HW: Great Expectations

[Dave Bottomley]

Surprised at how quiet the list is at the moment, especially given the
recent Hawkfest (which I couldn't get to & so I'm eager to read any
reviews). To try & kick-start something, I was wondering about people's
expectations about the next HW album. Me? I'm trying hard not to build up my
hopes out of all proportion, but I can't help feeling that the current HW
line-up has the *potential* to produce their best studio album for a long,
long time.

But I also can't help feeling that I've been here before. I had that
expectation around 1989/1990 when Simon had rejoined (for the first time).
They had tons of great new material & the live shows were largely
outstanding. So I was expecting Space Bandits to be a classic HW album. When
I first heard it, I couldn't help but be hugely disappointed. In retrospect,
it's actually not a bad album at all, IMHO. But at the time, I couldn't help
but think that it could've been *so* much better. I also recall being
mightily disappointed with Sonic Attack (still am!). But I'd guess that some
fans were distinctly underwhelmed by HotMG when it first came out (this was
before my time) - it was quite a change from what had gone before (again,
less so with the benefit of hindsight) - even if it widely regarded as one
of *the* classic HW albums now (my favourite studio album, in fact).
Expectation must've been high then in the aftermath of Doremi & Space
Ritual. Was this the case?

I was also quite surprised to see so little new stuff played at the recent
pair of shows. I guess that the Spacebrock/Remix Project version of Earth
Calling is now a fully fledged HW number. What about the song Strange Flower
I noticed in the set list? I've never encountered this before (or have I
just not been paying enough attention?!). Any good?

Comments anyone?

Dave