The drone and rush of Spacemen 3 was
dark, dirty fun. Like the Jesus and Mary Chain they brought a dash of
demi-monde cool to the synth-pop Eighties. When they broke up, guitarist Jason
Pierce initiated a new project called Spiritualized, a band who didn’t reject
Spacemen’s ethos, but certainly gave it grander dimensions.
Pierce has woven strands of Velvet
Underground ‘rush and
on my run’ thrust,
lysergic propulsion (think 13th Floor Elevators, and yes, even Pink
Floyd), the epic pop pretensions of Phil Spector, and American gospel sounds
throughout Spiritualized’s twenty-year history. The band’s apotheosis, Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in
Space, a classic statement of Pierce’s vision was released in 1997.
Subsequent releases have to varying degrees retreated from or refined that
classic. Good records, all of them in my estimation, but nothing stunning
After 2008’s Songs in A and E, Pierce revisited Ladies and Gentleman, mounting extravagant live productions of the
album. Immersed in his own classic and moved by audience response, Pierce
determined that any new release from Spiritualized had to meet that standard. With
Sweet Heart Sweet Light his mission
is accomplished. It embraces Ladies and
Gentlemen, but deepens and matures its sensibility.
Where some of the band’s recordings
hid behind a patina of noise and attitude, Sweet
Heart is transparently detailed, achieving a clarity of pop production that
would flatter halcyon period Beach Boys or the Beatles circa Magical Mystery Tour.
With Pierce undergoing chemotherapy
as treatment for liver disease, most of the basic tracks for Sweet Heart were
cut in his home studio with a core quartet of Pierce, guitarist/bassist Tony
Foster, keyboardist Tom Edwards, and drummer Kevin Bales. Pierce then convened
sessions in Iceland (for orchestration) and Los Angeles (backing vocals).
