Spiritualized - Songs in A&E Album Review
Jason Pierce's Follow-up to Amazing Grace is Raw and Uncluttered
Aug 25, 2008
But that Pierce (who is, by all accounts, Spiritualized) took the time to revisit the work he’d put together before a lengthy stint in a London hospital and still kept the final version of Songs in A&E relatively restrained, speaks volumes. It is what makes this follow-up to 2003’s disappointing Amazing Grace that much more valuable.
Leaving Let it Come Down and Amazing Grace Behind
Spiritualized have a partiality for throwing everything into the mix. Pierce has a unique ability to make small songs sound incredibly, indelibly, massive. Past tracks have sounded like treatises, appearing on the landscape as if birthed at Abbey Road, in a gym-sized studio packed to the rafters with choirs, guitars, orchestras, circus freaks and who knows what else.
When it worked, albums were rich and trippy (Lazer Guided Melodies or Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space). When it didn't, they were fatty and fuzzy (Let it Come Down and the heavy, not-so Amazing Grace). This album blends both elements. But the songs here are more sparce. Which is a good thing.
Life, Death and Songs in A&E
A&E discusses death, dying, drugs, mistakes, relationships, family. The album was apparently and originally intended to be a take on what seems to be a sort of Johnny Cash-like character and his family's hard life, far removed from Pierce’s own. But surviving double pneumonia and various other serious ailments has a way of making one rethink things.
Yet Pierce was reticent about releasing A&E after his experience. Following the encouragement from friend and indie film director Harmony Korine (after whom Pierce named his interstitial pieces “Harmony 1” through “Harmony 6”), he went back to the songbook. The result? His voice on the album is raspy and ragged. The lyrics circumspect.. Aching. They now sound personal. And rightly so.
A&E, of course, is UK shorthand for “Accidents and Emergencies” – a sign you’d see at most hospitals in Britain. The double-entendre is appreciated - although assumptions Pierce was hooked up to an intravenous drip while strumming minor chords on his guitar are likely incorrect. Fans fearful that the old, grand, ...and-the-kitchen-sink Spiritualized approach has been abandoned for over-earnest hurtin’ songs need not fear.
Jason Pierce and "Death Take Your Fiddle"
Tracks like “Yeah Yeah” and “You Lie You Cheat” are thick with a choir, feedback and swirls. “Baby I’m Just a Fool” ambles down an initially uncomplicated path but ends with a typically Spiritualized mille feuille of crazy orchestration.
But “I Gotta Fire”, “Soul on Fire” and “Sitting on Fire” (unadventurous titles noted) and even “Sweet Talk” are more unique fare – the first is simple rock meets alt-country, while the latter three are quieter and stripped, dotted with horns. There’s more space to them.
By far the most exceptional song on the album is the shivery “Death Take Your Fiddle”, in which Pierce croaks over the creepy sound effect of an artificial ventilator (was it his own?): “I think I’ll drink myself into a coma/and I’ll take every way out I can find/with morphine, codeine, whiskey they won’t alter/the way I feel now that death is not around...”. It’s haunting stuff.
And it’s Spiritualized somewhere close to being at its best.
Spiritualized tour North America and Europe from September, 2008. For full tour dates, visit the Spiritualized MySpace page or to buy tickets for the Detroit, Houston and Vancouver dates, visit LiveNation.com
