Hawkwind - Spirit of the Age: An Anthology 1976-1984 [3CD Remastered Box] (2008)

This anthology of veteran British space-rockers Hawkwind's middle period, from 1976's QUARK, STRANGENESS AND CHARM to 1984's THIS IS HAWKWIND, DO NOT PANIC finds an interesting array of players cropping up in the band's ever-changing roster, from Cream's Ginger Baker to Gong's Tim Blake. And it's immediately apparent that the lessons of punk and New Wave were not lost on these old hippies--they turned out some of their leanest, meanest, most concise tracks during this period. They still had spacehead vocalist/lyricist Robert Calvert on hand for much of this time, though, supplying the old interstellar themes.