An excellent album that thoroughly dismisses any fears that recent personnel upheavals might have damaged Hawkwind in the slightest. Recorded with veteran drummer Ginger Baker as an absolutely astonishing replacement for the departing Simon King and with Huw Lloyd Langton clearly reveling in the guitar hero status accorded by the watching ranks of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Levitation captures Hawkwind at their most confident and brash. Certainly the mighty "Who's Gonna Win the War" has few peers within even the classic lineup's vocabulary, with its drift out of Tim Blake's brief but beautiful "Prelude," a transition to be proud of. Feeling ever so slightly churlish, one could point to the absence of Robert Calvert and Nik Turner as a decisive blow in the songwriting departure -- there is certainly a hint of style over substance hanging around a few of the lesser numbers ("Space Chase," "World of Tiers," "5th Second of Forever"). But the relentless crunch that occasionally deputizes for melody has excitement of its own, especially when paired with a Baker/Harvey Bainbridge rhythm section that simply doesn't know when to quit. Just missing the U.K. Top 20 upon release in November 1980, Levitation has since fallen into a degree of disrepute on account of its contents' ubiquity in the world of less than stellar Hawkwind compilations. Return to the original disc, however, and that reputation is certainly not deserved.
(by Dave Thompson, All Music Guide)
Hawkwind's amazing consistency strikes again. The band's first record for the Eighties is probably mostly known for featuring none other than the great Ginger Baker on drums; apparently, he did not consider it a reputation-saddling thing to associate with the gang of Dave Brock. (Then again, nothing could be any more reputation-saddling than Ginger Baker's Air Force, heh heh heh). However, it is actually a fine little record in its own right. For the most part, it continues the slightly 'subdued' atmosphere of Quark, but with more guitar and a couple new elements that actually do introduce the Eighties...
...but it's perfectly all right. The songs are good. Neither Brock nor any of the other composers on here (Tim Blake, ex-Gong synthesizer man in particular) show any serious lapse in songwriting: the space grooves are solid, the riffs are tasty, and the vocal melodies are catchy. What does mar the record a little is a visible overabundance of instrumentals - after the initial two amazing songs, which I'll get to in a minute because I'm a crazy reverse-order guy, there's a whole slew of these short effect-laden sonic collages and stuff that don't really feel fresh or particularly "mind-opening" any more. That stuff could probably serve as atmospheric "breathers" on Space Ritual, but there's no need for anything like 'Psychosis' on the band's studio albums. Dammit, at least with a track called like that you could expect some really wild freakout, but instead all you get is two minutes of toying with the phasing effect. Likewise, 'Prelude' is nothing but a useless prelude, and 'Space Chase', the only instrumental that actually has a melody, has no solid foundation to be based upon, unlike the classic Hawkwind material.
But then, of course, there are the actual songs, and they're cool. The title track may lack the grunginess and rawness of 'Silver Machine', but it has that wonderful Eastern-influenced vibe from the 1977 album, and a great change from the "presumptuous" psychedelic verse melody to the quirky poppiness of the chorus. The jumpin' groovy basslines in the instrumental section will make you tap your feet as well as anything, and the mix of acoustic and electric guitars and all kinds of synths is perfectly creative. And then there's 'Motorway City' which is a downright friendly optimistic tune for Hawkwind - you know, with major chords and a poppy beat and vocals that seem to have soaked in some of those corrupted New Wave influences. Is it just me, or do I feel a little bit of the Police in here? And the Heads, too? And, uh, the Cars?
Complexity prevails on the most serious of these numbers, the grim, depressing 'Who's Gonna Win The War' - I admire how smoothly the band effectuates the transition from the basic "faux-prog" four-four beat into the martial rhythms of the chorus and backwards. Together with a morose guitar solo and a solid bunch of special effects, the tune becomes positively chillin', one of the most realistic sonic landscapes this band has ever painted. 'The Fifth Second Of Forever' begins with a slight, minimalistic, amateur-like acoustic guitar melody, then very quickly segues into the album's fastest tempo to introduce a desperate phased vocal passage along the lines of 'Lord Of Light', then segues out into the acoustic melody again as if nothing had happened.
'Dust Of Time' is another highlight, as depressing as anything on here bar 'Motorway City', except that I could do without the lethargic middle part; and the band ends the album with 'Nuclear Toy', which is definitely the most "modernistic" tune of all - set to a robotic beat, with robotic vocals all the way through, as if they wanted to beat Kraftwerk at their own game. It is actually not particularly impressive as far as electronic tunes go, and predictably so: despite all the synthesizers and special effects and phased vocals, Hawkwind were above all a rock band, which is why I kinda breathe a little breath of relief when 'Nuclear Toy' ends in a speeding up tempo and a typical Hawkwind space-rock guitar solo. It's hardly a bad song though, you gotta understand.
All in all, there's enough moments on here that do not inspire your average reviewing Joe like me, and that predicts the band's further decline into total self-repetition and occasional self-parody in the later Eighties. But they still get saved by the good stuff, and when Hawkwind good stuff is really good, it's AMAZING. If you don't end your days singing 'it's called levitation, levitation, levitation' twenty four hours per day, you're obviously not a music kind of guy at all. Go out there and listen to your clock ticking instead.
(George Starostin, Rating: * * * 1/2)