Additional information
Mott The Hoople: Ian Hunter (vocals, piano); Mick Ralphs (vocals, guitar); Verden Allen (organ, percussion, background vocals); Overend Watts (bass, background vocals); Dale Griffin (drums). Mott The Hoople: Ian Hunter (vocals, piano); Mick Ralphs (vocals, guitar); Verden Allen (organ, percussion, background vocals); Overend Watts (bass, background vocals); Dale Griffin (drums). Personnel: Mick Ralphs (vocals, guitar); Ian Hunter (vocals); Verden Allen (organ, percussion, background vocals); Pete "Overend" Watts (bass guitar, background vocals). Audio Remasterer: Gareth Williams. Recording information: Island Studio Two. Though it predates the the group's breakthrough 1972 hit "All the Young Dudes" by a year, Mott the Hoople's BRAIN CAPERS is easily the band's best and most consistent album. Mott's first two records, MOTT THE HOOPLE and WILDLIFE, were uneven affairs that found the quintet scrambling to find a signature sound, but BRAIN CAPERS has a confidence and vitality missing from those. Producer Guy Stevens gives the album a multilayered hard-pop sound akin to contemporaneous efforts by the Pretty Things, and singer-pianist Ian Hunter's songwriting has grown exponentially. Any album that opens and closes with songs titled "Death May Be Your Santa Claus" and "The Wheel of the Quivering Meat Conception" requires attention, and the band's usual oddball covers--Dion's anti-drug anthem "Your Own Backyard" and a harrowing version of the Youngbloods' "Darkness Darkness"--sound more integrated than before. BRAIN CAPERS is a lost hard-rock classic.
