You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic (30th Anniversary Edition)

For his fourth and biggest-selling solo album, Ian Hunter again partnered with his former Mott the Hoople bandmate and David Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson and recorded with three members of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. (Early album sessions also included John Cale and ex–Sex Pistol Glen Matlock.) You get heady classics (“Just Another Night,” “Cleveland Rocks”), Mott-styled weepers (“Ships,” “Standin’ in My Light”), and a cockeyed, Lennon-esque look at love (“Bastard”). But the real gem is Hunter’s woefully overlooked “When the Daylight Comes,” a song of such tender longing it would’ve stood out on a great Bob Dylan album. Deeper tracks confirm Hunter to be a consummate rock balladeer of the '70s, if only for his ability to document sadness with manifest destiny (“a little less ego/a little more fight”). The album’s muscular mix is an early effort by Bob Clearmountain (Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Simple Minds) and goes lengths to fortify glam-dad Hunter’s storyteller rock ’n’ roll. The 30th-anniversary edition collects unreleased demos and series of tunes recorded live in Cleveland, London, and Berkeley, Calif.