Motivation Radio is the third studio album by British progressive rock musician Steve Hillage, released by Virgin Records in September 1977.

Hiring electronic innovator Malcolm Cecil, formerly of the pioneering Tonto's Expanding Head Band, to produce and engineer the album, Motivation Radio introduces Hilage's new rhythm section of drummer Joe Blocker and bassist Reggie McBride and was primarily recorded in Los Angeles, California in July 1977.

Nonetheless, it received praise from music critics and has continued to do so over time, and today is seen as a milestone in Hillage's career, establishing the electronic direction he later became known for.

[1] The success of L was largely due to the fact that Hillage had formed a band to promote the album in concert, extensively touring England and France for the remaining months of 1976.

[3] Following a series of negotiations, Cecil agreed to produce and engineer Motivation Radio, and work began on the album in July 1977 in Los Angeles with a rhythm section consisting of drummer Joe Blocker and bass guitarist Reggie McBride.

"[9] The first, and still the largest, multitimbral polyphonic analog synthesizer in the world, designed and constructed over several years by Cecil for usage in Tonto's Expanding Head Band, it started as a Moog modular synthesizer Series III owned by record producer Robert Margouleff, although by the time of the recording of Motivation Radio, a second Moog III was added, then four Oberheim SEMs, two ARP 2600s, modules from Serge with Moog-like panels, EMS, Roland, Yamaha, etc.

[11] In their review of Motivation Radio, Real Gone Rocks said that although the instrument was a great leap forward for music, it was not especially practical, "since it was the size of a static caravan.

[9] Billboard said the album was "a further extension of [Hillage's] unique rock vision consisting of electronic galactic-seeming mind excursions filled with heavy synthesiser and a philosophy built around ancient Eastern culture," and noted that this fusing of disparate elements produces a "startling overall spacy sound.

"[15] He said that Hillage's guitar work is "typically transcendent," Giraudy's keyboards "a vital component" and Joe Blocker's drums "a frequent breath of change.

"[15] Hillage said there was a definite Funkadelic influence on Motivation Radio and recalled that his excursions into funkier territory had begun with Gong, considering "Isle of Everywhere" from You (1974) to be a good example.

[2] "Hello Dawn" opens the album with heavily processed guitars, whilst both electronic and acoustic drums back Hillage's multi-tracked vocals as "he greets a new day with optimism.

[9] Its lyrics have been interpreted to be about how aliens can be viewed with suspicion, whilst Giraudy's heavily French accented vocal interludes give an "air of quirkiness".

[9] The ethereal "Radio" has been compared to Hillage's work on L and carries a more spacious vibe, opening with a slightly jazzy guitar line, reprising the closing moments of "Light in the Sky" in the process; critics pointed out that the transition is unusual, as there is an obvious break in between the songs despite sounding like a segue was intended to merge the tracks.

[9] "Wait One Moment" is a ballad featuring soft vocals, "unassuming" bass runs and drum work compared to Nick Mason of Pink Floyd.

"[9] The instrumental "Octave Doctors" is exemplary of Hillage's sweeping guitar solos, here featuring plenty of glissanto and vibrato, and carries a typical spaciousness.

[9] The album closes with a cover of The Crickets' "Not Fade Away" featuring a loose groove with trippy keyboards and "some quirkier sounds" courtesy of Cecil.

[9] The album's cover features Hillage standing on a shoreline holding a Stratocaster guitar, with the radio telescope at Parkes Observatory superimposed in the background.

"[2] In retrospect, he speculated that the Funkadelic influence lead to the relative commercial failure of the album in the United States, but noted that, in being one of Virgin's biggest acts, he was able to dictate his musical terms in some ways.

[2] Candy Absortian, writing in The Rough Guide to Rock, said the album was not going to win Hillage "many friends in the new punk order, and he was more or less the last remaining link with Virgin's hippie past, the label having by now signed the Sex Pistols.

[22] Also in 1977, Virgin Records released the double Six-Pack : Six Track picture disc EP, which was limited to 5,000 copies and contains fifteen minutes of material, including "Not Fade Away" and "Radio".

[23] Motivation Radio has been remastered and re-released on CD by Virgin Records on several occasions; in 1987 with modified artwork,[24] on 4 July 1990 in Japan only as the eleventh volume of Virgin Japan's British Rock History on CD re-issue series,[25] and on 21 March 2007 with remastering by Pamela Byrne at The Audio Archiving Company, London, and the inclusion of three bonus tracks: the "Tonto Version" of "Leylines to Glassdom"–a song Hillage would re-record for his subsequent album Green, the original "Power Trio" backing track version of "The Salmon Song" and an alternate mix of "The Golden Vibe".

"[16] He commented that "Motivation Radio works as well as it does because it draws listeners to that halfway point (and beyond), steering them with spiritual signposts and rewarding them with rapturous music.

For forty minutes, my grey little world becomes a technicolor landscape where flying saucers and octave doctors come to life on crackling waves of energy.

"[12] To coincide with the release of Motivation Radio, a new-line up of Steve Hillage's band featuring Blocker on drums, Curtis Robinson Jr on bass guitar and Chuck Bynum on keyboards and synths toured throughout the UK and Europe in late 1977, ending with a performance at The Rainbow in London on 3 November.

"[13] The Independent also credits the album with breaking Hillage's "hippy" image, noting that instead of taking a punk rock or post-punk influence to change his sound, he unexpectedly explored funk music:[30] It was the third Hillage album, Motivation Radio, in 1977, which suggested its author wasn't living in a hippie vacuum, oblivious to what was going on in the unvisioned world.

wasn't listening to the Voidoids and Television, as one suspected, but to Bootsy Collins, Funkadelic, Parliament, Earth Wind & Fire and "The Commodores, before Lionel Richie went all schmaltzy".