Spiritualized - "Amazing Grace" : Your Opinions

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I don't know what to think. Maybe I haven't listened to it enough to let it sink in. It's definitely sweeping, and it's got a very strong gospel vibe.

"Hold On," my favorite on the album, is a good song, but it sounds, oddly enough, like some 1849 gold prospecter song written by Stephen Foster. Weird.

"Oh Baby" is a pretty good, very heavily orchestrated and atmospheric ballad.

"The Power and the Glory" is nondescript until it suddenly reminds me of "the Bells" by Lou Reed halfway through the song. Sorta free-jazzy.

"Lord Let it Rain on Me" is good southern-tinged gospel tune replete with choir and "I'm a sinner" lyrics.

"The Ballad of Richie Lee", is so-so. If I were the spirit of Richie Lee, I would be touched by the sentiment, but not overjoyed with the music. Just a typical "what-a-pained-soul-may-his-soul-find-peace" dirge with distorted guitars breaking up the tense orchestration.

"Rated X" is a forgettable ballad. And the vocals are processed to fuck like on the Strokes album. Eh.

"Lay it Down Slow", the closer, is another snail's pace ballad. Not a particularly memorable one at that.

And then there are the *godawful* rock songs. By my count, there are four of 'em this time around, and goddammit they all sound exactly the same (and exactly the same as the rock songs on the other albums too!)!! They're just about the most generic songs I've ever heard in my life. "This Little Life of Mine", "She Kissed Me," "Never Goin' Back," and "Cheapster." God, I can't stress enough how fucking terrible, just awful these songs are. How can such a perfectionist allow this kind of shit on his albums?! Does anyone actually like these??

Anyway, it's a decent album, but it doesn't feel very coherent or cohesive to me. I think it's got its moments, but it feels largely like leftovers from Let it Come Down. Maybe I need to listen to it more.

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Friday, 23 May 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

In this form I like it a lot. Actually I like all the rock songs (same thing on Let It Come Down where I only liked Twelve Steps and On Fire). It's probably something to do with my inner Stones fan. Current favorites on A.G. though are The Power And The Glory and Rated X. Lord Let It Rain on Me is bobbins though.

― Omar (Omar), Friday, 23 May 2003 17:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Are you saying that you only really liked the rock songs on LiCD? Wow. So you like Spiritualized's rock songs better than their ballads?

The second I heard "On Fire" I had a bad sinking feeling.

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Friday, 23 May 2003 17:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Best album Jason's done in a while...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 23 May 2003 21:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Ned/Omar OTM. Less gospel, more scuzz=good thing.

― adam (adam), Saturday, 24 May 2003 03:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Jason channels Iggy shockah!

That's a good thing.

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Saturday, 24 May 2003 03:11 (twenty-two years ago)

but is it in stores yet? and if not someone please post when it is or when it will be, or when they will know when it will be, capiche?

― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 24 May 2003 03:48 (twenty-two years ago)

And in this case I actually like the gospel... "Oh Baby" and "Lord Let It Rain Down On Me" are my fave songs on the album right now. I like the scuzz a bit, but really the big difference I noticed with this album is that it actually sounds like a band again rather than a 10, 20, or a 100 session players.

Best album Jason has done since Fucked Up Inside

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Saturday, 24 May 2003 04:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Not a big fan of this one, I'm sorry to say. I just prefer the big proggy wall-of-sound orchestral thing.

By the way, Fucked Up Inside = Best live album ever. FACT!!

― Evan (Evan), Saturday, 24 May 2003 05:26 (twenty-two years ago)

two months pass...

Okay, I'm starting to think that This Little Life Of Mine might be the worst Spiritualized song ever. Massive wall of noise = good. Massive wall of noise attached to half-arsed ugly rock song that would shame Kelly Jones = very very bad.

Which is the one that starts with the awesome handclappy rhythm at the beginning and has that two-note Fafisa riff? That's marvellous... the only rocker on the new album that doesn't make me want to hit the skip button almost immediately.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 14 August 2003 09:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't get me started! I'm at Suzy's house being played Diwali Rhtyhtms and I can't comment, really. Stop with the Kate Bait threads.

