Quark, Strangeness & Charm

Submitted by Glyn Lewis on 19 April 2013 - 9:16pm

Cover:

Artist:

Hawkwind

album-ID:

a_131

Nationality:

Year:

1 977

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

Spirit Of The Age*Damnation Alley*Fable Of A Failed Race*Quark, Strangeness & Charm*Hassan I Sahba*The Forge Of Vulcan*Days Of The Underground*The Iron Dream

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Glyn

meeting-ID:

m_50

Now-num:

2 013

Spotify-URL:

3UiIkF8bC5qBqm4lNpEuYs

Short-title:

quark

nominator-ID:

u_1

Meeting-date:

Thursday, 23 May 2013

MusicBrainz-URL:

abcdcac3-343b-33eb-badd-dea4b3007230

Wikipedia-URL:

Quark,_Strangeness_and_Charm

Spotify-link-type:

album

Discogs-URL:

Hawkwind-Quark-Strangeness-And-Charm/master/28057

Allmusic-URL:

quark-strangeness-charm-mw0000205171

rdio-URL:

Hawkwind/album/Quark%2C_Strangeness_and_Charm

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76

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

Thank you Dr Strangelove for going doo-lally

2-3-4-6

7

There’s some great sci-fi imagery running through this album, it's all juvenile stuff, as science fiction tends to be, but, also typically, it throws up some interesting ideas. These are well crafted quirky lyrics, with nice touches of humour and I find them oh-so memorable. The sound is a lighter, more commercial one than your usual Hawkwind offerings but the better for it, to my mind. There's also some nice textured vibes thrown into the pop mix, thanks to some subtle keyboard colouration. It’s not exactly bleeding edge stuff for 1977 but Hawkwind do live in their own space-time continuum, so what do you expect? It also does a get a bit straight-forward rock riffy in the basic structure at times but there’s always another lyrical nugget to distract you. “The sky’s raining fishes, it's a mutation zoo,” only a fool would argue with that.
70

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

1-2

5

This wasn't as psycho-space-freak as I was expecting (or hoping for) and I was surprised at how straightforward 70s rock it is. It is however fun and tuneful with good quality vocals, a very listenable album.

Track one reminds me of The Smiths How Soon Is Now (opening riff)
Track two reminds me of the Only Fools and Horses theme.
Track three is too similar to Breath by Pink Floyd.

One notable good moment of psychedelia is where Damnation Alley spaces out with cosmic synth sounds, excellent stuff and what I was hoping for more of.
70

reviewed by

Richard Norbury
60

reviewed by

Matthew Baker

Unexpectedly unpsychedelic

1

5

They sound like a bunch of roadies playing prog rock, to me, not the acid frazzled cosmic voyagers I expected. Having said that, there is a certian charm to this record (geddit?) though it does come across a bit Spinal Tap in places.