Motley Crue finally got some retro love from the establishment with their inclusion in Universal's highly successful 20th Century Masters series. Do they deserve it? As the band that resurrected metal in L.A., defined the bad-boy swagger of the genre, and wrote a slew of great pop songs along the way, the answer is simple: most definitely. Despite the band's deserved title of "Masters," this collection is not the definitive statement on their career.

For starters the disc spreads itself too thin in covering both the '80s and the '90s with a mere 12 tracks. Most ardent Crue fans would agree that the band took a serious nosedive after 1989's DR. FEELGOOD, and new fans will not need uninspired '90s tracks--such as their "Anarchy in the U.K." cover--at the expense of more cuts from the classics TOO FAST FOR LOVE, SHOUT AT THE DEVIL, and THEATRE OF PAIN. For more of those vintage jams, try the early-'90s hits collection DECADE OF DECADENCE.