Radiohead have done a similar thing already this year. The circumstances are different admittedly, the reactions each individually informed, but the effect remains the same. On both occasions the question ‘what next?’ has been met with a resounding tap on the nose. That’s for us to find out another day, and we probably will. But for the time being it’s more of the best, if that’ll do you? Which of course is fine, though the sense of disappointment felt by your expectations (each having made rewarding progressions at every step thus far) is worth being noted. If anything it’s raised the bar. But both, and Jason Pierce in particular, have an exorcising sense of purpose behind their stride this time, no matter that it’s moving away from the horizon. The lack of such a thing would have had no doubt decaying consequences for the impact of, and sense of need for, a Spiritualized album. But it’s there, along with that healthy, accomplished appetite for drama associated with his every recorded work.
So from shoegazing psychedelia to blisteringly epic progressive space drug-rock to expansive orchestral song-writing for big rooms, to this, which may not be another stage in itself, but rather a selective appraisal of bits of all of the above. And while it might not actually be, at all, it at least feels different. Which is of course all down to the fact that while every pre-‘Amazing Grace’ Spiritualized record was a drawn out process, akin to running a marathon on comedown, these 11 tracks were all put down in 3 weeks, intentionally. Barely a blink of the eye really. And it shows. While it may not exactly be the garage album that had been heralded, it does sound like it was recorded by a man who’d listened to nothing but ‘Kick Out The Jams’ for 6 months. For a man who’s spent months working on an album’s atmosphere before, how it feels is of paramount value.
There are scene-setting feedback spillages from the moment ‘This Little Life Of Mine’ careers round a corner into view, like a rickety old cart losing a wooden limb every time it hits a rut, shackled to Jason Pierce on a strong white stallion. Then on into ‘Electricity’ reserve (it is the *same* song) ‘She Kissed Me’ and reaching seething overdriven breaking point on the absurdly striking ‘Never Going Back’. All raw, all full throttle. But it’s the same natural unfurling sentiment carried over into the strummed inertia of ‘Hold On’, the swelling gospel ‘Lord Let It Rain On Me’ and the beautiful Portishead-y paralysis of ‘The Ballad Of Richie Lee’ that seals off this incredibly rounded album. Rather than hearing a moment already captured, it’s like you’re hearing it form around your ears. Proving himself as master of the moment more than ever, in spite of taking the weight off his shoulders for a change. Let’s hope he’s still got it in a box though.