New Spiritualized album! I demand an explanation!

raggett: more what?

Mr. Barrus and Ms. St. Claire will doubtless be notified. ;-)

http://www.spiritualized.com/nf_news.php?id=1227

Don't you want to hear music by such a man?

too much time on the rowing machine

Have a soy muffin, luv! there there...

"Hold On" has been kicking around for awhile - it first appeared on a promo disc right when Spiritualized was doing the "orchestra-free" second leg of the US tour.

If so, I'm off to my welding hut to make giant bronze statues of you to place on all those empty plinths in Baghdad...

For some reason the hilarity of this post didn't strike me until I popped out to get a coffee, and started uncontrollably cackling and snorting in the middle of the street.

Maybe, like Delia Smith, Jason Pierce had some goodies "set aside for later".

Comedy gold, I tells yer, comedy gold...

So should I really do what my addled brain told me to do last night, and get a 4 inch tattoo on my arm of one of the swirly characters off the Lazer Guided Melodies CD? I'm in two minds.

Shakey Mo, you got answers AND jokes-such is the way of ILM, no?

heh.

One disc could even be one track of Jason sleeping from 1:00 am to 2:19 am.

That will all be on the "Completist Works" CDs.

Is that, like, really rare then? How exciting! Hoorah for having an ex who worked at Dedicated...

::puts on Recurring and drifts::

I wouldn't be surprised if they were authentic though, since the last album was like a bad parody of a Spiritualized album.

So so true, I think that's a great title. And I wholeheartedly welcome a re-casting of the original tune, since it's so fucking creepy...

My heart is glad. And no, it's not a fake...not nearly.

-This is the first album since Laser Guided Melodies where Jason hasn't recycled old Spacemen 3 material. Hooray!

-I'm shocked, SHOCKED that the longest song on here is 5:21. The conciseness is a wonderful thing, even though there isn't the obligatory apocalypse epic like "Shine A Light" or "Out Of Sight". Well, "Oh Baby" sort of gets close.

-I have no doubt in my mind that every song on here will be absolfuckingutely massive live.

-I am no longer embarrassed to say "yeah, Spiritualized is my favorite band, but that last album blows chunks."

-The lead guitar tone on "Lay It Down Slow" drives me nuts, and not in a good way.

-I still wish Jon Mattock was playing drums.

*does so*

Hey, the first song isn't even pretty. Or ugly in a pretty way! It's actually very messy rock! There might be something here!

I can't help but be very impressed, not just that the songs are short, but that the bombastic slow ones don't overegg the pudding as well. The orchestration's actually (dare I say) restrained...

It's

::wibble:

...

it's, erm ...

Much as I really HATE to admit it, it sounds like The Reinstated Prophet Tentatively Cleared Of His Heresy (In The Form Of That Unspeakable Album of Awfulness) Jason Pierce...

(might actually have made a really good record...)

Dear lord, I hope this is the real album. I hope these are not demos that he's going to fuck up and over-orchestrate and drain of all RAWK. I hope this is for real.

I'm on my second listen. On first listen, some of the RAWK songs sounded a bit flat, like a cartoon SPZ tribute band formed by Oasis fans... but on second listen, it's actually rather sucking me in. The gospel songs are gentle and lovely and not overdone and actually quite heart-wrenching. And the RAWK songs actually... erm, rock.

I mean, it's still Classique Roque with a capital PROG but it's got something, I hate to use the word "soul" but whatever it was that was sucked out of SPZ on the Unspeakable Album is definitely back. I'd have been happy to have more drones and tremolos and phase, because there's far too little of that, and far too much "I like Free Jazz, really I do" skronk. But it's bombastic and BIG without being overblown and pompous, even while sounding stripped-down and fragile. Chris B is onto something, in that the songs are short and concise and intense and fully formed and realised, rather than long and meandering.

I like it. I have to admit that I like it. I'm going to buy this when it comes out. Probably.

Thanks, Jason, you've saved my day. :-)

I'm trying to judge it as being "An Album" rather than the expectations of "The New Spiritualized". I mean, it's miles better than The Warlocks, but that's not saying much.

I guess I'm just getting older, and I'm no longer quite so entranced by RAWK. But there's some good textures and moments of geniune loveliness here...

So the above tracklisting is genuine then, before I go running off to download?

I mean, who listens to SPZ for the melodies or the songs? The lyrics are often silly to the point of laughable, and come on, it's DRONEROCK, there are not supposed to be melodies as such.

For me, the whole point was the arrangements, the drone, the whirr, the texture. Take that out, and there's nothing of what I liked the band for in the first place, hence the SUCK.

He hasn't evolved since S3! It's all about arrangements with him.

so if you're OK with a 'lack' (say) of melody then how come you haven't got into other types of drone music (say indian classical) (well if you have then i've never seen yr posts on it).

2) I'm not neccessarily about the *disappearance* of melody entirely. I'm a bubblegum pop girl at heart, and I do appreciate a good melody, and I could not live on a steady diet of nothing but pure drone with no melody. BUT what I am saying is that inventive or original melodies are not the point - they are merely a skeleton on which to hang arrangements. Jason Pierce's songwriting has not improved or worsened since late Spacemen 3 - however, his arrangement style has changed and varied considerably. Me, I like the arrangements that are all about the texture, rather than how many violin parts he can fit into a fifteen minute epic.

OK. I don't know that much abt any music (as in the nuts and bolts of it) but i have some records i suppose so i do post abt it every now and then if it comes up.

''On ILM, I read about 10 times as much as I post.''

same here.

anybody else know where I can get the tracks without having to submit to digging around on the p2p networks?

I don't see this pre-release as sabotague, if anything, I see it as advertising. I WOULD NOT have bought this album if I had not heard it on the internet. Now that I've heard it and know it's a million miles better than The Abomination, I will buy it. And as an obsessive fan, I will probably buy it on 2 or 3 different formats. I'm not the only obsessive SPZ fan in the world, by a long shot.

from: http://www.nme.com/news/106929.htm

SPIRITUALIZED TO RELEASE MORE RARITIES

SPIRITUALIZED are to release a second compilation of rare material.

'The Complete Works Volume Two' follows the first instalment, released in March this year, and is scheduled to coincide with the band's UK dates in February 2004.

Almost all of the 26 tracks are not available on any previous
Spiritualized album, and date from 1995 to 2002, taking in the sessions immediately before this year's 'Amazing Grace'.

The tracklisting is:

CD 1

'Let It Flow' (single version)
'Don't Go/Stay With Me'
'Don't Go/Stay With Me (The Individual)'
'Broken Heart' (instrumental, from Japanese version)
'Lay Back In The Sun' (single version)
'Cool Waves' (instrumental)
'Electricity' (album version)
'Spread Your Wings' (instrumental)
'Come Together' (from Abbey Road EP)
'I Think I'm In Love' (radio edit)
'Broken Heart' (from Abbey Road EP)
'The X-files Theme'
'Broken Heart' (instrumental, from Abbey Road EP)

CD2

'Stop Your Crying' (single version)
'Anything More' (instrumental)
'Rock And Roll' (from 'Stop Your Crying' single)
'Out Of Sight' (single version)
'I Didn't Mean To Hurt You' (instrumental)
'Going Down Slow'
'Do It All Over Again' (single version)
'On Fire' (live)
'Amazing Grace (Peace On Earth)'
'Do It All Over Again' (live)
'Come Together' (live)
'Going Down Slow' (instrumental)
'Rock And Roll' (instrumental)