Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light

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first sound on this is ornate strings, moodles

also songs in a&e wasn't raw at all, i think

Whiney vs. (BradNelson), Monday, 9 April 2012 20:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

oh haha this is really great

the refined songwriting of let it come down meets the jazz freakout nature of the live show, finally

Whiney vs. (BradNelson), Monday, 9 April 2012 20:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

This is a really good album. It's probably most similar to Let It Come Down especially with the use of strings but unlike that album it doesn't seem to drag as much. Hey Jane is easily the best thing on here but I enjoyed just about every song. I liked the last album but this one just feels so much more focused. I wasn't really paying much attention to the lyrics but that's not really why I listen to this band.

It's a similar situation to the latest Tindersticks album, no massive surprises just a really strong album that's probably their best in over a decade. Reminds me of why I fell for them in the first place.

Kitchen Person, Monday, 9 April 2012 20:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

can't wait for this.
been on a massive spiritualized trip of late.
despite it not doing anything different to the formula i loved 'hey jane'
just hope there is a standard jewel case version of the album as opposed to the usual packaging gubbins that jason likes to mess up.
[though i did like the glow in the dark version of pure phase]

mark e, Monday, 9 April 2012 21:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

NPR stream

this sounds pretty great

Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 9 April 2012 21:56 (1 year ago) Permalink

whoa, the video for this

40oz of tears (Jordan), Monday, 9 April 2012 21:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

def on some Let It Come Down arrangements-tip here

Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 9 April 2012 22:05 (1 year ago) Permalink

def also way better than the last two

Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 9 April 2012 22:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

fuck this is REALLY good

Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 9 April 2012 22:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

the video is proper 0_O
i just hope the album has the complete 10 min version.
honest

mark e, Monday, 9 April 2012 23:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

bleah, fuck that video

cool song though

preternatural concepts concerning variances in sound and texture (contenderizer), Tuesday, 10 April 2012 00:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

i mean, i kind of like it in some ways (the vid), but did not need that massive dose of brutality and negativity atm

preternatural concepts concerning variances in sound and texture (contenderizer), Tuesday, 10 April 2012 00:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

this sounds really unpolished to me on the first listen. If he spent a year mixing it, I don't know what the hell he did. Things like Little Girl don't sound cohesive at all.

I'm not going leftfield on you... (hypehat), Tuesday, 10 April 2012 00:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

This is a really good album. It's probably most similar to Let It Come Down especially with the use of strings but unlike that album it doesn't seem to drag as much. Hey Jane is easily the best thing on here but I enjoyed just about every song. I liked the last album but this one just feels so much more focused. I wasn't really paying much attention to the lyrics but that's not really why I listen to this band.

It's a similar situation to the latest Tindersticks album, no massive surprises just a really strong album that's probably their best in over a decade. Reminds me of why I fell for them in the first place.

― Kitchen Person, Monday, April 9, 2012 4:43 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm in every respect!

hypehat, re: mixing -- i think he made some interesting and kinda bold mixing choices; i'd give it another chance. like how low in the mix the drums are on Get What You Deserve. also, i'm assuming you've only listened to a stream and/or webrip, so that could be the source of some of your sound quality woes.

as far as the video goes, it's the best i've seen all year. it's images have affected the way i hear the entire album. and not just their brutality, but the way they juxtapose misery with the music's ecstasy -- an ideal J has been pursuing for his whole career, imo. and i'd say that's pretty much what a successful video is supposed to do.

caulk the wagon and float it, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 01:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

so happy the mood is positive about this record and i love Let It Come Down so this is a win-win.

can't wait to hear this.

Bee OK, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 03:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

It sounds a little better off headphones, granted, and I've got the vinyl coming some time this week so I'll wait til that before saying too much. And some of it does sound wonderful, like Life Is A Problem and Hey Jane (Greatest thing he's done in years), but I guess I was a little bit spoiled by seeing it at the Albert Hall - I think I was expecting the same massive sweep that he got at that show, and he's clearly not going for that here all the time. It's much more intimate, even to a fault, than Let It Come Down or maybe even A&E - his vocals are really the centrepoint. It's like the closet mix of The Velvets' S/T or something.

I'm not going leftfield on you... (hypehat), Tuesday, 10 April 2012 09:42 (1 year ago) Permalink

he put his vocals way up front on Amazing Grace and A&E too but it works better here. songs are stronger, I think.

Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 10 April 2012 17:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

also I know next-to-nobody gives any credence to his lyrics but he gets some funny zingers off on this one imho

Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 10 April 2012 17:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

i think the triteness of his lyrics is actually one of the band's many great qualities. it's like every rock n roll cliche boiled down to it's purest essence.

caulk the wagon and float it, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 17:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

its*

caulk the wagon and float it, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 17:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

Whilst that video wouldn't be my first choice for promotional material, I think this is ridiculous. 'Pain porn for white boys'?!
http://www.collapseboard.com/reviews/albums-reviews/spiritualized-sweet-heart-sweet-light-fat-possum/

I'm not going leftfield on you... (hypehat), Thursday, 12 April 2012 11:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

I really disliked Hey Jane when I heard it, maybe it sounds better in some context other than the radio but it just felt clunky. Then again I've never particularly liked Spiritualized rockers.

Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Thursday, 12 April 2012 12:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

I don’t give a shit about notions of authenticity.

hmm rest of the piece indicates otherwise

Jilly Boel and the Eltones (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 12 April 2012 15:42 (1 year ago) Permalink

But if a middle-aged white man from Rugby, trailing his privilege and his money and his production vales behind him like old school ties, appropriates the experience and style and musical tropes of the vulnerable and the oppressed he had better tread extremely carefully.

Glad that someone's finally had the balls to call out middle-class white men for appropriating music made by poor black people. Bold.

And I have been called "The Appetite" (DL), Thursday, 12 April 2012 17:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

Smithers, have the Rolling Stones killed

Jilly Boel and the Eltones (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 12 April 2012 17:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

I don’t like that said whiney, white, self-pitying, copyist, imagination-free, privilege-flaunting cisman from England has used this story and these characters from waaaaaaaaaaay outside his experience, knowledge or culture as entertainment, however much Art has given him a hall pass to do so.

Ugh, she sound like Rik from the Young Ones.

Taking someone to task for being cisgender? Is Wendy Carlos her only musical hero? Wth?

Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Thursday, 12 April 2012 17:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

Really having a rough time making it through that first paragraph.

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 12 April 2012 17:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

"Because Art has LICENCE"

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 12 April 2012 17:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

I really hope the writer is 15, otherwise I feel a lot of second hand embarrassment for her right now.

Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Thursday, 12 April 2012 17:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

would she have preferred a video of Jason participating in a genteel fox hunt wot wot

Jilly Boel and the Eltones (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 12 April 2012 17:42 (1 year ago) Permalink

(fwiw I couldn't make it past like 0:30 second mark of the video, have no interest in it - none of Spiritualized's videos have ever been interesting imho)

Jilly Boel and the Eltones (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 12 April 2012 17:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah the video just comes across as more or less trolling, like the album cover. Capital-S SHOCK & Exploitation where you coulda just put up some cool psychedelic swirls.

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 12 April 2012 18:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

As a value-neutral description of spiritualized, their music and the way they construct cool, the review is pretty accurate. Problem is that it's anything but value-neutral. It presents itself as a furious, devastating condemnation, and on that level, it's mostly just silly. Spiritualized's rock and roll costume play isn't any worse or different than what the Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream (and Spacemen 3, come on) were up to decades ago. Recycled cool isn't necessarily objectionable, so long as the recycling is honest about itself. Jason's never tried to hide his appropriations. In fact, I'd say that he makes second-handness the focus of his work.

As protest against that repulsive video, the review is painfully overstated, but I understand where the author is coming from. The video is an ugly, insulting, sensationalistic and exploitative piece of shit.

‘Hey Jane’ wears its NSFW like a smug little badge and is a 10 minute long micro-film about a black transvestite prostitute with a small and frightened child who ends up beaten to a bloody pulp by a repressed and shamed white trick. It is repellent and upsetting and I don’t care what Art is allowed to do, I don’t like it. I don’t like the fact that every fist fall, every crunch of boot on facial bones, is filmed in detail and at length. I don’t like what it appears to be saying about people.
^ Absent all the other, unfortunate detailing, I can get on board with that sentiment.

BEMORE SUPER FABBY (contenderizer), Thursday, 12 April 2012 19:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

The entirety of the content seems to be:

"EDGY!!!!!"

