Sixx: A.M.'s "Gotta Get It Right" Suffers From Multiple Personality Disorder

Nikki Sixx sure has been around the block a few times. Whether it's nearly checking out on stage with Motley Crue or confiding to VH1 Behind The Music that he and the boys craved a hornier, louder, overdosed lifestyle he always came across as honesty regardless of the cost. If you've seen his puss in a mirror lately you likely can tell in his fifties that those costs are coming back to bite him on the ass but...I digress. One of his healthier outlets at this date happens to be Sixx: A.M. October '14 shall bring with it the release of "Modern Vintage", the side project's third studio album. Trust me when I tell you Nikki's the last person I'd want to have on my enemies list. Still, as a blogger making every effort to be worth his salt, I have to confess that the new "Gotta Get It Right" single doesn't combine modern with vintage in a fashion others won't immediately chuck into the discard pile. Meatloaf could have pasted together the song at the same time he got offered "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That). My Chemical Romance leaps out as a possible newer generation candidate for this material too. How about Panic At The Disco? They'd easily be guilty of an attempt to show off their grown-up skin. Flatly put, There's no trace of Motley Crue grade menace. If Nikki meant to show he's older and wiser then fine, he's succeeded beyond hope. That doesn't mean he had to go wuss on everyone. Lead vocalist James Michael has that lounge act charisma working for him. It should be asked, "Does it work for anybody else?" The song stresses the importance of getting social exchange right while the time is at hand. The drum programmer echoes the newly won (we surmise) maturity barreling through this composition. Nikki's always been a fundamentally strong side man. The chops haven't failed him yet, nor do I expect they ever will. "Gotta Get It Right" is a pinch high on the melodrama scale. It's the type of song you'd expect from a gang of schmoes packed off to fantasy band camp trying to recapture lost glory that was never theirs to begin with. The instruments want you to think Sixx: A.M. has emerged from the cauldrons smarter and improved versions of themselves. Surge upon surge of nattily polished structures. The boys want you attending their service even if you're not sure which sect you favor. Obviously we couldn't expect "Shout At The Devil" or "Dr. Feelgood" indefinitely but as a package "Gotta Get It Right" isn't any more convincing than David Lee Roth's solo interpretations of well worn chestnuts like "That's Life" and "Tobacco Road". The actual potential audience for "Gotta Get It Right" likely lays its head at the same Holiday Inn piano bar circuit. You'd like to tell the lummoxes they've turned straw into gold, reinvented the wheel, etc...but this song smacks of inspirational self help pablum complete with the over emoted utterance of the song title. Enthusiasm's not the damning constraint. Nikki has unfortunately forgot the Sixx brand carries at least a shade of accountability. His fans don't deserved Nikki Lite. "Gotta Get It Right" has it all wrong. Long devoted fans aren't going to cotton to the PG rated mature audience version. Migraine inducing nostalgia for a relentless era on the other hand could reach epidemic proportions.