Tonight’s selections from Spiritualized’s debut album, Lazer Guided Melodies. I recommend listening with headphones for the full sonic experience.
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Run [1992] (flash warning)
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Spiritualized's first two albums after Jason “J Spaceman“ Pierce and Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember dismantled Spacemen 3 over the course of Recurring tend to get overlooked in the wake of 1997's massive Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, a record so big in sonic scope and overt ambition that it immediately got labeled some sort of a concept album (it's not) and even more damningly a magnum opus. Ladies And Gentlemen... marks a point in Spiritualized's discography, one where the succeeding albums tend to be held up against it and found wanting and the preceding ones are often viewed as necessary but subordinate achievements on the route to Pierce's seventy minutes of glory.
That's the problem with magnum opuses—unless the artist in question really only does have one (and only one) shining achievement in their body of work, they tend to unjustly shut out the “lesser” works. Plenty of people know Lazer Guided Melodies and Pure Phase are “important”, but how many have searched them out? — Stylus
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I Want You [1992]
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In contrast to Spacemen 3's noisy early work (and their mid-fi later 80s releases), 1992's Lazer Guided Melodies and Pierce's Recurring LP side trade overt neo-psychedelia for meticulous, pristine dreamscapes. Spacemen 3 absorbed diverse influences, but Lazer Guided Melodies highlights Pierce's gospel inspirations and further refines his songcraft. He deeply understands dynamics; as they build up and wind down, his compositions guide listeners through spaces not usually reached. This first Spiritualized album doesn't exactly adhere to its era's other musical movements, and by filtering older traditions through Spaceman's signature space rock style, remains timeless.
Sequenced into four suites (pertaining to the double LP's four sides), Lazer Guided Melodies opens with “You Know It's True,” building on The Perfect Prescription's delicate spaciousness without that album's exhausting in-your-face drugginess. The chugging guitars of “If I Were With Her Now” compliment the minimal lyrics (“You gave me drugs you said would cure my ills/They may cure yours but mine are with me still”) as Pierce's vocals drift into the ether. The relatively conventional “Run” interpolates the Velvet Underground's “Run Run Run” and J.J. Cale's “Call Me The Breeze,” and the six-minute instrumental passage “Symphony Space” takes listeners through Spiritualized's sonic universe. “Shine a Light”'s beautiful gospel yearnings make way for a dense wall of sound, “Sway” is the album's lyrical peak (“Life sure is weird but what else have I to know?”), and the glossy “200 Bars” is a fittingly psychedelic closer. While on records like 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space Spiritualized embraced grand arrangements, Lazer Guided Melodies is still a carefully constructed trip through musical sound and time, a record that transcends genres and eras. — Analog Planet
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Step into the Breeze [1992]
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Excellent fan video for 200 Bars.
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200 Bars [1992]
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WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Will Forte, Lily Collins, Isaiah Rashad featuring SZA
Jimmy Fallon: Miley Cyrus, Pete Davidson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Stephen Colbert: Michael B. Jordan
Seth Meyers: Tom Holland, Anna Konkle, Maya Erskine, Nikki Glaspie
James Corden: Gov. Gavin Newsom, Hannah Waddingham, She & Him
Trevor Noah: José Andrés, Lou Llobell
SPOILER WARNING
A late night gathering for non serious palaver that does not speak of that night’s show. Posting a spoiler will get you brollywhacked. You don’t want that to happen to you. It's a fate worse than a fate worse than death.
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I caught Spiritualized live on their first American tour (I’ve seen them a number of times since). This song was amazing that first time. Hypnotic, heady stuff.
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Sway [1992]
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LAST WEEK’S POLL: IS DIE HARD A CHRISTMAS MOVIE?
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