Stevens, the group's initial mentor and guide, wanted to create an album that would suggest Bob Dylan singing with the Rolling Stones.

Years later, vocalist Ian Hunter - who had only just joined the band prior to Mott the Hoople's recording and had yet to play live with them - would insinuate, in an August 1980 Trouser Press magazine interview, that the Stones' 1971 track "Bitch" bore more than a passing resemblance to this album's "Rock and Roll Queen.

[5] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, gives the album four stars out of five and states:Up to this point, Mott the Hoople is wildly imaginative and invigorating, and that's enough to make this a fine debut, even if it falls off the tracks during the second side.

The first side and those two originals reveal a band whose rowdy power is matched by sly humor, clever twists, and fierce intelligence -- all qualities they built a career on, and this blueprint still stands the test of time.

[1]Robert Christgau however rates the album "C+" and states:Despite the hype, these guys strike me as an ordinary hard rock combo.