SPIRITUALIZED
Marking their ninth studio album, iconic English outfit Spiritualized return with their latest record Everything Was Beautiful. An album born out of lockdown as a reconnection to peaceful places heretofore unrecognisable in London city. Something that founding member Jason Pierce a.k.a J Spaceman has been in training for his whole life. Personally playing 16 different instruments on the record and employing more than 30 musicians and singers, the embarrassment of riches is evident throughout. An album taking on as many different genres as it does contain instruments, Everything Was Beautiful consists of the same fundamentals and elementary components Spiritualized have always embraced but true to form, the push to pursue new boundaries continues. Something we have come to expect from every Spiritualized record.
Album opener ‘Always Together With You’ began life back in 2014 before it received a reworking and was subsequently added to Everything Was Beautiful. Announcing its arrival with a Sputnik signal, it gently builds with soft guitar and loving declarations from Spaceman. An orchestral accompaniment and elated backing vocals create a soaring cosmic piece.
The ironically uplifting ‘Best Thing You’ve Never Had’ is a sonic euphoria comprised of oscillating electronic rhythms, punchy rock riffs, a pulsating brass section and supported by a vibrant choral. Enough to make any dancefloor strain under the weight of this future classic dance track, it swirls in its auditory ascendency, building and building before its rapturous climax.
After such an epic track, ‘Let It Bleed’ takes a seat, pours itself a tall glass and slows the pace right down. A reflective piece, somewhat mournful and regretful in its lyricism, its honesty undoubtedly shines through. With its bubbly fx, slow and steady horns, the track meanders along as the guiding hand and aching vocals of Spaceman entice one to let go, release themselves and lay down with him as he wills the listener into his cathartic embrace.
Side steeping into a little country, ‘Crazy’ ushers in the steel pedal guitar as Spiritualized go blue grass in a stripped back love song. A simple tune with a simple message, measured by its relative brevity as it is the shortest tune on the album.
Chugging back into view comes ‘Mainline’. A long wind up and cumulative build takes fuzzy rubber bands, gentle backing vocals with cascading harmonies and has Spaceman asking the question “Do you want to go to the city tonight?”
A mashed up cacophony as only Spiritualized can produce, ‘The A Song (Laid In Your Arms)’ is a saturation of the senses. An almost overwhelming wall of sound, the swelling composition comes like a set of waves washing in over again and again. An intoxicating blend of organs, psych riffs, and electronic meltdown. It is the rolling commentary of Spaceman that acts as the stray piece of lyrical driftwood one clings to as the deluge of sounds become an immersive sonic tsunami.
The final track ‘I'm Coming Home Again’ immediately rules itself out of radio friendly contention as the duration of the epic piece is on the thick end of ten minutes. A wandering track sprawling across a guitar and harmony rich expanse as Spaceman echoes the title repeatedly. An emphasis on returning to origins with a very real and tangible sentiment, the interstellar piece traverses time and space in its sonic endeavours before peaking with its elevated choral and frenzied guitar disintegration.
If it wasn’t for the elation and positivity of the record one could be forgiven for feeling exhausted from the Spiritualized experience. Taxing as it may be at times, the energy and stamina required to listen to the album is but a drop in the ocean compared to the output delivered by Spacemen and his merry men. The complexity, passion and craftsmanship that has gone into this record is clear to see and a pleasure to hear. A continuation in the Spiritualized tale, Everything Was Beautiful is another incredible release by the space rock, neo-psychedelia extraordinaire.
