Hawkwind continue to wig out furiously on new live album We Are Looking In On You

There’s no release on Hawkwind's We Are Looking In On You, no letting up on the celestial gas pedal

By Everett True
( Classic Rock )
published
Hawkwind: We Are Looking In On You cover art
(Image: © Cherry Red)

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Galactic thunderstorm after galactic thunderstorm rains down upon the listener in this crowd-pleasing two-CD live set from space veterans Hawkwind. 

We Are Looking In On You works its way from 1977’s class mystical singalong Spirit Of The Age, through the cosmic guitars of Levitation, on to the more bluesy It’s Only A Dream (from 2021’s Somnia). The latter is perhaps the only weak spot in a set full of wonder.

Good-natured banter introduces set closers It’s Not Unusual (yes, that It’s Not Unusual, Tom Jones’s first hit, here with space-age noises and ephemera floating around in the background – and some appalling backing harmonies) and, in a nod to former band member Lemmy, a suitably intense version of The Watcher.

Elsewhere, Right To Decide wigs out at a furious pace, and Space Is Deep just keeps building and building and building. The CD edition is out now, vinyl follows in January 2023.

Everett True
Everett True

Everett True started life as The Legend!, publishing the fanzine of that name and contributing to NME. Subsequently he wrote for some years for Melody Maker, for whom he wrote seminal pieces about Nirvana and others. He was the co-founder with photographer Steve Gullick of Careless Talk Costs Lives, a deliberately short-lived publication designed to be the antidote to the established UK music magazines.