ALIEN 4 (1995)

Praise be to the powers above (or below, as appropriate) that the electronic widdlings and piddlings of It Is The Business of the Future didn't mark a permanent new Hawkpath. Alien 4 finds them returning to crunchier fare, closer to Xenon or Tepee than to Church of Hawkwind.

The core Brock-Davey-Chadwick trio also decided they needed a new frontman to make things more compelling in concert, so Ron Tree takes over the microphone here. He spends much of the album trying to deliver his best Robert Calvert imitation, an intention that became even more obvious in concert, what with the scarves and the goggles and the like.

Alien 4 isn't terrible, by any means, but it's also not particularly original. It rocks a bit, especially on Davey's "Sputnik Stan," but it rarely finds that sweet spot where the rock meets the weird and the BLANGA occurs.

BLANGA SCORE: 5