If the rock and roll that's come over from Britain in the last few eons has left you feeling a trifle jaded at the same time that it has compelled you to nod your head and tiredly concede, 'Well, it's not that they're not good musically', what you need is a large dose of Mott the Hoople, who, unlike so many of their countrymen, are capable of having and evoking fun at the same time that they're being indisputably competent.
When they're not imitating the HIGHWAY 61-vintage Dylan (as on 'Half Moon Bay'), Hoople's rock-and-rolling themselves crimson ('Rock and Roll Queen,' 'You Really Got Me', and 'Wrath and Wroll'). Is it possible to think of a group willing to perform as extended and perfectly serious a version of Sonny Bono's 'Laugh At Me' and make it anything less than hideously refreshing? Their album, MOTT THE HOOPLE, is on Atlantic (8258).