745 Mott the Hoople - Mott (1973)

 745 Mott the Hoople - Mott (1973)

Studio Album - Glam Rock



About the Act:

Mott the Hoople were an English Glam Rock/Hard Rock band. They existed from 1969 to 1980 and have had some brief reunions since 2000. After three years of mediocre performance, they nearly split up, but David Bowie heard about the possibility, and being a fan, stepped in, giving them the song "All the Young Dudes" and produced the album of the same name. This song and album brought them huge success.

About the Album:

This was their sixth studio album, and their follow-up to the successful "All The Young Dudes". It did moderately well.

My History with this Album:

None, I know the opening track All The Way from Memphis

Review:

Mott the Hoople, I know a few of their hits. I did actually review another of their albums a while ago but I had forgotten it.

What I expected was typical Glam Rock, full of Pop and nonsense, not necessarily in a bad way, but my knowledge of Glam is mostly from hits in the 70s. I was pleasantly surprised.

The music is kind of medium rock, pretty decent stuff, and I would enjoy it for its own sake. This is what you might expect of 1973, but not as dated as that statement might imply. The production is strong, clear and warm. There is strong variety from slower ballads to more up-beat stonks. There is a fair piano focus, but some interesting additions, nice to hear mandolin, violin, saxophone and so on. There are some really nice instrumental sections, and I particularly liked the acoustic guitar on track 8.

My pleasant surprise was that the songs are not just footling fluff. It's actually a really thoughtful album, with songs about being in a band, success and the craziness of the Rock World, a historical song, some slightly leftfield songs about girls, and the satirical "Violence". There are occasional sound clips which tend to go down well with me. It's a balanced album, well-composed. The blend and flow of ideas is good as is the blend and flow of music, so it has a feel of more than a somewhat random collection of songs, not a concept or even a themed album, just definitely having some craft in the thinking about how a listening experience is put together.

I listened twice, I really enjoyed it. It's going on my list for getting a permanent copy.

8/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3ApRy4edE6ZYi081aFpq4s

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz6cAheObZcjOgkrYwYw7ZMOXe0JI8_2Q

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mott_(album)



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