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SPIRITUALIZED
Songs in A&E
The motto of Jason Pierce's former band, 1980s drone rockers Spacemen 3, was "Taking drugs to make music to take drugs to." Pierce has adhered to that mission statement for his entire career, the last two decades of which have been spent as the creative force behind the sublimely spacey Spiritualized. "Songs in A&E" slightly changes that formula. This is music to detox to. Or at least to come down to.
There are only isolated moments of electric-guitar-rock grandeur or head-spinning psychedelia to be found on the more sonically subdued "A&E." Pierce keeps his usual lyrical focus on the topics of love, death and drugs and sings it all in a frail voice, the result of a near-fatal bout of pneumonia he suffered in 2005. He's always taken as many cues from the blues as the Velvet Underground, and that's never been more apparent. On "Death Take Your Fiddle" and "Goodnight Goodnight" -- the latter closes the album with a chant of "funeral home, funeral home" -- he certainly sounds like he has hellhounds on his trail. That raucous moments, such as the screaming guitars on "Yeah Yeah" and "You Lie You Cheat," are limited only serves to give them a greater impact.
Pierce's greatest strength on "A&E" lies not in his songwriting but in his arrangements. "Soul on Fire" is a straightforward dream-pop song that soars thanks to a string section and backing gospel choir. The same combination transforms "Borrowed Your Gun" from mournful to uplifting, a fitting microcosm of the entire album.
-- David Malitz
DOWNLOAD THESE:"Soul on Fire," "Yeah Yeah," "Borrowed Your Gun"
