Brain Capers

Brain Capers is the fourth album by the band Mott the Hoople. It was originally released in November 1971 in the UK by Island Records (catalogue number ILPS 9178) and was reissued in 2003 by Angel Air (cat. no. SJPCD160). It was released in the US on Atlantic Records (cat. no. SD 8304) in January 1972. The album marked a return to the harder, heavier style of Mott's first two albums, with several songs recorded live in the studio. (A close listen to "The Moon Upstairs," for example, will reveal two instances where Dale Griffin's drumsticks clatter to the floor upon his losing them.) The album was not initially a commercial success, and was the only Mott the Hoople album that failed to chart in either the UK or US. Its working title was "AC/DC" though this was abandoned in favour of either "Brain Damage" or "Bizarre Capers" before a compromise was settled on. Earlier sessions, self-produced by the band, were also abandoned when svengali Guy Stevens was called in to rescue the album but a number of these recordings have resurfaced on All the Young Dudes: The Anthology and as bonus material on Angel Air's re-issues of Mott the Hoople albums.