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 12 April 2012 19:25 (1 year ago) Permalink

that's what i call review the Idea of an Album rather than the album itself. her descriptions are abstracted so far out from actual musical sounds that it's as if she's rebutting an essay J Spaceman wrote about "How To Make Rock" and not reviewing a collection of songs. like, she could've written that whole diatribe without actually listening to the album, basing it on a passing knowledge of what Spiritualized's music sounds like.

caulk the wagon and float it, Thursday, 12 April 2012 19:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

and because the amount of chatter that surround every album release nowadays, i notice reviewers doing this more and more. their reviews are an objection to others' reasons for liking an album and not an objection to weak music. this happened SO MUCH with the drake album last year. it was like "i don't like drake because whining and being conflicted about being ultra-rich should not be a topic of music," which is ridiculous. or "i don't like spiritualized because they reference common musical tropes which is TOTES INAUTHENTIC." what matters with drake or with spiritualized is not what they're doing, but how well they do it. which is very well, if you ask me.

caulk the wagon and float it, Thursday, 12 April 2012 19:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

wow there's some grammatical nightmares going on in my posts, sorry yalls

caulk the wagon and float it, Thursday, 12 April 2012 19:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

On second reading I've warmed a bit to that piece. She's obviously young and it's better to be writing furious, passionate, overheated screeds than stiff approximations of a 150-word Mojo/Rolling Stone album review.

Though she should have just called it a blog about the video rather than a review of an album I'm not sure she's listened to. And caulk's point about the ongoing trend of reviewing the discourse rather than the music is OTM, but she's hardly alone in that.

And I have been called "The Appetite" (DL), Thursday, 12 April 2012 19:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

Though she should have just called it a blog about the video rather than a review of an album I'm not sure she's listened to.

If it's a reaction the video it makes a lot more sense, but speaking as someone who rarely watches videos and did not watch this one it did not work as an album review at all.

Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Thursday, 12 April 2012 20:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

he ongoing trend of reviewing the discourse rather than the music

this has been going on for decades but agree it's much more pronounced in the internet era. and annoying.

Jilly Boel and the Eltones (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 12 April 2012 20:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah, it seems like an understandable if overheated response to the awful video that unfortunately decided to present itself as a proper album review. Everything the author says seems inspired by and filtered through her response to the video. She this directly: "I watched the last bit through clenched fists and only because I suddenly, urgently, needed to write about it."

BEMORE SUPER FABBY (contenderizer), Thursday, 12 April 2012 20:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

must be hard to watch something through clenched fists

Whiney vs. (BradNelson), Thursday, 12 April 2012 21:14 (1 year ago) Permalink

I kind of feel like everyone who's freaked out by that video needs to watch it again, 'cause it's really not particularly out there. Has that reviewer seen any movies/tv/videos since the Patty Duke Show?

Anyway, never was a big fan of the Spiritualized half of Spacemen 3, and I doubt this'll change anything.

dlp9001, Friday, 13 April 2012 00:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

Like, maybe if he'd just called it "Hey Sister Ray" instead of "Hey Jane" it wouldn't freak her out so much...?

dlp9001, Friday, 13 April 2012 00:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

word to that, dlp9001. reactions to the video (both in her review and in this thread) seem to be a bit overblown. ya'll seen a Tarantino movie before?

Her point kinda seems to be that a white male artist is exploiting the struggle of "the other" for a cheap thrill. so are white artists only allowed to depict violence upon white males? where does that leave, say, Tarantino's Jackie Brown? (to name one of literally thousands of examples from film and television)

her whole reaction also seems based off the idea that Pierce made the video, when in fact the director was AG Rojas. who is not white, if that would make any difference in her eyes.

caulk the wagon and float it, Friday, 13 April 2012 00:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

not sure how rojas identifies his race.

of course i've seen tarantino flicks, and tons of horror movies. and shit like the human centipede or w/e. doesn't mean i can't feel that the video is ugly and exploitative.

BEMORE SUPER FABBY (contenderizer), Friday, 13 April 2012 00:56 (1 year ago) Permalink

It will replace nothing - except maybe Suicide.

dlp9001, Friday, 13 April 2012 00:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

Also it's cool for Lou Reed to sing about that stuff but it's not like anyone seriously wants to watch a movie of him shooting heroin while having his ding-dong sucked.

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 13 April 2012 01:56 (1 year ago) Permalink

when he sings about "the colored girls", it's not like we want to see the shit get beaten out of them in shabby hotel rooms

BEMORE SUPER FABBY (contenderizer), Friday, 13 April 2012 02:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

I really hope the writer is 15, otherwise I feel a lot of second hand embarrassment for her right now.

According to her Twitter, she's a "Ranter, mother, teacher, music-scoffer." Cast your stones at http://somethingtocryfor.blogspot.com/

Reality Check Cashing Services (Elvis Telecom), Friday, 13 April 2012 02:13 (1 year ago) Permalink


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