Walkin' With The Hoople

Performer: Mott the Hoople
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Mott the Hoople: Dale Buffin Griffin, Ian Hunter, Mick Ralphs, Overend Watts, Ariel Bender, Morgan Fisher, Verdin Allen. The title, of course, puns on one of Mott's best-loved early classics, and is just about lazy enough to warn you that Walkin' With the Hoople is decidedly not another in the series of classic exhumations that have kept collectors and completists so busy over the last few years. Rather, it follows the Recall label's customary path of licensing a grab bag of previously released material, and fashioning it into a whole "new" album -- in this case, a 20-song digest of the manifold live albums released via Angel Air, which themselves pursue the band throughout its concert career. It's an eccentric package. Arguably, Mott were at their purest during 1971-1972, but at their peak in 1974. Mixing the two eras together, however, with no regard for chronology or mood, really doesn't do anybody any favors, all the more so since the varying sound quality ensures that you spend more time fooling with the graphic equalizer than you do actually listening to the album. Still, anybody who has not yet plunged wholeheartedly into the Mott archive will at least find out what they're missing from this set -- and the answer is, they're missing a lot. ~ Dave Thompson

While most rock fans remember Mott The Hoople as a thriving early-'70s glam band, they were also one of the first British bands to serve as a mouthpiece for the working class (predating both The Sex Pistols and The Clash by several years). Led by singer Ian Hunter and future Bad Company guitarist Mick Ralphs, Mott could rock out and pose with the best of 'em.

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