About the Album
The Motels’ third album All 4 One finds the group working the fine line between mainstream arena-rock and quirky new wave pop. Their roots lie in the sleek, polished Californian hard rock that dominated late-’70s and early-’80s album-oriented radio, but All Four One has a shiny new wave production, complete with keyboards and processed guitars. Still, it plays like arena rock, especially since Martha Davis oversings each track, but its best moments — “Take the L” (out of lover and it’s over) and the single “Only the Lonely” — are embarrassingly catchy guilty pleasures that make the album an entertaining nostalgia piece. [One Way’s CD reissue is even more attractive, since it adds the group’s two other big singles, “Suddenly Last Summer” and “Shame,” as bonus tracks.]
