Albums by this artist

Amazing Grace (2003)

Let It Come Down (2001)

Live At Albert Hall (1998)

Lazer Guided Melodies (1992)

Interviews

Capturing Creation
September 20, 2003

Spiritualized

Amazing Grace

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» TROY CARPENTER | CO-DIRECTOR

Spiritualized Amazing Grace Spaceman/Sanctuary, 2003 RiYL: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus And Mary Chain

"Hold on to those you hold dear," Jason Pierce sings in the chorus of the third track of Amazing Grace, and you have to wonder how he keeps his own advice. Pierce initially formed Spiritualized after the bitter breakup of trance-rock experimentalists Spacemen 3, and the lineup has changed many times since then, the most high-profile example being his impersonal 1999 jettisoning of band principals Damon Reece, Sean Cook and Mike Mooney. For the new album, he stripped down the process that resulted in 2001's overblown symphonic Let It Come Down, recording in a rawer, more visceral manner without much of the studio polish and sonic augmentation that characterized that album.

But while listening to the new disc, it hits you -- what Pierce really holds dear is his songs themselves. From an aesthetic standpoint, his music really hasn't changed much at all since he formed Spiritualized in 1989. The same basic songwriting ethos remains front and center -- decadent space rock with strong melodies and a fair mix of ballads and rockers. He even goes back to the same basic chord progressions -- Amazing Grace's "She Kissed Me (It Felt Like A Hit)" sounds suspiciously like the last album's "On Fire," which in turn echoed 1997's "Electricity."

Many artists who stick to pre-ordained patterns over long careers grow stale, but Pierce/Spiritualized -- much like the bluesmen and American roots musicians he so fervently admires -- has been able to produce a surprising amount of variety within his self-imposed musical parameters. Amazing Grace is a great example of this: while the songs aren't that different from "classic" Spiritualized, the method in which they were recorded presents a whole new set of sonic possibilities.

Spiritualized albums often come with a well-balanced mix of ballads and rockers, and Amazing Grace is no exception. But the guitars are way up in the mix this time, forcing more grit under the fingernails of the harder-edged songs and adding an organic atmosphere to the ballads. Things get swampy and dissonant more often than before, as in the ringing "Never Goin' Back," which rides rails of spiky feedback and in the final chorus leads Pierce to let out an exhausted, impressed shout of "Woooh!"

The choral swells in "Lord Let It Rain On Me" are even more emphatic than they might have been in a previous incarnation of the band, as they stand out from the plinking verses with bombast. Likewise the lead guitar line in closer "Lay It Down Slow," which boldly slices into Pierce's aural dreamscape to lift the song up to new heights before obeying its title.

It has become increasingly apparent throughout Spiritualized's career that the band's main inspirational touchstones are Black American music, primarily gospel and blues. If Let It Come Down is the most overtly gospel record in the band's canon, with its expansive orchestra and choirs, Amazing Grace could be considered to be its equal with regard to the blues. The band gets down and dirty and works out some simple, affecting tunes the way it does best. And this batch is certainly worthy of sitting alongside the group's past work -- another eleven friends for Jason Pierce and his fans to hold dear.

TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.