Amazing Grace: I laughed. I cried. It was better than Cats.

― kate at suzy's house (suzy), Thursday, 14 August 2003 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

So is this album worth getting hold of then?

Spritualized used to be one of my favourites until Let It Come Down was released - but the bombastic, middle of the road ballads have really put me off. At the time - Electric Mainline seemed to tread a nice path in string-acompanied Stockhausen spacerock, and Ladies and Gentelman... had a tasteful blend of The Stooges, gospel, Lee Hazlewood and Dr John. These days, I don't listen to any of their albums anymore for fear of realising that I've been wrong about them all along.

― bert (bert), Thursday, 14 August 2003 13:46 (twenty-two years ago)

is any of it like "the twelve steps"? that's the only Spz song i've liked since "medication"

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 14 August 2003 22:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha EVERY new Spiritualized rocker sounds like the Twelve Steps... or Electricity, for that matter. She Kissed Me (And It Felt Like A Hit) is practically a carbon copy.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 18 August 2003 12:08 (twenty-two years ago)

twelve steps had the porn solo

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 18 August 2003 12:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I like the Chuck Berry one ("Trickster"?).

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 18 August 2003 12:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I think of it as "the Deep Purple one" ('Cheapster,') but yeah...

'Porn solo?'

― M Specktor (M Specktor), Monday, 18 August 2003 12:59 (twenty-two years ago)

someone solo'd on the butt bongoes?

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Monday, 18 August 2003 15:13 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

WORST. ARTWORK. EVER.

― adaml (adaml), Saturday, 27 September 2003 00:19 (twenty-two years ago)

A lot like LICD I think this is an album that will take many listens before it sinks in (or before I train myself to like it).

― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 27 September 2003 00:36 (twenty-two years ago)

the porn solo in twelve steps was the breakdown!

― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 27 September 2003 00:59 (twenty-two years ago)

The artwork is terrible... the entire band look like waxworks.

I'm liking this more and more (the slower stuff at least) - Oh Baby is incredible, the way it seems to out-epic the whole of the last album without even a hint of padding. Also, I reckon Cheapster may be the most danceable Spiritualized song yet.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Saturday, 27 September 2003 12:27 (twenty-two years ago)

the first song on the new mojave 3 reminds me a bit of 'let it flow'.

― keith (keithmcl), Saturday, 27 September 2003 14:22 (twenty-two years ago)

the first two songs are so bad, i couldn't believe my ears. it's like a jason pierce lyric writing machine has been built to take care of the words. which wouldn't be a problem at all, if the music was cool. but it isn't.

i've never noticed just how weedy jason sounds. over boring, functional garage rock. i listened to a few other songs, and one or two of the ballads are decent, but it's pretty lazy stuff overall.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Saturday, 27 September 2003 23:12 (twenty-two years ago)

it seems like he was defeated by the immensity of his last failure. this record isn't horrible, it just sounds like it should have been his first record and not his tenth or whatever this is. it sounds like he is trying to wail when in the past his most powerful songs chugged almost mechanically and his voice was never the focus.

― keith (keithmcl), Sunday, 28 September 2003 00:16 (twenty-two years ago)

"Thighpaulsandra". Hoxton CRAP.

― adaml (adaml), Sunday, 28 September 2003 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry, Julian Cope fans.

― adaml (adaml), Sunday, 28 September 2003 00:32 (twenty-two years ago)

So...*deep breath* I've just been asked to interview Jason tomorrow afternoon.

And I'm shitting myself, frankly.

While I've listened to his last five years' output with an exponentially increasing sense of disillusionment, I have still basically LOVED his work since I was 16 (1991). What do I say? Help!

I refuse to let him disappoint me, or to cock it up by asking a bunch of pedestrian banal been-there drugsgoddrugskatedrugsgospeldrugs shit.

New tips from ILM please!

