TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER

Q - What's been eight years in the making, plagued with false starts and changes in personnel, yet could well turn out to be one of the albums of the year?

A - It's Hawkwind's latest studio release - Take Me To Your Leader!

It's without a doubt one of the bands most consistent yet varied albums that they've produced in their 36 year career. The band now consists of the ever present and captain of the ship, Dave Brock together with bassist Alan Davey whose tenure now exceeds 20 years (albeit with a brief break in the late 90's), drummer Richard Chadwick whose been a constant for over 15 years and the new boy, keyboard player Jason Stuart who's yet to clock up a years service.

Admittedly opening track, the recent single Spirit Of The Age will be familiar to most ardent Hawkfans as it first appeared on the bands seminal 1977 release Quark, Strangeness and Charm but from there on in the album has more twists and turns than the most demanding Grand Prix circuit. With a distinctly chilled out vibe on "Out Here We Are" which in turn leads to the all out space rock attack of "Greenback Massacre" and then on to the Dave Brock epic that is "To Love A Machine" and that just the first four tracks, there's also brushes with techno and Drm 'n' Bass in the form of the title track, the delicate "Digital Nation" extols the virtues of online gaming whilst the highlight is served up next in the form of "Sunray" which is both penned and sung by guest vocalist Arthur Brown, yes he of "Fire" fame and with the right promotion could prove to be a massive hit for the band. Quality control is kept to the same high standard for the final three tracks, "Sighs" is a typically dreamy keyboard piece typical of the between song stuff they do live, "Angela Android" rocks like a good 'un with plenty of quality lead guitar from Brock whilst things are brought to a close with the re-appearance of Arthur Brown on "A Letter To Robert" which serves as the bands tribute to the late great Robert Calvert who was such an influence over the band in the 70's and judging by this still is today.

Varied it maybe but the thing that really makes it so special is how it all gel's together perfectly!

A masterpiece

readers of this may also be interested in a couple of other reviews that appear on the Hawkwind Museum web site that can be found at www.hawkwindmuseum .co.uk the page you need is http://www.hawkwindmuseum.co.uk/well_it.htm one written by Matthew Wright of TV's "The Wright Stuff"