Best Spiritualized Album

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Kerr gave me a bunch of free shit so I guess I owe it to him to create the polls he asks me too (heh heh)

Poll Results

Option	Votes
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space	32
Lazer Guided Melodies	23
Pure Phase	10
Let it Come Down	8
Live at the Royal Albert Hall	3
The Complete Works Vol. 1	3
Amazing Grace	3
Fucked Up Inside	1
The Complete Works Vol. 2	0

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:03 (eighteen years ago)

I like how everyone tries to deflect the blame on to me!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:05 (eighteen years ago)

I might go for Fucked Up Inside actually.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:06 (eighteen years ago)

I bet Kate votes for Complete Works Vol 1

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:09 (eighteen years ago)

yr first love is always the deepest sooooo... LGM for me

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:10 (eighteen years ago)

(but Fucked Up Inside maintains a special place in my heart because a) it is a great live recording and b) I was actually at the Fillmore show that provides half the material on the album)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:11 (eighteen years ago)

We really need louis here to stick up for the unfairly maligned Let It Come Down.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:14 (eighteen years ago)

Let It Come Down , for me.

haha xpost

― jed_, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:14 (eighteen years ago)

I'll go for Pure Phase.

― Z S, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:15 (eighteen years ago)

yay for jed!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:15 (eighteen years ago)

― jed_, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:15 (eighteen years ago)

and i actually own them all apart from "Fucked Up..."

― jed_, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:17 (eighteen years ago)

I'll stick up for LICD any day of the week (I was just blasting it yesterday matter of fact) but its not their best.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:19 (eighteen years ago)

does Fucked Up Inside really sell for $345 like Gemm says?!??

I guess I better encase my copy in glass or something...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:21 (eighteen years ago)

i'd sell it.

― jed_, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:24 (eighteen years ago)

Lazer Guided Melodies, for sure.

― novaheat, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:25 (eighteen years ago)

No way will it sell at that price.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:27 (eighteen years ago)

i don't like, the inevitable poll winner, L&GWAFIS very much.

― jed_, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:29 (eighteen years ago)

mmm I'd bet LGM wins, honestly.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:30 (eighteen years ago)

It's great though. Plus this is contrarian ILM. Unless that only works for bands that people have more than 1 album by.
x-post

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 27 April 2007 23:31 (eighteen years ago)

(but Fucked Up Inside maintains a special place in my heart because a) it is a great live recording and b) I was actually at the Fillmore show that provides half the material on the album)

And I was at the Palladium show that provided the other half of the material.

― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 28 April 2007 00:19 (eighteen years ago)

Are you twins?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 28 April 2007 13:19 (eighteen years ago)

Bah, I voted for L&G because it's great, and I think the most consistently so of any of their albums. With earlier Spiritualized, I'd rather listen to S3, with later stuff, well, I dunno, The Verve or something. Though, to be fair, I haven't heard Amazing Grace, so it could theoretically be great.

― I eat cannibals, Saturday, 28 April 2007 16:39 (eighteen years ago)

they're all iterations of the same thing. i don't know which i'll choose. probably 'pure phase'.

― That one guy that quit, Saturday, 28 April 2007 17:03 (eighteen years ago)

LAGWAFIS is their masterpiece, to my mind. Binds all the threads from both before and after.

― Scik Mouthy, Sunday, 29 April 2007 07:10 (eighteen years ago)

ladies and gents for me too

― grap-fu, Sunday, 29 April 2007 08:42 (eighteen years ago)

LAGWAFIS really is going to walk this.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Sunday, 29 April 2007 13:11 (eighteen years ago)

let the monday morning arguments over early vs later spiritualized begin!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 30 April 2007 08:56 (eighteen years ago)

Nope, Kerr, you were wrong. Laser Guided Melodies, all the way.

I was just listening to it again last night, I was trying to nick the bassline off Take Your Time. It is just perfect. Everything about that album is perfect, the songs, the arrangements, the production - I would not change a thing.

Plus, it has autoharp! I never noticed that before. So even though I've been listening to it for 15 years straight, I can still hear new depths each time I listen.

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 30 April 2007 09:52 (eighteen years ago)

LAG is just kind of ... dull. I don't know. I haven't got it out as much in recent years nearly as much as the first two. It's kind of overblown and very much overrated. And, listening to it with the knowledge of hindsight, you can see where the rot started to set in. It's a good album, sure, and loads better than a lot of the other crap that was going on at the time - but it's not as good as LGM or PP. PP is a really underrated album.

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 30 April 2007 09:54 (eighteen years ago)

I liked the "Electricity" singles set best: all the live tracks.

