Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light

LGM couldn't have had much of a budget, though - or Pure Phase for that matter, and yet..

to say nothing of his half of Recurring!

I mean, he's done great reconfigurations of familiar American blues/gospel/jazz tropes, but they became a crutch for him at some point. But if he can anchor his craftmanship w/ something emotionally resonant like he did w/ Songs in A&E, the songs will at least on their own merits be worth listening to - whereas LICD & Amazing Grace just seem like window dressing.

whatever nits you might pick w/ his post L&G output, though, the man can and always delivers stunning live performances. There's a very good reason why I have seen Spiritualized more times than any other touring band, by a fair margin even.

Songs In A&E felt like his laziest record yet to me. Also that one with the iron lung noise was genuinely horrific to listen to.

last time i saw spiritualised live - which, tbf, is prob more than five years ago now - the group he'd assembled were nowhere near as good as the Royal Albert Hall band.

Isn't his crutch that from S3 on he's never quite deviated from the template set by Suicide's "Cheree?"

I kid, I like this guy.

the man can and always delivers stunning live performances.

the Thighpaulsandra/Doggen/Kevlar lineup in 2002 was amazing

Ladies & Gentlemen live with his own band and scratch choir & strings at the Sydney Opera House in 2011 was probably the best live music experience I had last year

some bunch of scruffy teenagers backing him* at ATP in 2009 was so pissweak I left my friends and went off to see something else**

*probably the same group as 2011 but who knows

** Rowland S Howard with Mick Harvey on drums tbf

I saw the LAG show at Radio City and it was probably the best Spz show I've seen since 1995.

sic OTM (though obviously I didn't see the SOH show).

Er, ok.

http://www.spin.com/articles/how-spiritualizeds-jason-pierce-fooled-reviewers

"Tinkering?" he says irritably. "Is that what you think I'm doing? Tinkering?"

disingenuous twat

Seems like an honest answer to me tbh. Poor choice of words by Marchese indeed

Also, should probably add I saw them at the Albert Hall, where he played the whole new record. It's going to be good, more spacier moments than Songs in A&E, but lots of ballads (if you like that sort of thing), but his lyrics are possibly some of his worst. I remember rolling my eyes at the last one in particular. The 'rock' songs also tend to last for a while, but then it's Spiritualized live so that's probably nothing to go on. 'Hey Jane' is one of the best he's written in years, though.

just saw those videos upthread. Duh.

Spz is playing in a p small venue for $26; should I get tickets?

sure why not

Yeah go for it dude!

Can't wait. The noise in the live tracks is stunning.

Not to be Debbie Downer, but it really depends how you feel about the past couple of albums.

If you like them, go for it. If you're one of those people that still keeps Laser Guided Melodies clutched to your heart, well... I saw them live recently-ish (well, this decade at least, in the 2010s) and it was one of the most excruciating experiences of my concert going life.

oh I dunno the tour he did with just him and Dogen and a string quartet was quite good imho. haven't seen him perform with a full "rock band" setup in years tho.

I know he's not celebrated as a wordsmith but the lyrics on this album are a disgrace. Like Bobby Gillespie bad.

Spz is playing in a p small venue for $26; should I get tickets?

I would pay double that but no one of any quality ever plays my part of the country anymore.

he's written some good lyrics in his day. couldn't make out most of the words on the live boots of the new material, so reserving judgment there.

I would pay double that but no one of any quality ever plays my part of the country anymore.

Of course I immediately have to retract my statement but I'm happy about that.

Hope J. spends as much time editing as he does mixing this.

Also: Huh?

Wonder if Jason ever heard this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6oqgS35_2w

I'm sure he did

cover:
http://cdn2.pitchfork.com/news/45536/9680614a.jpg
out via Fat Possum in the U.S. on April 17 and Double Six on April 16.

Did Peter Saville's secretary design this album cover too?

pretty good sez I

What. A. Jam.

Had a long long drive in the sun yesterday, wish I had been able to play this song on repeat. Awesome.

As much as I love Spiritualized (a lot), the sound of 20 musicians breaking down and playing whatever, the [insert noise here] moments, they are the musical equivalent of stock footage. Great song though

I can't hear any [insert noise here] stock moments in the new song, although I know what you mean.

This is streaming on NPR. Very excited to give it a listen, I love Hey Jane.

thought the cover art was an img loading error :(

Last couple of albums were a big letdown for me, don't like his new "raw" sound at all. Probably won't be checking this new one out unless it is supposed to be a major improvement.

first sound on this is ornate strings, moodles

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

oh haha this is really great

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

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.

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]

NPR stream

this sounds pretty great

whoa, the video for this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U_EqgBWnmc

def on some Let It Come Down arrangements-tip here

def also way better than the last two

fuck this is REALLY good

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

bleah, fuck that video

cool song though

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

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.

yep - both the LAGWAFIS and the LITC tours were like that. LGM tour was a five-piece augmented by a sax/flute player iirc. And then the Pure Phase tour was just a quartet, and that was honestly the best version I think. Also saw the recent small tour he did with just Dogen on piano plus trio of backup singers and a string quartet. It's always a little different. The light show does a lot of work lol.