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

A good album, not great. Parts of it do seem like Pierce is on auto-pilot, in terms of instrumentation and song-writing. There's a number of songs on here, especially the harder "rockers" like the two opening tracks, where I find myself wishing for some of the inventive droning guitar tones and effects from ye olden dayes with Spacemen 3. He isn't relying so much on repetition anymore, and now instead of their being an interesting sonic interpolation of a handful of notes, he just has a bunch of guitarists playing classic rock riffs over very simple chord changes. It works sometimes - the fried organ clap-clap of "Cheapster" is great, definitely stands out. "Hold On" is great, "The Power and the Glory" also sticks out to me. But the album as a whole doesn't grab me, it seems like an afterthought in many ways, or maybe a spring housecleaning to sorta clear away the baggage of the last few records. He's getting further and further away from the sonic experimentation that marked his previous work - one of the things I really enjoyed about his records that seems to be missing lately is that inventiveness. I used to listen to his records and be so befuddled about what instrument was doing what, because he would use such interesting combinations of effects and instruments: the drones, washes of sound, riffs carefully fading in and out of each other. It was fun to try and pick it apart. But with the last couple records the arrangements have become much more conventional - now he's performing explicitly in a classic-rock idiom where all the phrasing and signposts are fairly obvious (Phil Spector, late-period Elvis, Patsy Cline, etc.) Stuff can still sound great, but it isn't as eye-opening.

Personally, I like Let it Come Down more than this one. But everybody hates that album but me (the only tracks I don't really like on it are "On Fire" and "I Didn't Mean to Hurt You".)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 1 October 2003 18:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I've just been asked to interview Jason tomorrow afternoon.

Good luck...and tell me, who the FUCK handles his press? I'm supposed to be doing a feature on him and I can't find out who the contact is!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 18:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I refuse to let him disappoint me, or to cock it up by asking a bunch of pedestrian banal been-there drugsgoddrugskatedrugsgospeldrugs shit.

Good luck, Charlie! If possible, try to see him less as that 16 year old fan, and more as the seasoned journo I'm sure you are. Deep breath, first....

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 18:57 (twenty-two years ago)

shakey - i agree with you about "let it come down" - its actually my favourite album of theirs.

― jed (jed_e_3), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 20:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I interviewed Jason Pierce a few weeks back (results here) and its much, much easier than you think its going to be. He's a nice, friendly affable bloke and much more receptive than you'd expect. I mean, he's an absolute bugger if you're trying to get anything controversial or original out of him*, but he's nice enough.

*By this I mean that no matter what question you ask, he'll answer the question he WANTED you to ask. Just get used to it and get him talking about things he's enthusiastic over and it'll be fine.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 20:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, think outside the box a bit - ask questions that are tangentially related to Spiritualized (like the Mars/space question) and he'll suddenly burst into life. In many ways, that's your best way of getting good copy out of him.

DO NOT ask him about drugs/Kate. Seriously - it'll ruin the whole rest of the interview if you do.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 20:50 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

oooh. a cliffhanger. what happened charlie ?

having picked up this album in the cheap bins (sanctuary clearing out warehouses to clear some of the det?) i have been actually enjoying the slimmed down approach a lot more than i thought i would.

― mark e (mark e), Friday, 7 October 2005 16:32 (twenty years ago)

I remember an interview when this came out where jason mentioned that the rocket from the tombs reissue had a big effect on him, insofar as he wanted to make the rockier tracks as scuzzy as he could. you can tell, too, they really blare out in a "wall of noise" way that a lot of the older stuff never did.

― haitch (haitch), Friday, 7 October 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

That's unfortunate he won't talk about Kate. That's all I really want to know about - the love triangle with Sir Richard Ashcroft.

― heinrich, Friday, 7 October 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

£3 in fopp currently = bargain, even if only half of it is any good.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 7 October 2005 17:20 (twenty years ago)

thats what got me grooving to this jed .. sat alongside astronaut by duran duran, and sisters of mercy compilation.

variety certainly is the spice of life - all for less than a tenner.

― mark e (mark e), Friday, 7 October 2005 17:27 (twenty years ago)

haha, yep. i got Carl Craig's mixed 2CD set "The Workout" for £3 too. i'm not so happy about the Spiritualized Complete Works Vol.2. though, even if it was only a fiver.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 7 October 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

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