― Mark G, Monday, 30 April 2007 14:43 (eighteen years ago)

Pure Phase is definitely underrated and a very strange album. I have nicked several ideas from it myself - I dunno why more people haven't done the "lets string an entire set of songs together with drones" thing

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 30 April 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago)

I wish they would play Medication more live.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 30 April 2007 16:43 (eighteen years ago)

well it was a live staple of their set for a looooooooooooooooong time

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 30 April 2007 16:56 (eighteen years ago)

Live @ Royal Albert Hall for me

― stephen, Monday, 30 April 2007 17:31 (eighteen years ago)

What Kate says on this thread is dead-on. I remember buying LGM the day it came out and feeling like my life had just changed. I literally lay flat on my back and listened to the thing consecutively for nine hours, each time marveling at how deep the sound was, how I might never dig all the details out of it. (The same thing as with the best parts of Recurring: there are sounds on Hypnotized that might be human voices, or treated horns. It's inconclusive.) Pure Phase is really good, and Royal Albert Hall is tough to beat for sheer bombast, but the gloppiness of much of Ladies and Gentlemen really overruns it in places. Not quite as good as advertised.

― sinister Porpoise, Monday, 30 April 2007 17:54 (eighteen years ago)

L&GWAFIS is their 'everthing must go', clearly. it was the first i heard. though i remember listening to it almost obsessively, it's curious how much filler there is. 'home of the brave', 'the individual', 'no god only religion', and a couple of others... i'm not saying the others are perfect but they are sort of better for listening to as albums.

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 30 April 2007 18:02 (eighteen years ago)

Lagwafis is still great though.
If someone asked Kate to do a double cd of her fave materail(covering ALL albums) I wonder what she would pick?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 01:18 (eighteen years ago)

ARGH Material, obviously.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 01:18 (eighteen years ago)

PP is a really underrated album.

Too bad the mixes on PP aren't nearly as good as the mixes on the Electric Mainline EP.

― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 01:28 (eighteen years ago)

I picked Ladies and Gentlemen because it is their only album that is consistently strong from beginning to end. Laser Guided Melodies and Pure Phase are both great too.

― Moodles, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 01:55 (eighteen years ago)

As much as I loooove their cover of "Anyway That You Want Me," I picked Ladies and Gentleman, mostly because of the "Can't Help Falling in Love" version of the title track.

― Tape Store, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 02:00 (eighteen years ago)

Too bad the mixes on PP aren't nearly as good as the mixes on the Electric Mainline EP.

This may be true (god, I played a hole in that record when it came out) but it's still a bloody underrated album.

I'm not denying that LAG isn't a good album. It is a good album, and for any *other* band it would be a career high. But it is not SPZ's best album, by a long-shot - and it's does not live up to the hype.

― Masonic Boom, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:32 (eighteen years ago)

Does anyone have the cd with the elvis bit?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:51 (eighteen years ago)

I have it on cassette haha

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

Does anyone have the cd with the elvis bit?

Yes

― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:52 (eighteen years ago)

I knew you would! haha. Does it go for much on ebay? I'd like to have it.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 23:42 (eighteen years ago)

YSI

srsly

― That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 09:25 (eighteen years ago)

I think you can find it on slsk easily enough.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:47 (eighteen years ago)

i don't know how to shot that

― That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:52 (eighteen years ago)

What, no mention of Blue on Blue?

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:07 (eighteen years ago)

I guess Ned got the email from Will as well.

http://111music.moonfruit.com/

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:56 (eighteen years ago)

Who else ordered?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 18:15 (eighteen years ago)

I don't understand what that link is for

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 18:16 (eighteen years ago)

To buy this cd Blue On Blue

None of these versions have been released on cd before.They remain unavailable on i-tunes .track listing ----------------
Why Don’t You Smile Now (alt mix)
Step Into The Breeze Instrumental(alt. mix)
Angel Sigh Guitars(alt. mix )If I Were With Her Now (alt mix)
Anyway Violins(outtake)Didgeridoo
Sway demo)Take Your Time (alt. Vox)
200 Bars (alt mix)
These Blues(demo version)
Angel Sigh (alt mix 2)
Sometimes (first spiritualized rehearsal)
:runtime :1 hour and thirteen minutes

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 18:23 (eighteen years ago)

oh that thing. yeah I dunno I'll wait for one of you to tell me how it is. Can't see it being BETTER than the album, honestly.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 18:26 (eighteen years ago)

Will have to wait and see. What did you think of Friendly Fire?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 20:49 (eighteen years ago)

I haven't heard that particular comp, but I have a bunch of stuff that's on it in other formats - that's the one with the Maide Vale BBC performances right? with that moron announcer asking him why he doesn't like to talk and shit like that?

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 20:54 (eighteen years ago)

Lazer Guided Melodies, if only for Shine A Light

― mehlt, Thursday, 3 May 2007 01:21 (eighteen years ago)

The version on Fucked Up Inside is better!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 3 May 2007 10:29 (eighteen years ago)

Couple of hours left to vote.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:38 (eighteen years ago)

As predicted Lagwafis walks it.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 3 May 2007 23:47 (eighteen years ago)

No Guitar Loops?

― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:05 (eighteen years ago)

i listened to pure phase, while putting my cd's away, yesterday. what a fantastical album.

― funny farm, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:09 (eighteen years ago)

It deserved more votes. Looks like early era fans voted LGM in hope it would beat lagwafis.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 4 May 2007 02:00 (eighteen years ago)

Most version I've found online have the Elvis version...just use the Hyp3 Machine.

― Tape Store, Friday, 4 May 2007 05:53 (eighteen years ago)

I want the actual promo cd though.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 4 May 2007 11:01 (eighteen years ago)

i want a ysi!

i have gone to hyp3 machin3 and none of them had it ;_;

― That one guy that quit, Friday, 4 May 2007 11:03 (eighteen years ago)

Someone help him out?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:16 (eighteen years ago)

uploading it now.

― jed_, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:27 (eighteen years ago)

i mean just the elvis version of the track "LAGWAFIS" - is that all you want?

― jed_, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:30 (eighteen years ago)

http://download.yousendit.com/A442E24139534CED

― jed_, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:35 (eighteen years ago)

http://packy.dardan.com/walky/albums/album11/akz.jpg

― That one guy that quit, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:57 (eighteen years ago)

Huzzah!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 5 May 2007 01:47 (eighteen years ago)

(that was on the hyp3 machine, though)

― Tape Store, Saturday, 5 May 2007 01:50 (eighteen years ago)

Did you like that version then?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 5 May 2007 20:24 (eighteen years ago)

That version really is much much better isn't it?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Sunday, 6 May 2007 11:13 (eighteen years ago)

Bump so the back at work people can see the results.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 7 May 2007 13:46 (eighteen years ago)

the elvis versh is muchness better

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 7 May 2007 14:05 (eighteen years ago)

LAG winning is teh ridiculousness

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 7 May 2007 16:09 (eighteen years ago)

Did you expect anything else?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 7 May 2007 16:17 (eighteen years ago)

given the actual posts on this thread I expected LGM to win - but I guess a fair amount of people who voted didn't have anything to actually say on the thread

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 7 May 2007 16:47 (eighteen years ago)

given the actual posts on this thread I expected LGM to win - but I guess a fair amount of people who voted didn't have anything to actually say on the thread

Because we said it all on all the other Spiritualized threads.

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 7 May 2007 20:09 (eighteen years ago)

I only have Lazer Guided Melodies and I love it and voted for that. Oh, I have the Feel So Sad 12" too, which in my mind is forever associated with listening to it and looking out of my bedroom window waiting for people to turn up to my 18th birthday party.

I didn't buy Pure Phase because it got a bad review (in the NME?) and then Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space came out and I heard it and it was SO RUBBISH with all its "I'm living on the edge, man" shit and gospel choirs borrowed off Booby Gillespie. I think I saw them live in Finsbury Park around the time and they were suitably preposterous and bad.

So then I gave up on them until this year when I was watching Skins and heard this amazing song at the end of one of the best episodes. I found out it was Do It All Over Again off Let It Come Down. I fucking love that song and am scared to get the whole album in case its the only good thing on it.

― Alba, Monday, 7 May 2007 20:38 (eighteen years ago)

that's the best thing on it, but not the only good thing. You should definitely hear Pure Phase though, that's nothing like LAG.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 7 May 2007 20:45 (eighteen years ago)

This poll confounds me. It would seem obvious to me that LAG was as unfortunate a stylistic retreat as Pure Phase was a massive step forwards. With the latter we had one of the most futuristic, tripped-out, sonically-adventurous indie records of the 90's, but with LAG, the commercial breakthrough, such explorations were tempered with obvious songwriting and pervasive gospel tones, the atmosphere not so much redolent of an awesome, multi-faceted journey (as with Pure Phase) as a continual outpouring of indistinct self-pity. I can't get myself too excited with LGM either; the songs, although they sound great, don't actually move in decisive directions, contenting themselves far too often with aimless faffing. There are a couple of exceptions, of course: If I Were With Her Now and Shine A Light are absolutely fantastic, but they weren't the finished product, they were the precursor. (Actually, Shine A Light may be the finished product, although I haven't worked out whether I prefer the Albert Hall version. It's close.)

Let It Come Down was a songwriting return to form, and a vast improvement over its predecessor. There aren't too many fans of it about, but I'll confidently state that it's Spiritualized's second-best album by a street. It also contains their best song, the 10-minute "Won't Get...", which reaches the climax of climaxes, rendering LAG pretty much redundant at the flick of Thighpaulsandra's fingers. (Actually, you can keep 'I Think I'm In Love'. I like that one. But really only the Albert Hall version, and this one isn't close.)

