Spiritualized -‘Songs in A&E’ (Sanctuary)

I have to confess, this has been one of those albums on my ‘hmm, must get round to hearing’ rather like Primal Scream and Metallica, on the ‘I like the stuff I’ve heard by them over the last decade and more, cannot afford to buy it just yet’ list. And now I’m kicking myself at having, frankly, denied myself the pleasure.

Because, quite frankly, as The Wire had pointed out, this is their most compelling set for a decade. That album was the genre-busting psychedelic masterpiece Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. Rather like many other records of the time, it was a fantastic record that did well, critically and commercially, and was not dissimilar in vein to records that followed by Mercury Rev (Deserter’s Songs and All Is Dream; Grandaddy’s The Sophtware Slump; and of course Flaming Lips’ The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

And rather like the follow-up albums from many of these artists, Spiritualized’s next two studio albums Let It Come Down and Amazing Grace were good albums, but just not as amazing as we’d hoped they’d be. But this album is frankly, amazing. A gorgeous mixture of all that we have loved Spiritualized before. This confirms that Jason Pierce (or J. Spaceman, as he is credited on pretty much every Spiritualized album) is a genius. Genuinely a Brian Wilson for our times, who is trying to get the angelic music out of his head and down in the recording studio.

And from start to finish, the album does not let up. It never drags nor dips, and makes you want to go back and listen to it from start to finish again. Like many multi-layered albums it’s a headphone work that beenfits from being listened to closely as it yields more and more of its’ charms.

J. Spaceman is once again firing on all cylinders. Be sure to enter and be wowed.

****1/2

Spiritualized’s official website/www.myspace.com/spiritualized

The videos cannot be embedded as the code been disabled by request (why?!) but here are the links to go and watch ‘You Lie You Cheat‘ and ‘Soul On Fire‘

The tracks can also be streamed at myspace above.