HW: new album out!

[J Strobridge]

ok - folks!  The good news is that the album has been released at last.

It's not in the shops yet but the postman woke me at 7.30am this morning
8-(( (on a Saturday!) and asked me to sign for this package.    Finding
Hawkwind inside was the only thing that could possibly have made that
worthwhile.

Album cover is the same as the single but the wording has been changed
to ALLIEENN4  with the first of each of the doubled letters printed as a
mirror image of the other - if that makes sense!

On a quick first hearing this is basically heavy Hawkwind with menace.
I always thought of Death Trap as a heavy song but its inclusion on
this album makes it sound like a light rock track in comparison with the
other tracks.

The last few tracks (Death Trap, Wastelands and Are You Losing Your
Mind?) are considerably faster-paced than the majority of the album but
the whole album sound is much closer to the heavy deep bass sound that
the band usually generate on stage and as such I quite like it!
Doesn't seem to be over packed with innovation and it's not the kind of
album to lie back and listen quietly to, in fact I doubt it is possible
to listen to this album quietly!    So they've moved a step away from
Electric Teepee and It Is the Biz to a much harder sound - in a sense,
perhaps, it's the same distance that Doremi must have sounded from In
Search of Space and it's much heavier on the 'Industrial' type of sound.


Apart from Alien (I Am) - the lyrics to this track are printed on
the album sleeve, much to my gratitude - there are really only two new
sets of lyrics 'Kenomorph' (Ron Tree) and 'Festivals' (Dave Brock).
'Beam Me Up' is mostly just a chant of that and Kapal has quotes from
Hamlet all over it!

My impression is that in all it's a dramatic solid sound not
particularly innovative but with some nice synth and keyboard touches
in the intros and mixes and the atmosphere keeps it interesting.

IMO of course, and this is subject to change and amendment!

jill

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J.D.Strobridge at ed.ac.uk                         eset08 at castle.ed.ac.uk
                                                ELIJSA at srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk
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