[9] Ant explained that the idea behind the album's title was that the Blueblack Hussar was his classic Kings of the Wild Frontier-era persona, back from the dead, while the phrase "marrying the gunner's daughter" (an old naval term for a form of corporal punishment in which sailors were tied to a ship's cannon and flogged) was intended by Ant as a metaphor for how he believes artists are treated by the music industry.

This was planned to have collaborations with McCormack, Pirroni, a member of Oasis (later identified as Andy Bell)[12] and Morrissey's writing partner Boz Boorer.

[14] The track which Ant and McCormack were reported to have worked on with the Beady Eye member Andy Bell was titled "Cool Zombie".

Bell also gave further insight into the origins of the song, explaining that he and Ant have "a mutual friend who I had played around on a track with who then passed the music over to Adam without my knowledge.

"[15] Ant eventually rerecorded the song for the final release with two members of his live band, guitarist Tom Edwards and drummer Andy Woodard.

In early 2011, in preparation for a cover feature for issue 2 of Vive Le Rock magazine, Ant granted journalist John Robb an exclusive listen to the entire work-in-progress for the upcoming album.

She confirmed that the track – which had previously been announced as an album track and single before eventually becoming the B-side to Cool Zombie, and which concerned the Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row of which she had been an injured party – was a different song from "Rubber Medusa" (concerning Brand and mentioning his later partner Katy Perry) which she and her band the Poussez Posse had been performing live in support slots for Ant's tours.

A video for the single "Cool Zombie" was filmed on 28 October, with NME running a competition offering readers a chance to be an extra in the shoot.

Also cast as costumed extras in the video were several security staff, combining their performances with their normal duties following the unwanted attentions of a fan who had threatened to turn up on location.

They concluded that the album's charm is "in its mess" and that Ant "has never sounded this ambitious and arty since the days of Dirk Wears White Socks [sic] and Kings of the Wild Frontier".

[24] John Robb on the music website Louder Than War also gave the album strong praise saying, "It's rare at this stage of the game that anyone can be arsed to be as non-compromising as this let alone remember the creative power of following your own instinct."

[23] Longtime Ant fan (and Cool Zombie video extra) Simon Price praised the album in his review in The Independent, giving it four out of five stars.

"[25] Q magazine's David Quantick gave the album cautious praise, awarding it three out of five stars and describing it as "full of spit and vinaigrette.

"At 68 minutes, it's a sprawling mess, a stream of consciousness featuring tributes to Malcolm McLaren, Vivienne Westwood and rocker Vince Taylor, and the percussive thrill of Antmusic on Bullshit.

It's a scrappy, unfocused album, and too long at 17 tracks, but it does reveal the life force beating away inside a fascinating, original, troubled man.

He described the LP as "a rickety but entertaining mix of the best elements of his imperial period: tribal glam stomps, razor-slashed T.Rex guitars, two-drummer Glitter beats, knowing homages to cult icons (Vince Taylor and Vivienne Westwood) and sex ... 'Dirty Beast' offers a sweeter, poppier Ant than the glam-punk of yore.

"[30] In the Metro, John Lewis was similarly sceptical, awarding two stars out of five and calling it a "patchy comeback album that often sounds like an unfinished, unmixed demo...

In an October 2012 Pollstar interview, Ant announced that the song "Cool Zombie" would be released as a 7" vinyl with "Gun in Your Pocket" as the B-side.

[35] "Vince Taylor" and "Stay in the Game" were used as the opening and closing themes for The Blueblack Hussar, a documentary about Ant's comeback during 2010–2011, directed by Jack Bond.