Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music/Quark Strangeness and Charm

• Artist: Hawkwind
• Rating:
• Release Date: August 09, 2005
• Type: Compilation (best of)
• Genre: Rock

Review

Rejoined by vocalist Bob Calvert after a three-year absence, and departing longtime label UA for the fresh pastures of Charisma, Hawkwind entered the second half of the 1970s wholly invigorated, a state of mind that was exemplified by the next two albums. Both Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music (1976) and Quark Strangeness and Charm have long been readily available individually, but this two-fer package makes perfect sense regardless, as they usher in the penchant for shorter, sharper songs that would peak across the later Hawklords and P.X.R.5 albums. "Quark, Strangeness and Charm," "Kerb Crawler," and "Back on the Streets" all pack a commercial punch that Hawkwind had only occasionally stumbled across in the past, although that is not to undersell the virtues of "Spirit of the Age," "Steppenwolf," "Reefer Madness," and "Hassan I Sabha," epics that cling to the oldest Hawkwind values even as they, too, signpost the future. ~ Dave Thompson, Rovi

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