I should really like this record, and I do like a few songs. Especially "Roll Away The Stone", which was lovely. Anyway, "Ariel Bender" a.k.a. Luther Grosvenor who played guitar in Spooky Tooth was picked to play guitar on this record, but you barely hear him on this one. It's mostly Ian Hunter and a LOT of bombast. It's fun at times but gets to be a bit much, and often I find myself skipping to the bonus tracks like "Saturday's Gigs". After this, Hunter left the band and they continued as "Mott" for two ill-selling but decent records.

The last Mott record with Mick Ralphs in the lineup was by far and away their best simply because it gave roughly equal ground to the two main talents of the group at the peak of their powers. You've got all these great quirky/moody Ian Hunter-led ballads about leading life in a rock band contrasting with great humorous glam-pop rock songs about leading life in a rock band! And probably some other stuff, too, but this was Mott the Hoople in a freaking nutshell. This was a great goddamn party record and seriously rips the pants off a bunch of similarly styled records from that era, and oh by the way, inspired a ton more like it.

Up to this point of their career, the oft-maligned and oddly-named Mott The Hoople had knocked out four uneven records without much success. On the verge of a breakup, David Bowie – who was a fan – offered them the stately glam rock anthem "All The Young Dudes" - and the rest was history...except that there was a whole other record of tracks under the same title that was rather in line with Mott's aesthetic and fit snugly with the then-burgeoning glam rock movement. This was/is a pretty damn fine record, with an excellent choice of cover ("Sweet Jane") meeting up with some thick and heavy original band material. Remember the Bad Company track "Ready for Love"? You'll find it here in its' original form as "Ready for Love/After Lights" and I'd argue it's in better condition. "One of The Boys" was another notable track – in fact, with the glut of glam rockers around it makes ballads like "Sea Diver" seem a bit trite in comparison. All in all, easily the best Mott record to this point.

Much more intensity here, and in fact, the music kind of resembles the stuff that would be heard as soon as the next record. But there's still remnants of old habits like odd covers and Hunter's style of balladeering which wasn't quite at the level of the classic glam rock period. Overall, it's a good primer for what was to come.

This was mellower Mott, for sure, delving into country and roots rock realms, without much consequence. The lone exception was the last track – a live extended cover of Little Richard's "Keep a Knockin" which showed just how much fire and brimstone Mott could put across to anyone anywhere. Too bad to this point they displayed it in spurts only.