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Spiritualized®, "Ladies and gentleman we are floating in space"
Arista, released: 1997
This record really surprised me. I read some of the press release and thought that I wouldn't like it. A former menber of Spaceman 3 and a lot of electronics and a lot of musicians, I thought that this would sound like what was 'in' or 'hip,' but it doesn't. It goes its own way and it does a good job of creating a new place in the world. This is an English record and it sounds one. A bit of post-Echo aggressssion in the vocals from time to time, a bit of Eno in the music. Can you really write a song called "Come Together" and not conjure up the Beatles? They do. This record is 70 minutes long and one song clocks in at over 16 minutes, almost always a mistake. But the record does have a certain amount of flow to it. It's really good background music, fills the room but doesn't require constant attention to understand. There are also some very catchy tunes tossed. They are sucsessful at covering a lot of different musical styles without sounding trite or noodley. It rocks, and it lounges, and it Enos, and it jams, and it electricks. Oh yeah, and the packaging is cool. The world of post everything hits, and then we grow into the forms with good songs and a clear vision, painlessly.
[BdeV 7/27/97]