spiritualized: new album: thoughts

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by sonicthesoundwave, Nov 1, 2021.

  1. sonicthesoundwave

    sonicthesoundwave music is what maths does on a Saturday night Thread Starter

    Location:
    montreal
    i wasn't judging you, i was asking a question...if you took it as an insult, then, i can't help you with that! the question is, when you listen do oyu compare to previous as a point of reference?
     
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  2. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    Ticket arrived today. Guess what it has the "pill box" design as well...

    Still I'm looking forward to this!
     
  3. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    The lavish box is now sold out at the UK/ EU store. I wouldn't have expected that so soon given the lack of any real bonus content. I mean... eight pull out pill boxes are nice but..... :evil:
     
  4. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I have made the observation before that the only real "mistake" Jason made, in terms of how his "fans" felt about his music, was the five-year gap between Amazing Grace and A&E. It wasn't his fault, as you note, since he was seriously ill. But that's where he lost a lot of people.

    Think about it: the fan who was 21 in 1993 was still just 25 when Ladies & Gentlemen came around. But they were 31 when Amazing Grace came out. And then they were 36 when A&E came out. A lot of them had kids in the interim. (And then they were 46 when And Nothing Hurt came out.)

    For original Spacemen 3 fans, the numbers are even grimmer. The Spacemen 3 fan who was 21 in 1987 was 31 when Ladies & Gentlemen came out and 42 when A&E came out and 55 today. A fair number of them are grandparents now.

    That's a lot of transitions to go through in life, and it involves leaving a lot of things behind and falling out of touch with what's new. A new album is never going to mean as much to you at 36 or 46 as it did when you were 21. There just aren't enough hours in the day, there's too much competing for your attention. I distinctly remember the gap period between Amazing Grace and A&E as a younger fan (I was 19 when Amazing Grace came out). There was a feeling that Jason had gone out on a relatively disappointing album (Amazing Grace) and perhaps his muse had run its course. A lot of original Spiritualized fans where in their mid-30s and had stuff to deal with in life and were reckoning with midlife and saw Spiritualized as a thing they cherished from their youth, but which was now in the past.

    From that perspective, it literally didn't matter how good or bad the post-Amazing Grace albums were. They were never going to matter the way the earlier albums had. I went with my spouse to the Toronto show in 2019 and we were far and away the youngest people we saw in the crowd there. We were 35 at the time.

    So I always say to disgruntled fans: Jason's music didn't change. You just got old, bro.
     
  5. brownsound2112

    brownsound2112 Forum Resident

    Superb post, that - and very true.
     
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  6. sonicthesoundwave

    sonicthesoundwave music is what maths does on a Saturday night Thread Starter

    Location:
    montreal
    ...and are the people who still consume the written music press or are the writers of the said presses which is why when a new album comes out the point of reference is their own youth

    '...not as good as blonde on blonde...'

    '...i remember being 20 when lag came out and the new...'

    because the reviews are subjective, people use their own emotional memories to compare anything new which comes after
     
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  7. sonicthesoundwave

    sonicthesoundwave music is what maths does on a Saturday night Thread Starter

    Location:
    montreal
  8. sweetblindness

    sweetblindness Active Member

    Location:
    Indiana
    I admittedly wasn't around for the And Nothing Hurt rollout, but it seems there's more promo this time around for Everything Was Beautiful (and like others mentioned, it does seem they're leaning into the LAG comparisons). Happy to see more folks give later Spiritualized a chance as I think some of Jason's best records came after LAG -- I'm a big fan of And Nothing Hurt, Let It Come Down, and Sweet Heart Sweet Light.
     
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  9. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    My recollection is that And Nothing Hurt actually had the biggest promo push for any Spiritualized album since Let It Come Down at least. The first two songs were released many months before the album came out (like the previous spring), "A Perfect Miracle" was in a bunch of commercials, etc. Amazing Grace, A&E, and Sweet Heart Sweet Light had more low-key roll-outs. (For Amazing Grace that was partly because the label, Sanctuary, almost went under shortly after the album came out.)

    I honestly remember being surprised at how much press coverage and marketing And Nothing Hurt got. Spiritualized no longer seemed like a "cult band," and more like a beloved institution. Once upon a time, in Canada at least, you kind of had to following them to know that something new was coming out. For And Nothing Hurt it seemed like the marketing was more pervasive and mainstream.

    The marketing for the new one seems pretty much in line with that.
     
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  10. CaptainFeedback1

    CaptainFeedback1 It's nothing personal.

    Location:
    Oxfordshire, UK
    I agree he's leaning hard on LAGWAFIS for this one, what with the artwork even the female voice tacked onto the start.

    I have to say I much preferred the 2014 (?) version of Always Together With You as opposed to this tweaked version. It was fine as it was, albeit it sounded 'thin' like the last album. Amazing Grace was the last album I loved from start to finish, even Let It Come Down felt far from perfect to me. But. But...

    For Pure Phase alone, but also LAGWAFIS and Amazing Grace and about three quarters of A+E, Jason will always have my ears and time, whatever he does.
     
