Now, this is an interesting album! Designed as a companion piece to
Moetley Cruee
bassist/songwriter
Nikki Sixx
's autobiography,
The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack
-- based on journals he kept during the peak of his drug abuse in the '80s, now supplemented by commentary by his friends and the man himself -- is a genuinely odd and oddly moving record, a weird pileup of pained spoken word diary entries, operatic metal, L.A. sleaze, grimy electro-industrial beats, the stray power ballad, and circus music, all delivered by
Sixx
's new band,
Sixx: A.M.
, which is fronted by vocalist
James Michael
, who also produced and wrote the album with
. Musically, this album exists out of time -- it certainly doesn't sound like a throwback to
the Cruee
and, despite the echoes of
She Wants Revenge
on "Pray for Me," it doesn't sound modern, either. In that sense,
is the product of a true, distinctive artistic vision -- one that might not be coherent, but it's certainly compelling, both in its open-wound honesty and often baffling mash-ups of styles. Even if
dabble in modern textures here, this never sounds like a desperate attempt to sound modern, since everything in this music is designed to mirror
's voyage into heroin hell. It's a concept album and, as such, it plays as an extended suite instead of a collection of songs, but that's the appeal of this record: it's an art rock confessional, quite unlike anything
-- or anyone else, for that matter -- has done before. Which means that even if
isn't quite to your specific tastes -- it might be too gloomy for
Cruee
fans -- it nevertheless is hard not to admire the risks
takes on this record, or the strange success he achieves here, either. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine