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Sixx A.M. is Nikki Sixx’s Soundtrack to his up and coming Book, The Heroin Diaries: The Year in A Life of A Shattered Rock Star. This is a collaborative effort with singer James Michael and DJ Ashba (Beautiful Creatures). Creating a Soundtrack to a book, could be a Hard Rock first. I don’t recall any other artists trying to do something like this. With that being said, listening to this CD would probably be appreciated much more if you read the book first. Strangely enough, the soundtrack was released first. (The book wont hit retailers until Sept 18th.)

For those of you thinking you are going to find a Motley Crue like CD, guess again! The sound on this record is about as far from the Crue’s glam metal as it gets. This is more of a modern hard rock approach to the music. Nikki Sixx’s big bass guitar sound is present, but this disc is completely different from anything you have heard from him before. James Michael is a very good singer. His vocals are clean, and easy to understand unlike many of today’s hard rock screamers.

I tend to like the harder numbers on this CD the best, and Life is Beautiful, Pray For Me, and Heart Failure are all solid tracks.

There are some slower numbers on this disc, that I could see having some crossover hit potential. The songs Tomorrow and Accidents Can Happen are both radio ready. Neither are heavy enough to banished from pop radio, nor are they too light to be vanquished from many rock radio stations out there.

This soundtrack is not without its problems though, and it is not a CD that I can listen to all the way through. There are some filler songs, and there are a few songs where Nikki Sixx gives his diatribe to some cool music, but as a whole, this isn’t a disc that I will grab for very much.

I may grow to appreciate this CD more once I read the book, but right now this disc like so many of the soundtracks that have preceded it suffers from only have a few solid tracks and too much filler. The CD is worth checking out for the solid cuts that are on it.  It wont blow you away, but it is an interesting listen.

Rating: Out of 10

Track Listing:
1. X-Mas
2. Van Nuys
3. Life Is Beautiful
4. Pray For Me
5. Tommorrow
6. Accidents Can Happen
7. Intermission
8. Dead Man’s Ballet
9. Heart Failure
10. Girl With Golden Eyes
11. Courtesy Call
12. Permission
13. Life After Death