When you\u2019ve had as many collections and live albums of your work issued as Ian Hunter has, the measure of another quickly becomes, \u201cis there anything new or unusual or special here that separates this one from the pack?\u201d<\/p>\n
In the case of Strings Attached<\/i>, the answer is an unequivocal \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, you might think that would be because he\u2019s playing with an orchestra, in Oslo, Norway — but that\u2019s merely stating the obvious.\u00a0 There\u2019s as much that\u2019s familiar about the logistical end of things — for example, a core band of Norwegian session players that includes several featured on Hunter\u2019s 1996 album The Artful Dodger<\/i> \u2013 as there is that\u2019s different.<\/p>\n
No, what\u2019s unique enough about this album to make it essential is the tracklist.\u00a0 For while there are some trusty nuggets for sure \u2013 what would an IH show be without a run at \u201cAll The Way From Memphis\u201d or \u201cOnce Bitten Twice Shy\u201d? \u2013 the setlist from this show is riddled with surprises from the very start.<\/p>\n
After all, it\u2019s probably been several decades (if ever) since Hunter opened a show with the solemn ballad \u201cRest In Peace,\u201d a fairly obscure b-side relic from his Mott The Hoople days.\u00a0 The strings add some nice flourishes to it, but perhaps a better measure of the uniqueness of this disc is what follows.\u00a0 In its original 1983 incarnation, Hunter\u2019s \u201cAll Of The Good Ones Are Taken\u201d was an over-produced, overly-slick and rather tiresome pop trifle.\u00a0 With all the 80s excess stripped away and the song laid bare with just acoustic instruments and a restrained, tasteful string arrangement, \u201cAll\u201d is suddenly revealed as a beautifully wistful piece of self-reflection.<\/p>\n
Various Mott and Hunter classics (\u201cI Wish I Was Your Mother,\u201d \u201cBoy,\u201d \u201cAll The Young Dudes,\u201d \u201cShips,\u201d \u201cRoll Away The Stone\u201d) get handsome airings, but you also get rare one-offs such as Hunter\u2019s typically brilliant take on 9\/11, \u201cTwisted Steel,\u201d which he introduces with classic Liverpudlian deadpan: \u201cI\u2019m looking at this (his wife losing her cousin at the World Trade Center) and \u2013 people write songs about this?\u00a0 It was just beyond me, it was beyond songwriting, it was hopeless, it was just totally absurd \u2013 [pause for effect] — so I wrote a song about it.\u201d\u00a0 And what a song.\u00a0 Bruce Springsteen, for all his passion and sincerity, never wrote a song that gets as close to the heart of what 9\/11 was and meant and felt like as \u201cTwisted Steel\u201d does.<\/p>\n
Less notable but equally rare at the time were the somber Mott ballad \u201cWaterlow,\u201d the steady-rocking \u201cRollerball\u201d and the old-school cover \u201cA Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square.\u201d\u00a0 Introducing the latter, Hunter head-fakes the crowd with a story about how the producer encouraged him to include some covers and Dylan\u2019s name naturally came up.\u00a0 At which point Hunter went a completely different direction\u2026 that\u2019s IH for you.<\/p>\n
The autobiographical rocker \u201c23A Swan Hill\u201d gets a forceful airing with the strings only embellishing the majesty of the song, as they do also to the quieter counterpart \u201cIrene Wilde\u201d (which, much like on Welcome To The Club<\/i>, is marred by a few morons in the crowd who can\u2019t manage to shut their yaps in the quiet sections\u2026 grow some manners, would you please?!).\u00a0 The one that brings down the house, though, is Hunter\u2019s tribute to fallen brother-in-arms Mick Ronson.\u00a0 As exquisite as \u201cMichael Picasso\u201d was in its acoustic-and-vocals-only studio version on The Artful Dodger<\/i>, with strings adding a billowing emotionality to the song as it\u2019s played in front of a reverent and (finally) silent audience, it\u2019s just shatteringly gorgeous, especially the unexpectedly dramatic bridge\/solo section and the closing verse and chorus which follows.<\/p>\n
Another nice touch comes when Hunter closes things out with Mott\u2019s final 1974 single \u201cSaturday Gigs,\u201d a terrific song that\u2019s received far too few airings over the years and sounds as grand and melancholy and essential as it ever has.\u00a0 It\u2019s a beautiful epilogue to a beautiful evening\u2019s worth of music that puts the spotlight on the melodic core \u2013 and even moreso, the bracing honesty and integrity \u2013 of Hunter\u2019s songs.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve always wanted to hear a rock artist play with an orchestra and do it right, really make it into something special and surprise you with his\/her\/their choices, you should do yourself a favor and pick up Strings Attached<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5920],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41488","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ian-hunter","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41488"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}