Hawkwind - Sonic Boom Killers: Best Of Singles A's And B's from 1970 to 1980

Although it is not necessarily the most essential Hawkwind package you will ever be offered, Sonic Boom Killers is, nevertheless, among the most sensibly structured, its 18 tracks offering up most (but not quite all) of the band's 1970s singles – most of which were released at a time when chart success was a very real possibility, a point proven by the opening salvo of "Silver Machine" (a U.K. number two in 1972) and "Urban Guerilla" (number 39 in 1973). That the band did not otherwise especially bother the Top 75 is simply a sorry quirk of fashion – "Hurry on Sundown" (from 1970), "Psychedelic Warlords" (1974), "Kings of Speed" (1975), "Quark Strangeness and Charm" (1977), and "Who's Gonna Win the War" (1980) all received a modicum of broadcast support, while "Shot Down in the Night" (1980) scratched to number 59 purely on the back of Hawkwind's adoption by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Four singles are absent from this roundup: "Kerb Crawler", "Back on the Streets", and the alter ego Hawklords' "Psi Power" and "25 Years". In their stead, you receive the Germany-only "Lord of Light". The real meat, however, lies in the gathering together of some key material originally available only as B-sides to the above: the excellent "Seven by Seven", "Brainbox Pollution", 1974's live "It's So Easy", and Lemmy's self-fulfilling prophecy, "Motorhead". All have long since been compiled onto other CDs, of course, but their availability on a single disc is certainly some cause for celebration. (~ Dave Thompson, AMG)

Tracklist:

01. Silver Machine
02. Urban Guerilla
03. Hurry On Sundown
04. Kings Of Speed
05. Lord Of Light
06. You Better Believe It
07. Paradox
08. The Psychedelic Warlords
09. Who's Gonna Win The War
10. Motorhead
11. Seven By Seven
12. Brainbox Pollution
13. Born To Go
14. It's So Easy
15. Quark Strangeness And Charme
16. Forge Of Vulcan
17. Shot Down In The Night
18. Urban Guerilla (live)

Original Release Date: 1998
Release Date: August 23, 2005
Label: Repertoire Records (UK)