I stuck Space Crackers on and was blown away by over an hour of musical genius. Space Crackers isn’t so much an album as a full science fiction rock opera. By the time I’d finished listening, I felt as though I had watched an entire musical, well acted and bizarrely twisted.

Here’s a summary of the plot as written by the band:

In the future, the world is at peace, and two of Space School’s most promising young scientists are to be sent into orbit to discover a solution to global hunger. When one of the scientists can’t go, his replacement sees the mission as an opportunity to woo his unsuspecting female spacemate. Things get a little awkward when 50 million ravenous aliens land on Earth, hoping to feed on human flesh!

This is a tale of disappointment, of war, of love, and of snack food. It is a human story of galactic proportions. The genius of the story is matched only by the epic soundtrack. Listen once and you’ll find in your mind images of horrors, space stations, test tubes and golden crackers. Mmmm.

The style of the album swings from the smooth tones of Crackers + Chips to the heavy rock chords of Dooks of Doom, to the creepy undertones of Zero Gravity. You even get a peek into the future with (Meanwhile…) One Hundred Million Years in the Future, of which there is a revealing music video available.

You can download a few of the tracks from www.spacecrackers.com, or find the full album on legaltorrents.com. The album is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. Listen, you’ll be hooked.

Have I gone space crackers? Absolutely.