley of Hanoi Rocks. As he worked to stay sober and navigate his legal issues, Nikki Sixx was deep into a heroin addiction that forced producer Tom Werman to get someone else in to rerecord his bass parts. But Shout At The Devil went 4x platinum and the record company needed a follow up to keep the band's momentum alive and in the public eye. The result was Theater of Pain, an album the band in later years has said was too polished and they blamed Tom Werman (not their own substance issues or limits as musicians) for the end product. However, it resonated with the public and sold another 4 million copies thanks to the big radio hits and MTV videos Smokin In The Boys Room (a Brownsville Station cover) and power ballad Home Sweet Home. Theater of Pain is less raunchy than Shout At The Devil, a byproduct of the slick production. We felt the riffs weren't as killer as they had been and outside of the big hits their aren't too many standouts. Louder Than Hell is a heavy song more akin to Black Sabbath than typical Motley but was from the Shout At The Devil sessions and doesn't sound like anything else on TOP. Use It Or Lose It might feature Mick Mars best solo shredding effort with typical cliche lyrics. But the songs had the Motley Crue attitude, had a couple of radio friendly hits and they toured for 8 months around the world to propel sales and keep themselves in the public eye. It may not be our favorite Crue record but it's the one that got our attention back in 1985 and we give it our track x track review at 40.

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Annie Jump Cannon, Census Taker of the Sky