Simone Appolloni's Album Reviews
A minor hitmaker act, but considered one of the pivotal bands of the UK "glam" rock movement, Mott the Hoople didn't release much material, and are reserved mostly as 70's memorabilia. Formed as The Doc Thomas Group by Mick Ralphs (R.I.P. 2025), Stan Tippins and Pete Overend Watts (R.I.P. 2017), the band was originally formed as a concert residency for a resort in Italy. They were spotted by Island Records band manager Guy Stevens, recruited Ian Hunter Patterson as vocalist/guitarist, changed name and recorded their self-titled 1971 album in a week.
Inspired by The Rolling Stones, The Kinks (an instrumental cover of "You Really Got Me" start things off), Cream and traditional/Blues Rock, the band is on fire right on this debut, which has dual guitar and blazing distortion not unlike Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple with more organ/keyboards. Because of lack of material, half of its four tracks are covers, done competently (Hunter, despite its "advanced" age, was a hell of a vocalist), but still not diverging dramatically from the originals. The original consist of fluffy, Bob Dylan-derived acoustic guitar balladry ("Backsliding Fearlessly", especially the vocal lines) and generic proto-metal, solo-heavy riffing ("Rock 'n' Roll Queen"), more boogie pentatonics ("Rabbit Foot and Toby Time") and a climatic, half-symphonic epic that's the only highlight ("Half Moon Bay"). Production is top-notch for the year of its release (drums sound soft due to lack of microphones, though).
With the exception of the lone, great highlight, the album may interest mostly vintage-obsessed listeners, more than anything else. Better starting with other releases.
Highlights: "At the Crossroads", "Half Moon Bay".
Inspired by The Rolling Stones, The Kinks (an instrumental cover of "You Really Got Me" start things off), Cream and traditional/Blues Rock, the band is on fire right on this debut, which has dual guitar and blazing distortion not unlike Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple with more organ/keyboards. Because of lack of material, half of its four tracks are covers, done competently (Hunter, despite its "advanced" age, was a hell of a vocalist), but still not diverging dramatically from the originals. The original consist of fluffy, Bob Dylan-derived acoustic guitar balladry ("Backsliding Fearlessly", especially the vocal lines) and generic proto-metal, solo-heavy riffing ("Rock 'n' Roll Queen"), more boogie pentatonics ("Rabbit Foot and Toby Time") and a climatic, half-symphonic epic that's the only highlight ("Half Moon Bay"). Production is top-notch for the year of its release (drums sound soft due to lack of microphones, though).
With the exception of the lone, great highlight, the album may interest mostly vintage-obsessed listeners, more than anything else. Better starting with other releases.
Highlights: "At the Crossroads", "Half Moon Bay".
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