Of my Calvert collection (just blogged today) this album "Test-tube Conceived" is the best by a million miles. And considering the quality of the others that makes this one pretty damn good. As with a lot of Calvert's work it deals with futurism and science from a very dark perspective. If you've got personal experience of the "test-tube" process then you might want to stay away from this as the lyrics are biting:
Thanks to the scientists
That such a thing as you exists
Thanks to the scientists
Who made you...
It's really powerful stuff, especially considering the musical format is so very very sparse - there's no hiding place from the quality of each songs lyrical content.
The other thing that strikes about this album is just how very good Calvert is/was at seeing the "future". There's a song about Internet hacking which is bang up to date, and this was during the time when to most people a home computer didn't exist, and if it did it was a ZX-Spectrum (remember them?) or a BBC-micro. For most people computer-connectivity didn't exist. Couple that with emotive songs about animal testing and the test-tube process, you get a real dose of heavy reality that at times is difficult to listen to - because of the quality of the songs.
For me albums like this really show just how powerful a vehicle song-writing can be for getting points and opinions across. This is a "grown up" album about "grown up" themes. It's sad the Ca;vert died young because he'd have had a dark/depressing field day with the world as it turned out.
Very good stuff this album, nothing like Hawkwind in the traditional sense.
