it\u2019s a corker<\/a>, lit up by Hunter\u2019s characteristically fiery and clever songwriting, with the unique addition of a rotating all-star cast of performers backing him on song after song. Part 2<\/i> pulls off the same trick in the sense that Hunter and York succeed in splicing together remotely-recorded performances by an abundance of notable guests without ever losing the thread of the album. All of these tunes clearly inhabit the same sonic universe\u2014that same boffo-bar-band universe that Hunter first championed with Mott\u2014but it also feels like the glue holding these albums together is Hunter\u2019s distinctive presence. These are Ian Hunter songs because he wrote them, sang them and lived them, and every player on the album pays due respect, playing to the song and the singer, rather than indulging in any sort of \u201cHey-look-at-me\u201d shenanigans.<\/p>\nOpener \u201cPeople\u201d kicks things off in stirring fashion with a wordless \u201cNah-nah-nah\u201d chant cueing up a big, loose sing-along of an anthem. Of course, because it\u2019s Hunter, it\u2019s an anthem that\u2019s actually about something: the bane of every thinking artist\u2019s existence, marketing. \u201cWe know what people want\u201d goes a repeated chant, answered back with \u201cNo, you don\u2019t \/ No, you don\u2019t \/ No, you don\u2019t \/ You\u2019re just giving us the finger.\u201d Hunter is backed on this track by three-quarters of Cheap Trick, with old pal Joe Elliott of Def Leppard on background vocals.<\/p>\n
Both of the first two songs are about the illusions that surround us, that we live inside of and need to throw off. Title track \u201cFiction\u201d opens with Hunter singing \u201cI am your fiction man \/ I manufactured me\u201d over pulsing piano, with bass and drums providing a steady push. It\u2019s a classic Hunter rant, sung from the perspective of an unnamed figure who has invented their own legend and props it up with a constant stream of lies. \u201cYou are my congregation\u2026 Any reason to believe is all you need \/ So you believe in fiction\u201d he sings, and while there\u2019s an abundance of charlatans loose in America on any given day, his main target feels as obvious as a bright red baseball cap. <\/p>\n
Batting third, \u201cThe 3rd Rail\u201d offers a gently rolling ballad with typically incisive lyrics about an infamous subway-station incident and subtle, expressive guitar work by the late Jeff Beck. In spite of the darkness of the lyric, there\u2019s a warmth to the song that feels unmistakably Ian Hunter. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis Ain\u2019t Rock and Roll\u201d is a song Hunter has written a dozen times already and seems to do it better every time. \u201cThey don\u2019t make them like that anymore \/ This ain\u2019t rock\u2019n\u2019roll,\u201d the eighty-something road warrior rants over York\u2019s loping guitar, leading into this Hunter classic couplet: \u201cSome flew out of the cuckoo’s nest \/ And some flew out of the Fillmore West.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
The sequencing is, as usual, spot-on, with the pleasantly sassy \u201cPrecious\u201d delivering pure fun with an assist from the great Brian May, Hunter\u2019s mate from the very beginning, when Queen used to open for Mott The Hoople. \u201cWeed\u201d finds the master of derision unimpressed with over-indulging potheads, delivering a screed backed by three-fifths of Stone Temple Pilots. \u201cKettle Of Fish\u201d shakes us awake again with a booming snare and bassline under jabbing guitars, an atmospheric rant again featuring three-quarters of Cheap Trick, this time with the late Taylor Hawkins on drums. <\/p>\n
Track eight must mean it\u2019s time for another lyrical, bluesy ballad, and Hunter delivers once again. \u201cWhat Would I Do Without You?\u201d rides Hunter\u2019s own rolling piano on a song of devotion that seems clearly directed to his wife Trudi. The irascible rabble rouser can also be a sentimental softie, and Hunter\u2019s lyrics on this duet with Lucinda Williams are sweet and endearing right up until the point where he finally winks at the camera with: \u201cI\u2019m gonna stop now \u2019cause I\u2019m making you cringe.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hunter\u2019s real secret\u2014besides great songwriting and good friends\u2014is that regardless of whether it\u2019s a kickoff anthem or a down-list goof, he sings every line like he means it. \u201cEverybody\u2019s Crazy But Me\u201d is both a growly boogie rocker and an epic octegenarian rant, graced by a lyrical Waddy Wachtel guitar solo. Finally, closer \u201cHope\u201d is a typically philosophical Hunter ballad: <\/p>\n
\nI’m well aware that life ain’t fair
You see it all the time
I’ve seen smiles in poverty
And tears in the finest wines<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The song appears to have grown out of the lockdown experience (\u201cWhen every day’s an identical day \/ And every night goes slow\u201d), and shifts at every chorus as Hunter intones: \u201cYou gotta have hope \/ You gotta have hope \/ Hope is all you need to get you through.\u201d There\u2019s a nice swell as it builds and finishes in a tight 3:39.<\/p>\n
Other performers on these star-studded tracks include: Dane Clark (John Mellancamp, John Prine), Morgan Fisher (Mott The Hoople), Phil Collen (Def Leppard), Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers), Tommy Mandel (Byan Adams, Dire Straits), Johnny Depp, Billy Bob Thornton, and Hunter\u2019s own Rant Band (Steve Holley, Paul Page, Dennis Dibrizzi and James Mastro).<\/p>\n
The thing about Ian Hunter\u2014one of them anyway\u2014is that he is piercingly self-aware. He knows he\u2019s a songwriter and performer and always will be, and he recognizes that he\u2019s fighting the clock, making albums in his 80s, in the middle of a pandemic, while battling tinnitus. It doesn\u2019t feel the least coincidental that the final track on this album is titled \u201cHope,\u201d because that single word encapsulates everything that went into making these two albums. You hope you\u2019ll get to finish them, and hope there may be more beyond, while understanding that tomorrow is never guaranteed.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also clear Ian Hunter has this whole aging-rock-and-roller gig nailed. Retirement is out of the question; songwriting and singing is who he is and what he does. Rock and roll is about rebellion, and who\u2019s more rebellious than a cranky old man with a microphone in his hand? But Ian Hunter isn\u2019t telling you to get off his lawn\u2014he\u2019s telling us all to get off our asses and shake \u2019em while we\u2019ve got \u2019em.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5920],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46898","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ian-hunter","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46898","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=46898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51862,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46898\/revisions\/51862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46898"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46898"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}