List | S | S.P.O.C.K | 'Assignment: Earth' CD 1997

Track:	Name:	Time:
1.	Not Human	4:15
2.	Alien Attack	3:26
3.	Out In Space	3:30
4.	Astrogirl's Dilemma	3:09
5.	E.T. Phone Home	4:18
6.	Spooky	3:05
7.	Force Of Life	4:46
8.	Meanwhile...	0:48
9.	Space Seed	3:50
10.	All The Children Shall Lead	4:35
	Total	35:42

Comments:

I was looking forward a great deal to this album. Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed. Lyrically, it's somewhat weaker than its predecessors, occasionally even embarrassing to listen to. Musically... well, it has its nice blippy poppy tunes, but there aren't really that many of them, and the album is a bit short. Not quite enough of the good stuff.

The first track is a rather bouncy blippy nice little very S.P.O.C.K-ish tune about some guy who has met a bunch of aliens. They take him away and do some tests on him (makes me think of the 'X-files'; not that I follow that series much but I've seen a couple of episodes). Of course, people don't believe him, but lock him up as a certified looney instead. Come to think of it, wasn't 'Abducted' from Alien Worlds somewhat similar in storyline? Not enough to be repetative, but still. Anyway, the tune is a lot different.

Track two has a storyline as if stolen from the computer game 'UFO - Enemy Unknown'; earth used to be populated by some super-beings who for some reason had to leave the planet. Now thery're back, and they want their planet returned. The tune is another blippy poppy one, not unlike some from the previous album. This was also released as the first single off this album.

Following that is a track that starts off rather slowly. Lyrics about some guy stuck on a boring planet, dreaming of space travels and adventure. Makes me think of Luke Skywalker in the beginning of 'Star Wars IV - A New Hope'. The chorus is quite catchy and 'spacey' (pun intended).

Track four is a bit too silly for my taste; Astrogirl returns, as well as a whole bunch of other S.P.O.C.K characters, the Stormtrooper and the Cosmic Boy ("settle down somewhere"). The poor girl can't choose between the two. Sil-ly. Apparently, according to the S.P.O.C.K mailing list, the tune was written by Johan Malmgren of Elegant Machinery. This is just an unverified rumour (can't find anything about it in the sleeve credits), but it sure sounds a lot like EM. Not quite as good though, sub-standard for both S.P.O.C.K and EM. Definitely one of the tracks I'll be skipping when playing this album. I can't really say why, but I get embarrassed when I play it.

You can probably guess what movie inspired the lyrics to track 5; poor little E.T. is stuck on earth and want to "phone home". Apart from some occasionally silly lyrics ("still behind a tree") it's fairly good and catchy. A bit disco-ish. It was also released as a single, the second off this album.

Track 6 is about body-swapping; his old comfy body had to be replaced, and he's not quite used to the new one yet, being rather nostalgic about the old one. Sort of funny when you think about it. Nothing spectacular musicwise, put pretty ok.

I don't really see the point of track 7. It's a disco-type close-to-instrumental track with the occasional "can you feel it" and "the force of life" vocal snippets. I can't help thinking it sounds like a poor remix with all the good parts left out.

Track 8 isn't much to word about; there's just not very much of it. A short instrumental piece with some nice blips and spacey effects. Rather fun and bouncy.

Apparently, according to track 9, us humans were helped along the evolutionary path by some nice aliens and their space seed, developing us from simple primates to the superior intellectuals we are today (my irony, not theirs; have we really come that far?). Anyway, in conclusion they state that since they made us what we are we'd better start behaving or they'll put us back to what we were. A nice little catchy tune, much like the other "real" tunes of this album.

To finish things off, the main embarrasment of the album: a child-like over-poppy song with not-exactly-overly-developed lyrics. Lines like "all the dolts" make me feel ashamed I ever put this album in my player. It must be the worst thing on this CD. All the good intentions I detect (the erroneous ways of modern man) fall flat at the miserable lyrics and melody. SKIP!

All in all, this album has more of a "cheap" feel to it, more toy-like sounds (in a bad way) and less well produced. Lyrically, it's more silly/nerdy than the old silly/funny. Far too often it shows English is not their native language; something they (mostly) hid better on previous albums. There aren't really that many songs on this album that I'd actually play; two embarrasing songs, one short instrumental and one semi-instrumental. That only leaves six songs, all of which (though being quite catchy and often rather good) seem less than what I've come to expect from this band. Given my initial disappointment over this album (although I like it more now that it's grown on me) I didn't expect S.P.O.C.K to be very good live, but I was fortunately very wrong.

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