- Artists:
- Spiritualized »
- Label:
- Island »
Perhaps it was the grimmest of ironies that the man who seemed so obsessed with talking directly, beseechingly even, with his god came very close to a one-on-one pow-wow with the big man himself. Grim irony, too, that the man who sings about, but refuses to talk about, all matter of pharmaceuticals came to rely on them to maintain his very existence.
Or maybe not. There’s an odd feeling that Jason Pierce, Spiritualized’s heart and soul, instead found this adventure to the gates of Hades (because surely if there is a heaven and hell, he’s heading to the hot one) just that – an adventure, to be treated with the same sardonic, lip-curled, knowing stance he's held for the past ten years. Spiritualized albums these days seem a strange mix of mirth and resignation. A pastiche, if it wasn’t a state of affairs with such extreme possible outcomes.
You wonder if embracing that final step outside of mortality has become more than a gloomy obsession and an actual desire of the inevitable. Because the flipside, the notion that this constant retread of morbid, fated topics is all one big joke to him is unthinkable. Unthinkable especially when he can still create such wonderful songs as lead-off track ‘Soul On Fire’, a joyous soulful explosion that will surely trigger shivers in a live setting. But less unimaginable when you study a song such as ‘Death Take Your Fiddle’, which is musically anchored by the sound of a steadily wheezing respirator. The song’s lyrics of “Death take your fiddle / play a song for me / and I will sing along_”, as well as talk of codeine and morphine, grinds softly close to bone in the most uncomfortable of ways; as if turning his near-death experience (he was given his last rites after a bout of double pneumonia, don’t forget) into a wry reference is perfectly normal.
Confusing too, that a man who refuses to discuss the lyrical content of his records – and once famously claimed that the lyric “there’s a hole in my arm where the money goes” wasn’t necessarily about intravenous drug use – is more than happy to turn his dire situation into a pun-ish album title. Songs in A & E, however, might well have been cooked up (excuse my own pun) as an album title well before death took its almost permanent grip on the Spaceman.
It’s as if playing his own game of lyrical cat-and-mouse has caught him in a world where reality and myth, role-playing and actuality are intrinsically entwined, till neither listener nor artist knows no difference. Truth and parody meshed together in an altogether confusing and ill-conceived manner.
Which is a shame, because there is great merit in parts in Songs in A & E. Tracks like ‘Borrowed Your Gun’ are full of languorous confessional beauty and closer ‘Goodnight Goodnight_’ has the sort of fragile melancholia that he has perfected over twenty years. In other places though, there’s the familiar drag of ‘seen that, heard that, don’t believe in it anymore’, which is a shame, because his particular blend of sombre gospel, garage-psyche and aching balladry used to be so essential and vital; something to believe in, even.
A claim that, as enjoyable as his records can still be, it’s hard to argue Spiritualized hold over us anymore.
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Spiritualized
now this
is a good review
good reveiw
really dont like Soul On Fire though and much preffer Death Take Your Fiddle.
Its a pretty avrage record really this reveiw is miles better than Pitchforks freakin8.7 or what ever today that is just rediculess for this album.
I hate the Embrace moments on Songs in A&E thouh embarasing.
Chronology
I feel it's also worth mentioning that a great deal (exactly how much, I'm not sure) of this album was conceived BEFORE the Spaceman's brush with death. So, it shouldn't necessarily be said that he is singing about that experience.
I've noticed that
Death take your fiddle = Waiting around to die by Townes Van Zandt. They're both great though...
hmmm
its an OK review but i think the album definately deserves more credit. Its so, so beautiful. Ok, its different, but beautiful. 8/10
I would give it...
and 8 probably, maybe even a 9. It's a great record. There are a couple errors in this review, "as if turning his near-death experience (he was given his last rites after a bout of double pneumonia, don’t forget) into a wry reference is perfectly normal." He has stated many times the album was mostly done before his hospitalization and that it did not really influence this record. just sayin'
From what I've heard this sounds about right
I'm an ex-junkie who needed drugs to save my life, so...uhm, maybe I'll relate...hey!
I always buy Spiritualized records anyway. I usually only like one or two tracks but hey-again! junkies do weird things, eh.
That's not exactly the quote
...uhm, it seems fairly well written to me. I'm gonna assume from your username that you're a difficult person to please, eh?
but
if you can't spell definitely you don't get to have an opinion.
Sorry. I don't make the rules.
It is
well written, just a couple factual errors. I personally don't agree, that's all.
hang on,
so its NOT laser Guided Melodies 2?
ah nuts!!
I heard it playing in Resident in Brighton the other day.
It sounded really boring and laboured.
Spiritualized are one of those bands
i know i am supposed to love but can only like. Whilst i havent heard enough of this album to know if 6/10 is right, my gut instinct on what i know of their previous material which is either beyond sublime of pretty average indicates to me this is fair.
A bit disappointed but it's beginning to grow on me
Am surprised by some of the rave reviews as it's ok but nowhere near that good. 5 or 6/10 would be a fair score.
It's the usual Spaceman lyrical bingo of "Fire", "Soul", "Lord", "Jesus", "Angels", "Babe", "Needle", "Vein" etc even though I keep thinking he can't do another song telling us he's got a fire in his soul...
The harder/faster songs (ie Yeah Yeah) just sound too thin and weedy.
And his voice sounds pretty farked, like he did record after his stint in hospital.
also does anyone else think that it's a
fucking dreadful title for a purportedly serious record. I could understand if it was The Darkness...
same old same old
with worse arrangements..
Still great to see live, but I wont bother buying another record....I can't see anyone who is a fan of spiritualised listening to this over other things in the back catalogue 3 months down the line.
Sure there are some good tracks, but lyrically, and musically its beginning to get into the bingo stage that eddy baby mentions...
I wish...
Spiritualized would change the formula of their sound and experiment more. You know, like My Morning Jacket do.
sowwy
I can't spell sometimes. But its not worth discriminating over.
i thought it was a good read
but didnt particularly focus on a breadth of elements, only the morbid obsession which pervades his lyrics
nah.
pierce would have to reform the first line up to produce anything as good as that. what? you think pierce actually wrote it all?
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