I began listening to Mott the Hoople in late June 2022. Though I went into this band pretty optimistically, I was mostly unenthusiastic about their music, mostly because I wasn't very fond of Ian Hunter's singing but also because I don't really like glam rock.
Mott the Hoople (1969): B-
Mad Shadows (1970): C
Wildlife (1971): C+
Brain Capers (1971): B-
All the Young Dudes (1972): B
Mott (1973): B
The Hoople (1974): C
Mott the Hoople (1969):
While this band's attempt to combine the hard rock of the Stones and the singing/lyricism of Bob Dylan passes pleasantly on occasion, Mott the Hoople desperately lack songwriting chops. Most of it comes down to stale melodies but it's also such a strong Dylan influence that sets up the band's newest addition and lyricist Ian Hunter for failure. Lead guitarist Mike Ralphs cuts it throughout and with a strong pianist and organist, this band has what it takes to become powerful and versatile rockers but the only time this album truly ever works is on the covers. B-
Mad Shadows (1970):
If the lead-off track shows all the potential this murky direction has and more--seriously, it's one of the best unknown rock songs of the early 1970s--the rest of the album dropped out of the third grade to become a full time drug addict. I like Ian Hunter--he has scratchy voice, he's a bit unsure of himself, and he likes Bob Dylan--but at the moment I still don't know who he is, his bandmates still don't know who he is, he still doesn't know who he is. If even one of those is true, he has no shot navigating and landing three heart-throbbing piano ballads. If all of those are true and there's an entire verse of lines like "what was once clean is now unclean/What was once straight is now unstraight," you have some of the most disastrous recordings of the early 70s. Fortunately, the rockers are okay, but the band has lost most of their Stones influence and the songs don't compare to the opener in any world. C
Wildlife (1971):
Country rock is always hard for British bands to pull off and like I expected, this is just okay. Hunter and Ralphs nail the lazy harmonies of the genre on "Angel of Eighth Avenue" and the pedal steel on "It Must Be Love" is excellent, but other than that, there's not much of a standout track, more of a pleasant mix of fairly forgettable experiments. Hunter is making some progress but I still find his leadership lackluster. C+
Brain Capers (1971):
Their songwriting still isn't really where I want it to be--this time it's not that Hunter screws up the songs that require emotion, it's just that "Second Love" and the rest of side two is mostly indistinct--and though I like the rocking songs, the strange organ effect on the opener sounds worse than a failing motor. Once again, I find the two best songs to be covers and though I'm mostly happy with the improvement, this feels like a small step forward that should have happened by their sophomore album, not their fourth time around. B-
All the Young Dudes (1972):
Though I love the Ralphs-sung "I'm Ready for Love" more than any Hoople song so far, I only find the smash hit title track to be slightly good. I don't like when Bowie makes such a significance stamp on albums he produces--remember that Lou Reed album?--and I’m not one of the young dudes, I’m at home with my Beatles and my Stones. Nevertheless, the sound on this record is great and listening closely to the instrumentation, I'm convinced this is a skillful outfit that has come into their own. Which gets to me why I find this glam classic so underwhelming: though I've long expected to come around to Ian Hunter, I think it's time to accept that I don't and will never like his voice that much. B
Mott (1973):
I still don't care for Hunter's singing but it's easier to focus on positives here because their songwriting and playing peaks. While my favorite song will once again go to the track Ralphs sings, there are several other good cuts including "All the Way from Memphis," "Whizz Kid," "Hymn for the Dudes," and "Ballad of Mott the Hoople." Maybe I'll pick it up again if I ever need to make sure I wasn't wrong about this band. B
The Hoople (1974):
For this first time in a while, I'm confident in my feeling on one of their records. Delving further into glam rock, huh? Careful, at the end of the tunnel is whatever world Queen is on and the two bands' idea of what makes good rock’n’roll is getting more undifferentiable every time I blink. C
