“I will become master of the universe” so begins the latest excursion into deep space from Hawkwind. Having hit their big 40th anniversary the gap between studio albums might be getting a bit longer but there is about as much chance of them stopping all together as there is of not playing a London show just before Xmas every year. Hawkwind are no mere band, they are a British institution. They have throughout their career also be responsible for some fantastic albums, putting space rock on the map as a genre, stewing minds with heady musical psychedelic cocktails and even reinventing themselves during the time acid house and rave music was fashionable by upping their tempo and still coming across as relevant. I have to admit though, the last few albums including 2005 ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ with its annoying reworking of ‘Spirit Of The Age’ and guest spots by the likes of Lene Lovich left me cold. What I wanted was something that was going to take me back to their last great album ‘Xenon Codex’ from 1988 and to be honest I wasn’t really expecting it, so was determined not to be too disappointed here.
This is an album of highs and lows as far as I am concerned. There are parts of it I like and others I don’t. Alan Davey is out, Tim Blake is back, which is not a move I was particularly keen about in either respect as Davey’s bass and vocals were always good and Blake had the tendency to draw things out and make it all a bit to wibbly for it’s own good keyboard wise. Niall Horne has been drafted in on guitar and road crew member Mr Dibs has taken a step up for bass and vocals along with Dave Brock (who is basically Hawkwind) and Richard Chadwick.
I find it a bit of a patchy start as we get acclimatised to all the bleeps, pulses, whoops and whistles which have been part of the bands armoury for so long. I can hear the music but I cannot really hear the songs, it’s as though they are on cruise control for ‘Seahawks’ and plodding through the motions. After the shorter ambient title track builds more layers of atmosphere but ultimately does very little we finally get what does sound like a song ‘Wraith.’ This is classic sounding, guitar driven ‘Wind’ and does hark back to that aforementioned album as it goes stellar and steams off like it’s trying to escape from the grip of a black hole. If I had one complaint it’s the lead vocals from Mr Dibs on this; I would have preferred Dave singing but at this point of the album it seemed only fair to give him the benefit of the doubt. I really do not like the vocals on, or particularly the song, ‘Inner Visions;’ it has Blake’s stamp all over it and then there is a reworking of ‘Sweet Obsession’ from Brocks solo repertoire reminding us just how potent his voice is. ‘Comfy Chair,’ nope again, very dreary song and (I believe) Chadwick’s vocals, it might be designed to lull you but frankly it sets me on edge. ‘Prometheus’ is quite a nice sitar etched hippy anthem with Mr Dibs back again at the helm, he is growing on me by now.
The best track however is the blast from the past as a reworking of Hall Of The Mountain Grill 1974 number ‘You’d Better Believe It’ is trotted out and really hits the mark unlike some of their past self penned covers. After that I’m afraid the last track ‘Sentinel’ frankly sounds weary and bonus track ‘Starshine’ is just another modern era sounding ambient synthestrumental.
It’s listening to this again and reviewing it (and I gave it more than an average amount of spins before doing so) that I realise that unfortunately this is an album of more misses than hits and it is the older tunes even with new life in that are the best ones. I don’t like putting Hawkwind down, ‘You’d Better Believe It,’ and even on an album that doesn’t fire on all cylinders they will always have a place in my heart and I certainly won’t disown them yet.
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