Album Review: Spiritualized - "Everything Was Beautiful"

 

There was a time years ago when I used to think Spiritualized were terrible. I think it was because they'll arguably forever be associated with that moment in 1997 when Britpop died off and music suddenly became a lot more introspective, self-indulgent and tedious thanks to Yorke, Ashcroft et al. For me back then, their Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space album was one of those albums that seemed to have sucked all the excitement out of music and opened the door for alternative music to be swamped by tedious buggers in cardigans playing whingy acoustic songs.

Of course, 25 years later and being a bit older and wiser, I've actually warmed to Jason Pierce and co a bit more with age. The truth is, looking back now, that the band were a very different proposition from the wilfully unlistenable Radiohead and the tedious orchestral balladry-by-numbers of the Verve. Not least because, unlike the aforementioned two, Spiritualized could pack some genuine heaviness into their music with the waves of crushing guitars and occasional blasts of scowling punk energy (give Electricity a listen for proof) putting them closer to groups like the Boo Radleys circa Giant Steps than any sort of "new misery" movement in retrospective.

Although I'll hold my hands up and say that this is the first Spiritualized album I've listened to in full since Let It Come Down some two decades ago, it's heartening to report that it's an album which could quite happily sit alongside the likes of Pure Phase and Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space in their canon. Opener Always Together With You builds slowly from a gentle gospel opening into a thunderous cacophony of noise before Best Thing You Never Had sounds like Primal Scream if for Give Out But Don't Give Up they'd decided to go to Neptune rather than Memphis with its mix of soulful rock 'n' roll and blissful electronica.

Despite the title, Let It Bleed (For Iggy) couldn't sound any less like the Stooges if it tried, rather it builds from a gentle laconic verse into a full on orchestral blast of a chorus like the Only Ones covering the Boos' Lazarus. Great stuff. The gentle countrified Crazy is an achingly lovely lament like Hank Williams crooning from the edge of the universe before Mainline Song kicks in with a chaotic wave of sound effects before blossoming into what's almost space-disco territory with the rhythmic drums, keyboards and horns combining to create a big soaring skyscraper of a tune.

Laid In Your Arms crashes in like waves of sound but what could have gone into full on Radiohead unlistenability is underpinned by having a gentle melody and chorus hook just visible underneath the rubble to keep you tuned in even as the song threatens to collapse in on itself and to me that's always been the difference between Pierce's tuneful experimentalism and Thom Yorke's turn-off impenetrability. As evidence by the lurking ten minute slow building menace of closing track I'm Coming Home Again, a fine way to sign this album off.

It says a lot that Everything Was Beautiful might be 44 minutes for just 7 songs but none of them feel as though they outstay their welcome and that really is a difficult trick to pull off and shows just how good Spiritualized really are. If like my younger self you had this group written off as up-their-own-arse bedroom indie experimentalists you really need to listen to Everything Is Beautiful to have your preconceptions shattered. Yes, it is big, experimental and shamelessly shooting for the stars but it packs a punch that'll knock the air out of your lungs and have you ready to cue it straight up again. A great album.

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