Spiritualized
Songs in A&E
(Sanctuary)
Lord knows Jason Spaceman (nee Pierce) has been finding inspiration down at the crossroad where the blues and gospel meet as far back as Perfect Prescription, Spacemen 3's sophomore album from 1987. So it doesn't take a near death experience (Spaceman was hospitalized with double pneumonia during the making of Songs in A&E) for him to see the light, so to speak. However, it seems to have caused him to translate some of that fragility to record, peeling back the heavy sonic gauze in which he's wrapped those influences for so long.

Following the first of a series of "Harmony" interludes (named in tribute to Harmony Korine, for whose film, Mr. Lonely, Jason recorded the music) that are interspersed throughout the album, "Sweet Talk" reveals Spaceman's voice at its rawest. While the track makes vague reference to the war, it also conveys a certain amount of bodily vulnerability, so much so that one can almost hear the morphine-drip as the track slowly builds to a hymnlike level. Indeed, the subsequent song, "Death Take Your Fiddle," is built on the rhythm of a respirator as Spaceman delivers a beautifully simple blues reverie on staring his mortality in the face. Similarly, "Sitting on Fire" is beset with purposefully lethargic vocals, making for a compelling counterpoint to the lyrical refrain of "An old flame still burns in my heart."

Still, it's not all so languid. "Baby I'm Just a Fool is a golden mix of melody and vibraphone as Spacemen seemingly delights in his vitality, singing "Heaven it ain't easy you know I got the scars to show I'm here." But it's the interplay of paradoxes that make this record such a gem: gospel joy and blues dirge; life and death; simplicity and symphonic. It may be a vein that runs dry after this record, but Spiritualized has tapped into something truly breathtaking.
Stephen Slaybaugh