HW: What's a good Hawkwind record?

[cannibal at CUTEY.COM]

At 12:18 01.01.98 -0600, you wrote:
>Hi there!  I've been a BOC fan for some time now, and having read this
>list for quite a while, I'm thinking of picking up a Hawkwind album.  I
>checked the local new/used record store, and they have quite a selection
>of Hawkwind albums.  I'd like some advice on these, and on which one I
>should pick up.  The ones they have are:

Hi! Always the dilemma with HW, where to start.... The ones below are
highly recommended. If you are a BOC fan, you can't go wrong with the
awesom Live Chronicles!

>Levitation

(this is a great, textured heavy album from 1979. A recommended primer for
BOC fans.)

>Live Chronicles

(this is the 2CD live set of their 1985 Black Sword tour - get it!! You
will love it if you are a BOC fan! Very much an excellent heavy metal album
on all counts.)

>Space Ritual 2

(this is great early live material ca. 72.73 - fuzzy dino-metal from space!
You will probably like it.)

>Xenon Codex

(this is a mixed bag - ranging from pink floyd-ish moments to killer
industrial-ish instrumental workouts of frenetic guitar playing and spacey
sounds from 1988. Maybe not the best primer but one of my personal faves.)

as for the others:

>Alien 4

IMO more a hodgepodge of goofy, aimless ambient drivel about alien
abductions and whatnot. Has decent moments but not a recommended starting
place! Ron Tree's vocals and lyrics are so awful here it works great as a
comedy album but sadly the jokes aren't very good :) Recent, from 1995.

>Acid Daze I
>Acid Daze II
>Acid Daze III

these three are collections of sometimes inferior live recordings from the
early 70's to the early 80's. OK, great for completists but not necessarily
the best place to start. Even has some pre-Hawkwind blues tracks and alot
of it is very loose jams and obviously captures the band their most drug
induced haze!
I suppose these are the equivilant of BOC's Live 1976!

>Space Bandits

Alot of people love this album but it's one of my least favorite. Some ok
tracks but alot of aimless ambient miasma (which very often is a good thing
but IMO not here...). That song about the dead little birds cracks me up
tho! Has the female vocals of Bridgett Wishart and some good guitar stuff
but, um, doesen't really add up to much at all.

>Love In Space

Basically this is a 2CD live version of Alien 4, just slightly rockier. I
still can't bring myself to like it since it's IMO the almost most
superflous HW release ever... if it had been 1 CD it would be twice as good
but still not great.

Christian