AR: Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space

Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space (1997)

Interested in the palliative properties of space rock? Look no further. Mixing arena rock bombast, gospel choirs, avant jazz freakouts, symphonics, layered vocals, synth beeps, horns, harmonicas, and unsubtle lyrical content about the sorts of substances that enhance this very medium, Spiritualized have delivered at least 70 minutes of relief from your emotional, existential ills. The songs are long and majestic; it's near impossible to hear this album without picturing yourself in a gargantuan concert hall. And that hall is alternatingly filled - sometimes within the same track - with slow, angelic waltzes, hypnotic pulse numbers, and aggressive rock-yer-face-off jams. It's an album that displays a breadth of range but still all basically sounds the same, which is a testament to cohesion but also makes the back half of the disc rag a bit.

The album is packaged like a pharmaceutical, and that desire-for-relief theme dominates. The opening track - after the subway automoton disembodied-voice reading of the album's title - pleads a repeating line: "All I want in life's a little bit of love to take the pain away." It may look cheesy in print, but the resignation to and confession of just wanting the pain to stop is beyond touching. The remainder of the album seems to be an attempt to get at this relief via a highly varied soundwash. "Come Together" is a powerful 3/4 rocker; "I Think I'm in Love" is a snarling groove number. "Stay With Me" backs things off to a heroin-just-injected crawl, but "Electricity" follows up with a psychedelia-tinged roadhouse rocker*.

* - Note that I'm trying to get out of the habit of writing song by song accounts in reviews (except for my favorite albums, which deserve the treatment), but it's really hard when the band uses every instrument at its disposal and is all over the map in terms of style. Which I suppose is a good thing. Regardless, it's warranted here, as labeling this "space rock" and moving on wouldn't quite have captured how varied and original they manage to be within the genre. This is no Pink Floyd derivative.

The back half of the album is problematic, as it focuses so much on the epic slowdown compositions that a drone kicks in. They are pretty, interesting enough songs, but they don't just match up with the pastiche of Side A very well. It's about a three long song lull before things pick up again with "No God, No Religion," a sort of apocalyptic instrumental freakout. Next comes "Cool Water," a pretty number that fully employs the gospel choir, strings and whispered voices in a plea that ends up sounding hymnal. It's the proper outro for the album, and I'm not sure how well it's pulled off; it's almost too saccharine for me to take it seriously. It sounds like an album closer, though, which makes the actual closer, "Cop Shoot Cop," a sort of P.S. coda. And tres coda. It's a minor-key, mysterious, moody groove number with blues hall piano licks, and probably would be the coolest thing on the album ... except that it goes on for 17 minutes and crescendoes to an all-instruments spazzfest noise-out wackiness that makes "NGNR" look tame. Really LOUD Ornette Coleman stuff, if that means anything to you. It eventually settles back on that groove, of course, inclining me to forgive. All of that makes it hard to recommend to casual listeners, though avant jam fans can easily buy in.

So: a majestic album with ample highlights but a bit of a lull in its middle. It is boldly original and achieves a lot of its labeled claims, even without the supplementary chemicals it so often alludes to. I really wish those two or three tracks had been more on par with the rest of the album, as otherwise this would grasp my full endorsement. Still definitely worth multiple late night supine headphone experiences.

Status: Recommended (solid)
Nyet's Fave: "I Think I'm in Love"