Overnight Sensation
| Overnight Sensation | ||||
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| Studio album by Motörhead | ||||
| Released | 15 October 1996 | |||
| Recorded | 1996 | |||
| Studio | Ocean Studio and Track House Recording Studio | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal | |||
| Length | 41:19 | |||
| Label |
SPV GmbH CMC |
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| Producer |
Howard Benson Duane Baron |
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| Motörhead chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Rock Hard | 8.0/10 |
Overnight Sensation is the thirteenth studio album by the band Motörhead released 15 October 1996, their second on the Steamhammer label.
The ironically titled Overnight Sensation was Motörhead's third album with producer Howard Benson. Following the departure of Würzel (Michael Burston) in 1995, the band returned to the same three-man "classic Motörhead line up"; bass guitar/vocals, lead guitar, and drums. This album was also the first since Ace of Spades (1980) to have a picture of the band on the cover. Despite being only a three-piece band, the band had a heavier style on this work than on its previous album, Sacrifice. Vocalist and bassist Lemmy Kilmister recalls that, amidst the touring, the record took about four weeks to write new songs and four weeks to record in the studio. Lemmy talked about the return to being a three piece:
"..it went the same as a four-piece except one guy wasn't there! Or the same as the Everly Brothers plus one. It was a bit more fraught, but that was just because Phil, being the only guitarist, felt that there was a lot riding on his shoulders (which there was). So he was under added pressure, but he proved himself well. Overnight Sensation is a great album for him. Mikkey was his usual perfect self – he always finishes his drums tracks well ahead of schedule. This time around he did them in one day.."
In Joel McIver's 2011 book Overkill: The Untold Story of Motörhead, drummer Mikkey Dee is quoted saying that the songwriting was affected by guitarist Würzel's departure:
"..Würzel, I used to say, was more Motörhead than me, Phil and Lemmy put together. He was a true Motörheader, you know. He wrote super-hard songs and riffs, and I miss that sometimes. Because me and Phil, we might sometimes write a little too ... not soft, but maybe too musically correct songs, where Würzel was very simple, straight, very hard riffs. Nothing complicated with him whatsoever.."
The album is notable for featuring a picture of Lemmy without his trademark mutton chops. He regrew them in 2001 and would retain them until his death.
Overnight Sensation was the band's first official record for CMC. Sacrifice (1995) was already partly in the States on import, but the label proved itself with Overnight Sensation and it became the best-distributed record the band had for some time. It charted in Germany, Sweden and Finland. AllMusic calls the LP:
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