HW: Nicknames & Xenon Codex

[Stephen Swann]

bart writes:
>
> Steve says -
>
> > He isn't the only one who was unhappy with it.  When I first bought
> > it, I despised it so thoroughly that I tossed it on the floor in the
> > middle of the room, and trod on it for several days before giving it
> > another listen.  ;-)
>
> Did that give it the crunchier sound you were after ? Anyway you have to be
> kidding - I mean  'War I Survived', 'Wastelands of Sleep', 'Neon Skyline /
> Lost Chronicles' are all solid to excellent tracks. OK, 'Tides' is a filler,
> as is a lot of side 2, but then you get 'Sword of the East'. I also confess
> a liking of 'EMC' but I can see it could grate for some ;-)

Well, Neon Skyline/Lost Chronicles is one of my favorite Hawkwind
compositions (I discovered this on subsequent listenings).  Sword of
the East is another.

But as an "album" I still think _Xenon Codex_ falls together rather
badly, as nearly every second track is horrendous noise, IMHO, etc etc
yadda yadda.  Believe it or not (I know you will, since it's me
talking) :-) I *hated* "War I Survived" on first hearing it, and to
this day I think of it as a filler tune.  I hate the vocals, hate the
drumming worse (that relentless, unimaginitive BANG-BANG-BANG, sitting
way too far up in the sound mix).

"Wastelands of Sleep" isn't bad, though I have to be in certain kind
of dreamy mood to really enjoy it.  "Tides" is ok, for what it is.

But "Mutation Zone", "EMC", and all that other noise and garble on
side 2 really ticked me off.  It ruins _Xenon Codex_ as an album for
me, because it means that I can never stand to listen to it all the
way through.

Steve