― Just got offed, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 00:40 (eighteen years ago)

I wouldn't have said LAGWAFIS was a stylistic retreat.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 09:41 (eighteen years ago)

Bah.

― Masonic Boom, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 09:44 (eighteen years ago)

You do think that?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 09:44 (eighteen years ago)

My Spiritualized rarities cd just arrived. Anyone else get theirs?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 12:24 (eighteen years ago)

The violins take of anyway you want me is excellent.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 22:54 (eighteen years ago)

three years pass...

aaaargggh lost my copy of Blue on Blue

can anyone help a brother out

― the first Asian legislator in our Nevada State Assembly (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 18 October 2010 20:19 (fifteen years ago)

If LGWAFIS could be in any way considered a "stylistic retreat" from PP, such would only make sense if you also viewed PP an alloyed move away from LGM. The gospel, trad-rock, blues & avant-jazz elements had already become very prominent in Medication, These Blues & Let it Flow. TBH, PP is my favorite album of theirs precisely b/c it combines those more "trad" elements in even measure with the blissed-out droniness of LGM. Best of both worlds IMO, even tho both, on their own, were very nice places to hang out for a while.

― lol @ dog w/ sunglasses (Pillbox), Monday, 18 October 2010 20:44 (fifteen years ago)

one month passes...

I lost my copy of Blue on Blue

can anybody help a brother out? I miss the OG version of "These Blues" in particular

― from the lowly milligeir to the mighty gigahongro (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 15 December 2010 23:49 (fifteen years ago)

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space is horribly overrated. There's so much crap on there. LiCD and Laser Guided Melodies are much better.

― Lazarus Niles-Burnham (res), Wednesday, 15 December 2010 23:59 (fifteen years ago)

it's true

― from the lowly milligeir to the mighty gigahongro (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 16 December 2010 00:04 (fifteen years ago)

I think it's best tracks are great but to me it sounds like a very transitional record - it kinda splits the difference stylistically between the electric guitar+organ-based drone rock of Pure Phase and the orchestral approach of Let It Come Down, it's very much in the middle.

― from the lowly milligeir to the mighty gigahongro (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 16 December 2010 00:06 (fifteen years ago)

the thing for me is that Ladies... starts with the title track and ends with "Cop Shoot Cop"; I sort of don't care about anything in the middle, or anything on any of the other albums

― Tina Tina Cheneuse (DJP), Thursday, 16 December 2010 00:06 (fifteen years ago)

not even "I Think I'm in Love"? that's the other big standout track to me

― from the lowly milligeir to the mighty gigahongro (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 16 December 2010 00:06 (fifteen years ago)

If I was going to pick another standout, it would be "Come Together" (I do like "I Think I'm In Love" though).

― Tina Tina Cheneuse (DJP), Thursday, 16 December 2010 00:07 (fifteen years ago)

everything Spz ever released up thru Let It Come Down is fucking fantastic, you guys are lame

― i genuinely thought when i first joined that he was the admin (ilxor), Thursday, 16 December 2010 16:12 (fifteen years ago)

This is exactly why so many people say it's their best album ... "Pure Phase" is too drone-y, "LICD" is too OTT with its 100-person choirs and symphony orchestras, but "LAG" sits nicely in the middle between the two extremes.

I'm with you in thinking that "LAG" isn't their best but it makes perfect sense why so many people think it is.

― NoTimeBeforeTime, Thursday, 16 December 2010 17:33 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

just found my glow in the dark edition of pure phase in the archives.
years of it being left unloved about to be put right.
did not know that re the 2 mixes aspect of this album, but i do know it still sounds amazing.
"too drone-y" - i think not.

― mark e, Tuesday, 27 March 2012 12:39 (thirteen years ago)

ten months pass...

LAZER GUIDED MELODIES

It is constructed as the ultimate classic vinyl listening experience:
4 color-coded cross-faded suites
Red = Love
Green = Nature
Blue = The Blues
Black = The Void

Some bands are at their apex in their debut and this album stands out from their later works because it doesn't contain the same superfluous excess. It has a sonic clarity and purity of vision which is absent from subsequent sessions. It is more ethereal and flows the best.

It is an audiophile's dream and perhaps the best produced album of all time.

― Graveyard Poet, Monday, 25 February 2013 10:27 (twelve years ago)

Hmmm.

― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 25 February 2013 10:34 (twelve years ago)

I'm a better musician. Serious musicians and composers are not commercial I trained at the top music school in the US.. I'm a CREATIVE person. I am a vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist. I taught myself how to write music but I had extensive training. I sing advanced music and write advanced music. I can write simple music too. I need donations since the commercial world does not fund serious composers or serious musicians. I need assistance. All serious musicians do.

― garfield drops some dank n' dirty dubz at 2am (unregistered), Monday, 25 February 2013 14:00 (twelve years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.