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Tarfumes.com - Songs in A & E
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List Price: $12.98
Our Price: $8.97
Your Save: $ 4.01 ( 31% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Fontana Int'l
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0602517665422
Label: Fontana Int'l
Manufacturer: Fontana Int'l
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Fontana Int'l
Release Date: 2008-05-27
Studio: Fontana Int'l
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Editorial Reviews:
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Songs in A&E arrives in 2008. It is their much anticipated sixth studio album, two years in the making. Main man J. Spaceman is back after a serious illness which had him in the hospital. Spiritualized are an English rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Jason Pierce (who often goes by the alias J. Spaceman) after the demise of his previous outfit, space-rockers Spacemen 3. The membership of Spiritualized has changed from album to album, with Pierce - who writes, composes and sings all of the band's material - being the only constant member. Spiritualized have released five studio albums. The best known and most critically acclaimed of these was 1997's Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, which NME Magazine made their Album of the Year.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: brilliant as The Black Watch's "Icing the Snow Queen"!!!
Comment: This is what we have come to expect from Jason Spaceman: awe-inspiring melodies, majestic in their pathos, their simplicity.
As good as any of their records (i have them all), if not better.
Don't listen to anyone who slags off the lyrics--who cares about lyrics in pop songs, anyway? If you want poetry, read Eliot or Shelley or Wallace Stevens, or Dylan, for heaven's sakes.
Plaintive, heartbreaking, ambitious in a sort of safe way, cathartic, lovely--as good as THE BLACK WATCH's masterpiece, released early this past summer.
If you like Radiohead, The Verve (ick!), or Flaming Lips--you will adore the new Spiritualized.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best since Ladies and Gentlemen. Maybe better.
Comment: To me, this is the best Spiritualized record since `Ladies and Gentlemen'.
First lyric point: I think this is his most lyrically interesting work. Content wise, JP seems to have wallowed in the self-pity of drug addiction. I found his musical glorification of his wretched state a bit annoying. But maybe as a non-drug user, I just couldn't relate. The lyrics on this record seem to be much more honest. Dwelling on death is probably as much of a rock lyric cliché as the addiction/redemption dichotomy, but I think he explores it with more insight and heart. (As an aside, I've read that most of this record was written prior to his major illness. So I find the fact that he got to this point without the actual brush with death all the more impressive.)
Second lyrical point: JP's penchant for parodying clichés as a basis for lyrics seems to be gone. And I'm glad. Other than `She Kissed Me and It Felt Like a Hit', I found these groan inducing rather than funny or insightful.
Musically: I thought "Let it Come Down" was really overblown and sterile (relative to L&G. It's still sonically a very impressive sound). And I thought "Amazing Grace" was good but a bit too raw and under-produced. But for me, I think this record is the perfect balance of the two sounds. It has great dynamic range in the arrangement and mix/master which is a welcome change these days. The loan acoustic guitar sounds detailed but hushed, and the orchestra sounds massive but with a lot more restraint than LICD.
And I really like the Harmony Interludes and how they help pace out the album.
In summary, I know Jason Pierce hasn't been labouring for the last 10 years trying to make a second great record to please me personally, but I must say, he has succeeded.
Customer Rating:
Summary: glad to have him back
Comment: First, I definitely like this album. J-Spaceman's first album after his life-threatening illness is not a disappointment. It is a little different and I don't like it overall as much as his last few records.
Favorite songs: Baby I'm Just a Fool, Soul On Fire, The Waves Crash In
I must admit that I laughed when I read the other reviewer's comment that the acoustic songs sounded like Adam Sandler singing his silly songs. I don't necessarily agree but the acoustic songs are definitely the weakest songs on the album.
Overall, if you are a longtime Spiritualized fan, you would be insane to skip this. There are definitely some classics on here.
For new fans or younger folks getting into psych, shoegaze, britpop, etc - this ain't a bad place to start (although "Ladies & Gentlemen" is a way better record of course).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Spiritualized
Comment: While maye not as great as "Ladies and Gentlemen we are floating in Space", this is an extraordinary record by today's standards. While I also prefer his Spacemen 3 period J Pierce is one of the ebst songwriters in mdern rock. To some degree it is surprising that he has been able to keep on producing such high-quality music for over a decade now (or 2 even. A gem.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another British gem that Americans will ignore
Comment: I can't really understand it, but for some reason, the country that gave the world the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Who, Clapton, Hendrix's Experience, Pink Floyd, Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, etc., has been virtually ignored by American music listeners since, well, the late-70s/early-80s (we can argue about British punk in America). I've heard it explained this way: hip-hop never really caught on in Britain but exploded in the US, and wiped England off the musical consciousness of Americans. Who knows. I have an alternative theory: that America's rightward shift, profound conservatism and navel-gazing resists more adventurous music and instead seeks out sound-a-like bands that mimic whoever's big at the moment (Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Beck, NIN, whatever).
The fact remains, the Smiths barely registered in the US, as did the Stone Roses, My Bloody Valentine, the Libertines, Suede... Oasis caught on a bit, but Blur sure didn't. Even Radiohead (minus "Creep") have been more underground in the US than above- (kinda like Bowie was in the 70s, when he was at his artistic peak).
Spiritualized may well be the greatest British alternative "band" of the 90s-to-present that most Americans have never heard of (ditto for Pierce's Spacemen 3 in the 80s). I'd call "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" the "Dark Side of the Moon" of the 90s, except those who expected guitar solos and instead were treated to white noise and free jazz workouts would probably throw it out upon first listening. Although "Let It Come Down" has some incredibly great songs, I think "Songs in A&E" *is* their/his best and most consistent album since "Ladies and Gentlemen..." I too was at first bothered by the seeming sparseness of some of the arrangements, as well as the cracked vocals which are way out in front of the mix, but it has really grown on me, and definitely seems like a good direction for Pierce to move in (unlike the atrocious latest from Sigur Ros).
Other songs on the album may jump out quicker (e.g. the Stones-like "Sweet Talk," the much remarked-about "Death Take Your Fiddle," and the catchy "Soul on Fire"), but the song that gains in depth every time I hear it is "Baby I'm Just a Fool."
If you're new to the band, I recommend this, "Ladies and Gentlemen," "Let It Come Down," "Lazer Guided Melodies" and "Pure Phase." And Spacemen 3.
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