Sputnik Hefner
'The Space Age Playboys' was Warrior Soul's final studio album, originally released in 1995. During the preceding 5 years and 4 albums they hit a bit and missed quite a lot and by the time this album hit the streets it was probably evident to everyone involved that they were running low on ideas.
Opening tracks 'Rocket Engines' and 'The Drug' are perfect representations of Warrior Soul's legacy, that of a decent hard rock band but nothing more. When compared with what other bands were producing at the time 'The Space Age Playboys' is tame by comparison, in a face off between this and 'Earth Vs the Wildhearts' for example there could only be one winner and he would be of the copper coloured variety!
The production is slicker than that on most of the earlier releases and that does work in the albums favour. The songs are also more upbeat than the last couple of albums but it's all beginning to sound a bit dated and tired. The political stance that was evident early on in their career seems to have waned completely in favour of pure rock and roll as they resort to writing songs such as 'Let's Get Wasted'. Nothing wrong with that of course but it's neither original or particularly interesting subject matter.
There is more of a punk feel evident on tracks like 'No No No' but once again although it's a decent song it's nothing special and could have been written by any number of bands. Warrior Soul started out doing something a bit different from the norm but ended up getting sucked into the trap of re hashing tried and tested formulas, whilst managing to lose guitar solos on the way. There are some good songs though, 'Television' and 'Pretty Faces' are both catchy and urgent, 'Rotten Soul' sees them borrowing from the Cult again and at least the slower songs like 'I Wanna Get Some' have a bit more energy about them than those on previous albums.
As a stand alone album without any history taken into account 'The Space Age Playboys' is pretty good, it's not hugely exciting but nor is it dull, it's just a solid hard rock record. In many ways I wish this had been their third or fourth album as it may have maintained the interest of both the press and the public. You just get the feeling that by 1995 it was all too little too late and ultimately Warrior Soul will perhaps be remembered as a band that never quite realised their potential.
The live bonus tracks are exactly as you'd expect if you've encountered any of the other re releases, fairly low quality audience recordings. If you get all five re issues I suggest ripping all the bonus tracks and making your own live album from them, that's probably the only way that you're going to want to listen to them more than once!