Description
Label Review.
2019 album with bonus ‘Acoustic Daze’ disc. Both albums also available on vinyl separately: 'All Aboard The Skylark' and 'Acoustic Daze'.
Our Overview.
‘All Aboard The Skylark’ is Hawkwind’s 32nd studio album and a storming return to their space rock roots. Musically the solid quartet of Dave Brock (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Richard Chadwick (drums), Niall Hone (bass, keyboards) and Magnus Martin (guitar, vocals) have created a tight, psychedelic groove that runs through the spine of the album, but embraces each musician’s individual talents along the way.
Opener “Flesh Fondue” is a classic Hawkwind space rock number; alien creatures feeding on the inhabitants of planets, carried by Brock’s characteristic guitar and vocals and underpinned by Chadwick’s superb rhythm and hypnotic drum fills. “Nets Of Space” is a bass driven trip, complimented by swirling guitar loops and rhythmic drumming while the conceptual “Last Man On Earth” and “We Are Not Dead... Only Sleeping” leads us headlong into the free-spirited psychedelic groove of “All Aboard The Skylark”.
The contemplative ‘65 Million Years Ago’, with haunting Brock vocals is followed by the melodic lament, ‘In The Beginning’, which leads to the expansive and multi-layered ‘The Road To...’, and closes with ‘The Fantasy Of Faldom’, which is based on a Hermann Hesse fairytale. This is an exciting and unmissable addition to the Hawkwind canon.
Following a live tour, when Hawkwind opened their own shows with an acoustic set, the band went into the studio and recorded ‘Acoustic Daze’, acoustic versions of some classic Hawkwind tracks. Including “PSI Power”, “Down Through The Night” and “We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago”, this shows another fascinating side to the band.