Track Listing

1. Words (Big Mouth)
2. Fuss About Nothin'
3. When The World Was Round
4. Brainwashed
5. Shrunken Heads
6. Soul Of America
7. How's Your House
8. Guiding Light
9. Stretch
10. I Am What I Hated When I Was Young
11. Read 'Em 'N' Weep

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43834 in Music
• Released on: 2007-05-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .12 pounds

Customer Reviews

A truly great and underated British rock star
Ian Hunter was a key part of seventies rock music in this country. With Mott The Hoople, he had a good half a dozen hits plus released some great albums. However, his solo material lifted the game significantly. 'All American Alien Boy' - to this day - is still one of the best rock albums of the past 30 years or so. His voice is distinctive, he means what he sings, he writes great rock songs and even better ballads (the sign of a truly great rock artist). This new album is consistently superb. The opening track 'Words' and the next few tracks are acoustic-based but he soon gets into his stride with tracks like 'Stretch'. The closing track 'Read 'Em 'n' Weep' is a great Hunter ballad. If you liked Mott and you love pure unadulterated rock you can't do much better. The guy means it from his heart all the way through. This album should sell hundreds of thousands but sadly it probably won't. Ian - you are an English treasure along with the likes of Paul Weller and Ray Davies. Thanks Mate.

Shrunken Heads, growing legacy...
There are some things in life you can depend upon, Bank holiday weather, politicians fibs and television's dependancy on promoting mediocraty but amongst all the gruel that the "music industry" pumps out into a trend greedy world there are a few strong strands of quality and Ian Hunter is one of the longest running of those strong threads, In truth this album could be placed anywhere in his carefully wrung out proccesion of angst and joy, it reminds me in parts (Big Mouth, Brainwashed, How's your house) of his first solo effort and sometimes it reminds me of "All american alien boy" (Fuss about nothin' and the excellent When the world was round), but this is more to the albums credit than a critisism, it's that sharp critical, mocking set of shaded eyes that we need to see through to get the full depth of what's being pointed at, Hunter has always strove to be good and according to him been found wanting but what he does in that striving is often to find himself being great and I mean great at a genius level, the lyrical perception of "When the world was round" and "Brainwashed" is so far ahead of what passes for songwriting today that the comparison can only be made with Dylan at his best and Van Morrison at his most melancholic as to "Shrunken heads" and "Soul of America" this is beyond simple songwriting it's political journalism, it's a documentary that a fat man in a baseball cap would be proud of...too important to ignore and all too likely to pass unoticed, next time you're watching "Later with Jools" and they ship out the usual mix of trendy guitar wangers and tired old "legends" ask yourself when was the last time you saw and heard something that made you smile with it's charm and think about it's content? Ian Hunter? Long may he rant!

Excellent!
I've been listening to Ian's music for almost 30 years, and his songwriting skills and showmanship never fails. Shrunken Heads in another quality item in the Hunter canon; literate, political and self-scrutinizing.

The strongest here is the title track. It's a very melodic attack on how money influence american politics; shrunken heads beeing pictures of president's heads on the dollar bills.

When the World was Round is another masterpiece - this time a very informed stab at globalization.

In Words and I Am What I Hated When I Was Young it's himself who gets the treatment. The bluegrass-like arrangement in the latter deviates a lot from the rest here, but it's a very fun song.

And it doesn't stop there. The rest is almost as good!