HW: What's a good Hawkwind record?

[William Duffy]

>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:
>
>Levitation
>Alien 4
>Acid Daze I
>Acid Daze II
>Acid Daze III
>Live Chronicles
>Space Ritual 2
>Space Bandits
>Xenon Codex
>Love In Space
>(Some psychedelic covered one, all blue and red and green...  I think
>it's called "Space is Deep", but don't quote me on that...)
>and, the new album, whatever it's called...I just recognised some of the
>songs from having heard about them on the list.

The 'psychedelic' one sounds like Palace Springs to me, which is a very good
mix of live & studio material.
It's hard to recommend these ones to a first-timer, as some are live
recordings of tracks previously recorded by different line-ups.
Also, the styles on some of them are different to others.

I'd suggest going for some of the latter ones on the list, from "Live
Chronicles" onwards. Maybe skip Space Bandits which, even though I really,
really like it, isn't really a good pick for someone new to the band.
Love in Space is mainly Alien 4 live, plus some Robert Calvert era songs
included. It's good, but the original Calvert material is better. None of
the albums you list have any of this material, other than the Acid Daze
albums, which have one or two tracks.

I hope some of that helps.

William