A bit more than 30 years ago, Jason Pierce shook off the end of Spacemen 3 in a sweeping, cosmic re-imagination of the Troggs “Anyway That You Want Me”. Now three decades on, he’s still blowing fragile melodies into sweeping orchestral climaxes, finding a spiritual resonance in maximalist, elaborately arranged pop. Everything Was Beautiful is Pierce’s ninth album as Spiritualized, coming four years after the solitary of And Nothing Hurt and, perhaps more relevantly, in the immediate wake of Fat Possum’s reissue of the first four Spiritualized albums. It’s a glorious summation of the Spiritualized journey so far, an exhilarating, enveloping document of Pierce’s art.
Category: Spiritualized
Spiritualized :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
In the late 1980s, after a split with his Spacemen 3 partner, Peter Kember, Jason Pierce set out to make a new kind of music, less guitar-driven, more orchestral, founded on hauntingly simple melodies, but blown out with lush arrangements, blistering noise and free-wheeling instrumental improvisation.
This year, Fat Possum has begun reissuing the first four Spiritualized albums on vinyl. We talked to Pierce about his extraordinary 1990s run, his creative process, his influences and the way that music, when done well, can transport you into different times and different places.
Spiritualized :: Lazer Guided Melodies
With Spiritualized’s Lazer Guided Melodies, recently reissued by Fat Possum, Jason Pierce imbued the songs with an overwhelming sense of freedom and relief. It not only pointed a way forward, it laid out a path Pierce has followed ever since.
Spiritualized :: Sad Days Lonely Nights (Junior Kimbrough)
J Spaceman brought the Spiritualized majik show to LA last month in support of his latest joint, Sweet Heart Sweet Light . As expected, the room was sonically awash in trademark gospel/space haze, with a […]
Spiritualized :: Hey Jane
Sweet Heart Sweet Light is due out on Fat Possum Records April 16th, and in this instance “ Huh?” may be the perfect album art. Like most Spiritualized fans, I can imagine Jason […]
Spiritualized :: Lazer Guided Melodies / Revisited
Lazer Guided Melodies , the gorgeous debut album from space-rock pioneers Spiritualized , gets a well-deserved reissue. As unflashy and traditional as the packaging looks it still reminds me of the floating ghosts […]
Spiritualized :: Songs in A&E
I’ll give this to Jason Pierce – if he wanted to record an album that sounds like something recorded by someone coming off of a near death experience, he nailed it and […]