{"id":890,"date":"2016-09-16T13:49:01","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T17:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=890"},"modified":"2016-11-08T23:51:40","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T04:51:40","slug":"new-release-roundup-ian-hunter-the-rant-band-the-handsome-family-the-upper-crust-and-the-grannies-hands-off-gretel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2016\/09\/16\/new-release-roundup-ian-hunter-the-rant-band-the-handsome-family-the-upper-crust-and-the-grannies-hands-off-gretel\/","title":{"rendered":"New Release Roundup: Ian Hunter & The Rant Band, The Handsome Family, The Upper Crust and The Grannies, Hands Off Gretel"},"content":{"rendered":"

MUSIC <\/strong>
\n1. Ian Hunter & The Rant Band<\/a> \u2013 Fingers Crossed<\/em>
\nRock and roll is alive and well and living in Ian Hunter. After nearly sixty years in music, he hasn\u2019t run out of stories, and he hasn\u2019t run out of hooks. And he\u2019s inarguably prolific \u2013 he\u2019s releasing a limited edition 30-disc boxed set called Stranded in Reality<\/em> this month that includes 17 original albums, nine discs of rarities and outtakes, and two DVDs covering 1975 to 2015. Hunter has developed his own distinct sound in his post-Mott the Hoople solo career without developing his own clich\u00e9s. There\u2019s an ineffable quality to it \u2013 you know it when you hear an Ian Hunter song. Frequently that involves loud, riffy guitars, but sometimes it\u2019s a pumped-up Dyln-esque folk. Or a gorgeous piano ballad. Sometimes he\u2019s singing about a broken heart, sometimes it\u2019s a winking tale of a noble rogue. It\u2019s not as trite as a formula, but there\u2019s a thread that stretches back to Hoople in everything he writes, right through his latest studio album, Fingers Crossed<\/em>. And he\u2019s not afraid to take on a big story or theme. \u201cBow Street Runners\u201d is a five-minute epic of a reluctant hero trying to keep London from falling into chaos. \u201cDandy\u201d is his tribute to his late friend David Bowie, who wrote Hoople\u2019s signature tune, \u201cAll the Young Dudes.\u201d These kinds of songs can get a bit maudlin if they\u2019re too on the nose, and he gets close with a couple of lyrics (\u201cYou turned us into heroes, can you hear the heroes sing?\u201d and a reference to life on Mars) without crossing the line. It\u2019s a heartfelt tune, and there\u2019s a bit of \u201cDudes\u201d in its DNA. \u201cDandy,\u201d he sings, \u201cyou blew us all away\/Out of the drab and the grey\/And then we caught the last bus home.\u201d The title track starts with a lilting piano line that submerges into the arrangement on the verses while still giving it a lift. There\u2019s a great emotion punch to the story, a man trying to escape the things he\u2019s had to do to survive. \u201cSo I make my confession with my fingers crossed,\u201d he sings. \u201cHang me high, hang me high, boys.\u201d He follows that up with a hilarious, rocking tune about a city couple moving to the country on \u201cWhite House,\u201d which includes great interlocking acoustic and electric guitar lines. \u201cWe got birds\/We got bees\/We got lots of allergies,\u201d he sings. When he sees the cute bunny rabbits playing in the forest, all he can think is that he wishes he had a gun. And somehow, a 77-year-old guy can still speak to the confusion of adolescence and sound poignant (\u201cStranded In Reality\u201d). Just part of the man\u2019s astounding timelessness.
\n