Reviewed by Tom Mott
Released: June 6 1980 British Lions Trouble With Women Genre: Rock Without Roll Rating: 3 out of 5 Highlights: Trouble with Women (Won't You Give Him) One More Chance Mott the Hoople begat Mott. Mott begat British Lions. In the process, they devolved from glam to pub rock to straight-ahead macho rock. British Lions opened for Status Quo, and they sound like it, which isn't a bad thing on its own. The title track is solid, off-kilter, kinda awesome: It starts with a great riff ... then unexpected bleep-blorps like a push button phone. And then, instead of howled or screeched vocals, a curiously soothing lead singer. It works, mostly. Worth a listen. Like Squeeze doing an outlier. The rest of the album is "not quite Foreigner" "not really Mott the Hoople" and "definitely not Slade." Middling RAWK. Almost every song clocks in over four minutes--making them all a minute too long. Still, listen to the first 30 seconds of Trouble With Women (it's track 2, after a radio promo) and you'll likely be rooting for them to make a better album than they did. And a plus one for leading me backwards to Medicine Head (UK early 70s), a band I knew nothing about. Jim "I hate the blues" Coursey won't like Medicine Head, but Chris Roberts may find some appeal there. Odd two-man, DIY, lo-fi blues who sound like they could've been playing in Silverlake in 2008. One of the two members is in British Lions with all the Mott fellas.
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