Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter

Mott The Hoople CD: "The Very Best of Mott The Hoople"

Sleeve and track listing

Columbia 88697597322 (4 stars!)

  1. All The Way From Memphis
  2. Honaloochie Boogie
  3. The Golden Age of Rock n Roll
  4. Roll Away The Stone
  5. Foxy Foxy
  6. Saturday Gigs
  7. Rock And Roll Queen
  8. Walkin' With a Mountain
  9. Waterlow
  10. Midnight Lady
  11. The Moon Upstairs
  12. One Of The Boys
  13. Jerkin' Crocus
  14. Sea Diver
  15. I Wish I Was Your Mother
  16. Marionette
  17. Crash Street Kidds
  18. Hymn For The Dudes
  19. The Ballad of Mott The Hoople
  20. All The Young Dudes

Review

Do we need another Mott The Hoople compilation? It seems one or two get released a year, every time it seems there is a need to promote the Mott The Hoople name. It's not as if there haven't been any good compilations already...

The answer lies in the way music retailing works. Once an item has been stocked it seems stores won't restock regardless of how an item sold (unless you're a megastar like, say, Elton John). Repackage an item, however, give it a new title, juggle the tracks around and suddenly the stores are more likely to be interested. Hence this compilation, released to cash in on, er... I mean coincide with Mott's five-night run of reunion gigs at London's Hammersmith Apollo in 2009.

This is actually quite a good compilation. It's got all the hit singles on, some good album tracks and a small but fair selection of Island-era material (which normally gets overlooked on compilations like this). Hence One Of The Boys, All The Way From Memphis and Roll Away The Stone (and indeed Rock And Roll Queen) are the single versions rather than album versions.

Album tracks like Walkin' With a Mountain and The Moon Upstairs show that Mott could rock out with the best of them, while Waterlow and Ballad of Mott show a softer side. Marionette and Crash Street Kidds also show that the 1974-era Mott hadn't lost its edge.

All the hits, good album tracks, no filler, excellent sound quality as well as good sleeve-notes. I can't fault it. If you're looking for an introduction to Mott The Hoople, this would be a good place to start.