1/19/2004

Review of To Touch The Stars by Clark Lindsey (HobbySpace.com)
In this age when hardly anyone listens to music outside of their favorite genre, I don't know what is tougher: getting to Mars or getting people to give this terrific album a chance! Space activists will love it, of course, but if others will just take a listen, they will enjoy it too. In fact, they will be amazed at how appealing these "space" songs are.

Most of the public still greets the phrase "space activism" as a non sequitur. You might as well say NASA-Industrial-Complex activism or Giant-Faceless-Aerospace-Industry activism. The assertion that there exists a genuinely passionate grassroots constituency for space exploration and development (and not made up of employees of NASA and its contractors) is still considered preposterous by many. The Moon Race proved, did it not, that it takes a gigantic army of government and industry engineers, scientists, technicians and bureaucrats to send a handful of supermen to the Moon via a ridiculously expensive and impractical rocket system? How can any regular Joe or Joan relate to all that?

Who would possibly want to sing about all that?

Well, activists saw long ago that "space is not an agency", that space travel and development don't have to be astronomically expensive, and that someday, in a future already underway, anyone who really wants to go to space WILL get the opportunity to go.

The people who see this most clearly are the artists on this album. They see past the temporary technological obstacles to a marvelously exciting but difficult frontier that will eventually give way to the blossoming of life throughout the solar system.

So what do these artists sing about?

They sing of the glory and sacrifice on the frontier ("Fire in the Sky" and "Legends")

They sing about traveling in space themselves ("I Want to Go To Mars" and "Big Blue Sky")

They sing of the joy and fun of space flight ("Dance on the Ceiling" and "Dog on the Moon")

They sing of looking at space in new ways ("If We Had No Moon" and "Others Standing By").

They sing of the disappointment that we rushed forward and then pulled back ("Queen Isabella, Where Are You" and "Hope Eyrie")

And this diverse array of artists offers songs in many different styles. There's definitely something here for everyone.

Whether you are a space enthusiast or not, you will enjoy this album. Great music that transcends genres comes from artists genuinely inspired by their passion. Take a chance. If you do, you won't regret it. In fact, you might just be inspired to help us get to Mars!