Loved the Pure Phase tour, which might as well have been called the small clubs and strobe lights tour. I saw them a couple of times behind LAG, once opening for Radiohead at their "OK Computer" peak. Seen them a few times since then - a surprising number, actually - and will see them again tomorrow night, though of course every show has been more or less the same.

lol I left after Spiritualized's opening set for Radiohead (who I have never cared for fwiw). It was weird seeing Spz play truncated versions of all their songs.

Pure Phase tour was really special, feel like that was the one time I really just could not figure out how such a small group of people were making all that sound

Radiohead tour was also the peak of their internal discontent, iirv

I never realized the song "Pure Phase" was just a milder "Ecstasy Symphony" until just now. I always assumed Sonic Boom was the one behind that one.

On Letterman tonight...

http://p.twimg.com/AsUqMe7CMAA8gk5.jpg

I never realized the song "Pure Phase" was just a milder "Ecstasy Symphony" until just now. I always assumed Sonic Boom was the one behind that one.

He was. There's some minor differences and FWIW, "Symphonic Space" on LGM is Jason (but using the same principle)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx2ImCXMw8U&feature=youtu.be

Sounds good! Solipsism.

Better than I expected. Wanted the all-too-brief noise break at the early 3:00 mark to keep going, though.

NPR is streaming live video/audio from their Washington DC show right now: http://www.npr.org/event/music/152291064/spiritualized-in-concert?ps=mh_frhdl1

They were pretty good last week, but I have a feeling the band can do this in its sleep. I wish it were a bit ... free-er.

Funny admission: it was not until last week that I realized, all these years later, that the title "Cop Shoot Cop" was a drug pun. I just always thought of it like "Spy Vs. Spy" or "Man Bites Dog."

huh I never got that either. I thought it was a reference to cop-on-cop violence.

I like this record pretty well. Sometimes I feel like the bass is missing, it feels a little thin in places. Like you can hear basslines but it doesn't have any punch. I'm sure that's an aesthetic choice in how they mixed it but I wish there was more low end.

So Long is pretty good...

Oh my GOD! We got to hear "Ladies and Gentlemen...", "Come Together", "Electric Mainline", and !!!"WALKING WITH JESUS"!!! Plus a near-30 minute encore with "Cop, Shoot, Cop" (which I was never crazy about on the album but was transcendent live), and at the 15 or so minute mark they did one of those end-of-show freak outs where all the musicians play their instruments all crazy for like five minutes, except instead of ending the show they abruptly went back into the mellow part for another 2 or 3 and ended really gently. It was such a brilliant and incredible thing.

I seriously was not expecting them to be as incredible as they were. I don't think I've seen a show that good since LCD

Yeah, I never noticed the "Cop Shoot Cop" pun until right now. Clever.

I don't feel so bad for not figuring that out until about three months ago, and this is after me owning albums by the band with said name for years.

Super psyched to get to see them tomorrow in Austin...I dig the new record a bunch.

Jason on the cover, writing the album, etc. etc.

@SteveDeux you know that's exactly how Cop Shoot Cop is on the album, right?

I never really cared for/paid close attention to the album version

saw them last night in SF, they were fantastic. I haven't seen them since the Rollercoaster tour in the US, and I thought they were super boring then.

also we had cute backup singers

i still don't get the pun

cop heroin shoot heroin cop heroin

cop shoots another cop with a gun

rmde at you people

lmfao@upeeps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwC7n8q-oHQ

New Jason interview: http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4145686-i-think-festivals-are-the-death-of-art-dis-meets-jason-pierce-from-spiritualized

Worth reading. Nice to have Jason fully back again

Apparently he played new songs and keyboards at last nights show. Maybe I should go when he hits Brighton...

interesting interview. he has funny opinions.

New songs - one a drippy sounding waltzy ballad which had a few zingers and got progressively less lovely as it went. Not bad, called A Perfect Miracle iirc.

Other one was this insanely heavy one chord blues which lasted about 8 minutes and lyrics revolving around 'one man's x is another man's y' and I could have sworn he was saying 'hoo-rah' a lot. But they were playing so loud his wittering was hard to make out.

But he ended up playing most of the new record (which gets a bit dull live), with the exception of Take Your Time, Ladies & Gents, and a version of Electric Mainline that was the loudest thing I've ever heard. Ever managed to drown the drummer out towards the end, just this massive sound/huge bass. But J was playing tonnes of intricate guitar stuff and keyboards, and even got his daughter out onstage to sing that song she's on on the new record.

Saw them tonight, they played COME DOWN EASY in the encore.

Agreed about the new songs, "A Perfect Miracle" is corny but still all right, but the eight minute one chord blues thing was a major highlight of the concert.

Is Huh? a universal word