Track Listing

1. Great Escape, The
2. Arms And Legs
3. Up And Running
4. Man Overboard
5. Babylon Blues
6. Girl From The Office
7. Flowers
8. These Feelings
9. Win It All
10. Way With Words
11. River Of Tears

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29333 in Music
• Released on: 2009-07-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .14 pounds

CD Description
Ian Hunter sounded younger than his years on 2007's SHRUNKEN HEADS, but on its 2009 sequel, he shows signs of age in his weathered rasp as well as the album's slower tempos and greater emphasis on ragged acoustic arrangement. Older doesn'tnecessarily mean any less vigorous, though, at least not inHunter's case. He writes and sings like a man who thinks hemight have seen it all but isn't quite sure, so he keeps going, turning out tunes that feel familiar in form but fresh in substance. Since it doesn't rock furiously, it's easier to appreciate his songcraft and how deeply felt the performances are, whether Hunter is nimbly leading his band of pros through the country-rock ramble of "The Great Escape", cranking up the boogie on "Up and Running", writes a rock & roll love song as funny and knowing as "The Girl from the Office",or turning in another finely honed bittersweet epic on the closer, "River of Tears". Nothing here is flashy, which is keeping in a long tradition of Hunter's and is yet another reason why he's often called underrated, but when he's making records as rich and resonant as this at the age of 70, it's hard not to listen with not a small degree of wonder.

Customer Reviews

Way With Words
Mr Untah! follows up 2007's Shrunken Heads with another fine collection of more laid back songs.Ian Hunter is now 70 years of age which makes this album remarkable the words are fantastic how about this "They got lasers that zap,they got cures for the clap,you can see your insides on TV,they got all kinds of pills for all kinds of ill's,but they ain't got a cure for me" from the title track.BRILLIANT STUFF.
There are are wonderful story songs such as The Great Escape and Girl From The Office full of humour and great little choruses, a terrific rocker in Up And Running."People making money out of other's misery" Hunter spit's out the lyric (he can't be 70 can he?)in disgust.I personally love the song Flowers which is beautifully sung and very catchy which has great words again "Top 2 per cent out of touch" later in the same song "Everyman killed is an insult to faith"this is super stuff indeed.The song Way With Words is a georgous love song to his wife written and sung in a way only Ian Hunter can, totally unique and quite beautiful as is the final song on the album River Of Tears.
This is a fine album and needs to be listened to a few times to fully appreciate the quality of the songs i found myself being moved and quietly chuckling at other times.

Refreshing
Ian Hunter is really amazing, I have been rocking along to his music since I was school in the 70s and it is as good now as it was then. Here then is a new offering from Ian and all I can say is that it is refreshingly different. It is not what we have come to expect from Ian Hunter, more laid back and melancholy, but all the same I liked it on first listen, it will definitely grow on me. The tracks 'The Great Escape' and 'Girl from the Office' are almost rock ballads, but great tracks all the same. An excellent new album, keep on rocking!

Nott The Hoople
Great cover but is the music any good.
The voice is a bit more throaty than usual but still sounds a lot younger than you'd expect. It took me a while to get into the Shrunken Heads album but I now rate that album highly. This one is more instant, (perhaps safe), but great fun non the less. River Of Tears has a similar sound to Bob Seger on Against The Wind and at this point, having only played the album a couple of times, is the stand-out track for me.
Ian Hunter fans will love the album and if he was a younger artist nearer the start of his career it would probably win some new followers.
He's still got more to offer than most singers from the glam rock era. I still remember a Mott The Hoople concert back in 1972 where Ian prophesised, after watching The Sweet perform Little Willy on Top Of The Pops, that only Bowie would survive the aftermath of Glam & Glitter. He was almost right but forgot to include himself.
The up-coming Mott The Hoople concerts will hopefully encourage a new studio album and with the help of Mick Ralphs and Verden Allen a classic album would almost certainly be within reach because Ian still has what it takes.
So is the music any good? Yes it's great and I look forward to living with this one.