Ian Hunter continues to rock against the dying of the light. Now 85 years old and still wearing his rock’n’roll attitude like a battered badge of honour, the ex-Mott The Hoople frontman casts a weathered eye over the madness that surrounds him. ‘Am I the last man standing? Seriously…’ he barks on “Everybody’s Crazy But Me”, a pounding, Stones-ish rocker that provides the perfect framework for his eternally delinquent voice.
Surrounded for the second time by a cast of legends, including the late Jeff Beck and Taylor Hawkins, Hunter vents his spleen with heroic disdain on tracks including “Fiction”, “Kettle Of Fish” and “Weed” – ‘Humans are stupid, expensive to breed, so let them smoke weed’. But then, accompanied by Lucinda Williams, he dives into “What Would I Do Without You”, a plain-spoken love song full of tender emotional riches. He’s still the ultimate dude – young or old.
The second act to Hunter’s 2023 album “Defiance Part 1” once again finds him collaborating with his many disciples and friends: Queen’s Brian May, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, Johnny Depp, and the late Jeff Beck and Taylor Hawkins, among them. At 84, the former Mott the Hoople frontman isn’t out to change the rulebook: “Defiance Part 2: Fiction” continues along the path Hunter has charted since the late ’60s with brimming confidence.
DEFIANCE PART 2: FICTION. AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE NOW.
The Fat Angel Sings 