The album highlight is "Prometheus," another band co-written track which mines Middle Eastern influences. This one has a style and panache too often missing from Hawkwind releases over the last fifteen years.
On the downside, the production leaves something to be desired, as it's far too muddy, especially on the largely unlistenable rerun of "You'd Better Believe It." But when the newish band are allowed to stretch out and investigate their potential on their own material, then it's very much a return to form.
Over on the live CD, you won't be surprised to learn that no recording details are given. After all, this is Hawkwind, where shoddy is a lifestyle. There's only a cardboard box, a foldout digipack and a 24-page booklet included, so how could you expect pesky details to get in the way? It's also not a full-length live CD, as you're getting a studio cover version of the Syd Barrett tune "Long Gone," which was given away free with Mojo magazine earlier in the year, and a band interview that's barely discernible amongst the 'wacky' special effects.. The live material is good enough, and a lot better than some of the archive material that's been spewed out over the last decade, with a pretty good version of "Angels Of Death" being the standout.
It's very much a curate's egg, as there is a good album lurking in here somewhere. If they'd had the courage of their convictions, dumped the old songs, and allowed the new band to have their head, who knows? This could have been a contender.
Article comments
1 - iain ferguson
Can't agree with a number of your points i'm afraid.
1 - YOu better believe it, is 7 mins, and is by and large quite a fantastic working of the live version they've been doing.
It would be lovely to get all the band to write more material to make it complete, maybe they are just responding to the overwhelming desire of the fans for some recorded output, before perchance someone legs it again, leaving what has been the best the band have been live for a decade, unrecorded.
Wraith is a personal favourite, and is bang on the money.
Now the band have make a stake in the ground hopefully it's something for them to move on from - It is so much better than the last 3 or 4 albums by the band...
2 - Mr H
Opinions are just that, but to my ears, it sounds muddy and out of synch with most of the material.
But as I said, there is a lot of good material on this album. It just could have been a lot better.
3 - illegal alien
I think the review is pretty much spot on; the album is a slight disappointment with some decent tracks, some awful ones and the usual pointless revamps of old material.
4 - Bad Omen
Good review, I'm not 100% with you on some of it, but anyhow: valid and in-depth analysis.
IMHO the worst thing about this album is it's running order. I mean, 3 of first 4 songs are sort of half-ambiental, same old same old abstract-synth atmospheric pieces (I love "Seahawks", thou). And then you get "Sweet Obsession", for me the worst track of the entire thing. Had the album opened with, in example, (1) Seahawks, (2) Inner Visions, (3) Prometheus, I'd have much less trouble digesting "Green Machine" and the likes of it *later on* through the disc. Having said that, the album offers some of the best Hawkwind music since... since long time. My personal favourite is "Inner Visions", plus I *love* "Seahawks", "Prometheus", "Comfey Chair" and "Starshine". "Wraith" and "You'd Better Believe It" are really good, and the rest of the album is sort of okay, so I guess it's a good 7.5/10 for me. Just hate the running order of the tracks. ^_______^
5 - andy
rubbish , watched them live at liverpool on fri, nearly 30 yrs since i last saw them on the sonic attack tour, and they are still great