CD: Ian Hunter: Man Overboard

Can you believe that “All the Young Dudes” crooner Ian Hunter is 70 years old? Kinda shocking if you remember him with his white-boy ‘fro, tight jeans, and trademark shades fronting the proto-punk outfit Mott the Hoople during the 1960’s and 1970’s. But here’s the good news: on his latest solo outing, Hunter is a still-virile presence, singing with more force and feeling than vocalists half his age.

Hunter doesn’t rock quite as hard as he did on 2007’s “Shrunken Heads,” but he’s lost none of his outrage over the treatment of wage slaves in corporate America. Both “Up and Running” and “Man Overboard” – two of the CD’s strongest songs – are fueled by a bracing class fury. “I’m losing my mind in the great left behind/I got to get myself out of here,” he wails on the title track.

Ian Hunter, still looking and sounding good long after his Mott the Hoople days.

“Man Overboard” isn’t a preachy album. Hunter is world-weary and wise but he never gets on a soapbox; he’s much too smart for that. In fact, he sets the tone for the album with the opening number, a freewheeling bit of blarney called “The Great Escape.” Full of twists and turns, the autobiographical gambol celebrates Hunter’s ability to hit the road in the face of trouble, “especially when the other guy’s bigger than you!”

Ian Hunter.

Sounding a bit like Bob Dylan fronting the Rolling Stones, Hunter alternates between ragged rockers and old-school piano ballads. He rides a blanket of drums on “These Feelings,” a lovely valentine to a decades-long love affair, and goes power pop on “The Girl from the Office,” an ode to a cubicle cutie. In the end, “Man Overboard” is the blissful sound of a veteran rocker with nothing left to prove.

Release date: 7/21/09

Official Site: www.ianhunter.com

[Amy Longsdorf’s entertainment coverage has appeared in “Blender,” “People,” the “Chicago Tribune,” the “Toronto Star,” and “Newsday.” She doesn’t want to imagine a world without Preston Sturges movies, Stax singles, and the music of Bob Marley.]