With 81-year-old Dave Brock as the sole surviving member of the band, I was not sure what to expect. Nik Turner is the member I am sure to miss the most, but it seems keyboardist Thighpaulsandra who has played with Spiritualized, is making huge contributions to the sound, as it is more focused on the space part of the space rock equation and rocking less. Though I am not sure how heavy I want an 81-year-old man to rock it. Brock answers this to a certain extent on "the End" . There is a more fuzzed out guitar tone that comes in though it is whisked off into the cosmos with the swirl of synths around it that are jostling for position in the mix. It did benefit when I put my headphones on, this brought up the bass in the mix, and things gained more beef. If you are a smoker of the weed, this would be an album to do that to. The bass and drums do their job of anchoring the song down.
The 3rd song is named after " the Doors of Perception " author Aldous Huxley. I suppose it's his voice that is sampled for this trip into weirdness. If you do things like eat mushrooms or drop acid this would be an album to do that to. As would most of Hawkwind's catalogue, which this album makes me want to jump back into the earlier album I have not listened to in some time. The song take an odd jazz like turn. The narrative shifts to news reels of his death. They go even further into a jazz feel with "They are So Easily Distracted" which becomes actual jazz and not just a band influenced by it, with the more surreal sounds blowing like wind around it. They return to a more rock sound with "Rama". Brock's voice sounds good for his age.
This album sounds great, but in terms of songwriting midway into the album is drifts off into jams. This still feels pretty true to who they are as a band and does not besmirch the legacy of their music. "Outside of Time" does eventually find vocals breaking the through the cloud of smoke, but they just kind of hesitate to really give things more structure. For me what makes the difference of a cool album versus ab excellent one is if they place more value on songs over sounds. This does happen but not consistently. When they head into a more rock direction with "I'm Learning to Live Today' , it's heading in a more effective direction. If it sounds like I am only wanting these guys to be a rock band, well that is because they are, and well I heard about them from Lemmy, but I dug the jazz parts just fine. Jam all you want with guitars and lock into a groove that is fine.
The take you on a journey into the future on "the Beginning". The real question here is at 81, how is he doing these drugs. Listen to how the guitars are mixed on this one then tell me that he is not. After going into the future it ends up in the past with 60s folk-tinged psychedelic sounds. They stay on this hippier frame of mind on the last song. But it's a song not a jam. I will give this album a 9, it's a solid effort where they are at with one solitary member who is 81, but still jams pretty good.
No comments:
Post a Comment