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  11. sonicthesoundwave

    sonicthesoundwave music is what maths does on a Saturday night Thread Starter

    Location:
    montreal

    each song was preceded by a video which played out the song title in morse code

    https://twitter.com/officialSpzd/status/1003006085064790016
     
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  12. sonicthesoundwave

    sonicthesoundwave music is what maths does on a Saturday night Thread Starter

    Location:
    montreal
    5 page interview in the new mojo magazine!!!
     
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  13. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    A dedicated Ultimate Music Guide must be imminent! :whistle:
     
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  14. sonicthesoundwave

    sonicthesoundwave music is what maths does on a Saturday night Thread Starter

    Location:
    montreal
    same old, same old

    1 question per album including kate and drugs

    the interesting bits were: before amazing grace he demoed an album but then left the masters in a taxi and lost them- there literally is a lost spz album!

    he recorded this album remotely in studios- started prior to lockdown

    he recorded the songs originally for a double album with ANH but his label said that it wouldn't sell well or be well received as a double album and he shouldn't

    other than that, nothing on the new album! very much a spaceman by numbers interview. shame
     
  15. craigobau

    craigobau Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, England
    Thanks for sharing. You just saved me £5!
     
  16. FredHubbard

    FredHubbard Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    i kind of understand your point but i'd argue there was a definite creative slump; i hated Let It Come Down when it was released and i still regard Amazing Grace and Songs in A & E as his worst studio efforts, the Spiritualized gigs i attended in this era weren't great either, it was only 'HUH?' (almost ruined by terrible production) that seemed to recapture the fire, And Nothing Hurt was showing a definite upward trajectory also, so long may it last. all IMO obvs.
     
  17. sonicthesoundwave

    sonicthesoundwave music is what maths does on a Saturday night Thread Starter

    Location:
    montreal
    i was hoping they would ask how the heck do you record a string section remotely etc. but it was 'you fell out with your band after lag' etc., the question style being statements followed by 'yup, that's right'. reminded me of the big bang theory when sheldon met james earl jones

    Scene: An ice cream parlour.

    Sheldon: Is it true, as a child, you were a stutterer and were functionally mute for eight years?

    James: It is true.

    Sheldon: Oh. Is it true they used scuba gear to create the sound of Darth Vader breathing?

    James: They sure did.

    Sheldon: Oh. Is it true that you were pre-med in college and you almost became a doctor?

    James: That’s right.

    Sheldon: Oh, James, I could listen to your stories all night.
     
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  18. sonicthesoundwave

    sonicthesoundwave music is what maths does on a Saturday night Thread Starter

    Location:
    montreal
    the good news, i forgot to add, that unlike ANH, he doesn't feel like this is his 'last' album, rather I've written a lot through lockdown. it no longer feels like i've got to finish something. it's good. it feels like i've got to start something

    hopefully new albums more frequently?!
     
  19. sonicthesoundwave

    sonicthesoundwave music is what maths does on a Saturday night Thread Starter

    Location:
    montreal
  20. agrock3

    agrock3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    I saw on the Spiritualized Forum pictures that someone posted of a recent blurb from Uncut about the new album with a bit further info:
    https://spiritualized.band/download/file.php?id=1774
    https://spiritualized.band/download/file.php?id=1773
    (all credit to whoever angelsighs is on the SPZD forum...is that how proper messageboard ethics work?)
    Anyway, it's interesting that most of the album is two mixes laid on top of each other - that sounds like how Pure Phase was done....
    Elsewhere, we get free form clarinet, dub, and country....
     
  21. Bassist

    Bassist Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I've bought everything over the years and have seen him / them on numerous occasions but I only ever really play the debut, Ladies and Gentlemen, Complete Works I & II, Royal Albert Hall and boots from the LAGWAFIS anniversary shows.

    Most of the other albums have something to offer but they've been growing their reputations in the shadows of giants relatively speaking and life is getting too short for me to listen to records that I know are only going to take me near to where I want to go rather than all the way in.

    I would like the new one to spin me out of my own musical orbit the way "Feel So Sad (Rhapsodies)" did way back when but that would be an awful lot to ask. I'll settle for an album interesting enough for me to want to play it again straight away. That would put it in the same league as NFR, MassEducation, How The West Was Won, What's Your Pleasure?, Song For Our Daughter, Bonny Light Horseman, Honey, Circles, Is This The Life?, Semper Femina, Magpie Salute and Emily's D+Evolution over the last five years or so . Big ask but not beyond him.
     
  22. dlemaudit

    dlemaudit Forum Resident

    Location:
    France, Paris area
    New Shindig mag has Jason on the cover with an 8 page interview. Plus a short album review
     
  23. sonicthesoundwave

    sonicthesoundwave music is what maths does on a Saturday night Thread Starter

    Location:
    montreal
    is it the usual paint by numbers interview like in mojo?
     
  24. agrock3

    agrock3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Here's a video of the entire issue on Shindig's youtube. Go HD 1080p and get yourself a retina screen so you can read the interview (0:40) and see the five-star review of Everything Was Beautiful (at 0:54).
     
  25. dlemaudit

    dlemaudit Forum Resident

    Location:
    France, Paris area
    Did not buy it , just flicked through , but it does not seem so , Shindig is not "mainstream" like Mojo , more like a fanzine
     

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