The prolificness of space rock legends Hawkwind knows no bounds...here is Stories From Time and Space, their 35th studio album, which comes just about a year to the day after their last platter of psychedelia, The Future Never Waits. While that release saw Dave Brock and company returning to some familiar space explorations, Stories From Time and Space sees the band going in some different directions and looking to expand on their time-tested formula.
First of all, it's not often at all that we hear piano on a Hawkwind album, but that is indeed the case on "Our Lives Can't Last Forever", a dreamy slice of spacey pop that is not only odd for this band, but also a surprising opener. Not a bad song though. "The Starship (One Live One Life)" is more of what we'd expect from these veterans, lots of synth blips and beeps, Brock's crunchy riffs and sizzling solos, repetitive beats, and Dave's decades-worn vocal style. In short, it ticks off all the right Hawkwind boxes. "What Are We Going to Do While We're Here" starts off as more of a smooth jazz piece, featuring a nice sax solo and layers of synths, before it turns into a space rock juggernaut at the mid-way point, the guitars, synths, and sax all fighting for supremacy. "The Tracker" doesn't accomplish much other than offer up some synth washes and programmed percussion, and that segues into the short and equally synthy "Eternal Light". "Till I Found You" is another stab at pop music with some nice spacey synth explorations, while "Underwater City" features acoustic guitar, synth, and Mellotron, a cool little slice of atmosphere stuck right in the middle of the album. "The Night Sky" is another short synth interlude (you see a pattern here?), and "Traveller of Time and Space" seems like Hawkwind's answer to David Bowie's "Heroes", complete with similar sounding guitar lines and rhythms. It's a fun piece, though it meanders a bit towards the end and could have been shortened by a few minutes. "Regenerate" and "The Black Sea" are more of the same little synth pieces, and "Frozen in Time" again returns to that dreamy space pop that the band has woven on a few tracks here. Nice Mellotron on this one. The album ends with the claustrophobic "Stargazers", easily my favorite of the instrumentals here, this one chock-full of gorgeous synth washes, sequencers, and Brock's sizzling guitar solos.
Overall, Stories From Time and Space is a solid Hawkwind album, but marred by a bit of filler. Shave a good 10-15 minutes off this album and you have something that certainly rivals the stronger The Future Never Waits from 2023.
Track Listing
1.
Our Lives Can't Last Forever 05:37
2.
The Starship (One Love One Life) 07:40
3.
What Are We Going To Do While We're Here 07:04
4.
The Tracker 05:00
5.
Eternal Light 01:40
6.
Till I Found You 04:51
7.
Underwater City 03:05
8.
The Night Sky 02:28
9.
Traveller Of Time & Space 07:27
10.
Re-generate 05:02
11.
The Black Sea 01:11
12.
Frozen In Time 03:25
13.
Stargazers 05:15
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