Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Sweet Heart Sweet Light is the upcoming, seventh studio album by Spiritualized. It is planned for release in March 2012, on Double Six Records.

Track listing

1. "Hey Jane"
2. "Little Girl"
3. "Get What You Want"
4. "Too Late"
5. "Heading for the Top"
6. "Freedom"
7. "I Am What I Am"
8. "Mary"
9. "Life Is a Problem”"
10. "So Long You Pretty Things"

it has been awhile since we have had new stuff, so i'm totally looking forward to this album.

I'm definitely curious about this, tho I'll admit that anytime word on the street bubbles up about a new Spiritualized joint, it is the prospect of corresponding live dates that piques my interest most. That said, I thought Songs in A & E was his best since Ladies & Gents, so I suppose I am guardedly optimistic.

I def hope its more intergalactic gospel-bombast Spiritualized than back-to-basics, let's remake 'Electricity' eight more times under different titles Spiritualized.

At this point, I'm assuming he's not really capable of deviating from one of, or some combination of those approaches.

At this point, I'm assuming he's not really capable of deviating from one of, or some combination of those approaches

For stuff he puts out under the Spiritualized name, you're probably right. However there was that solo guitar CD and also the various bits and bobs he's done with free improv types like Spring Heel Jack, so he definitely has it in him.

There are a couple of the new tracks played live available to watch via the Guardian here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2011/dec/06/spiritualized-other-voices-video

Only readily available until 15th January though. Nice looking videos. Songs aren't immediately any great shakes in those incarnations to my ears though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LugL4P_iODo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e2tuLT762E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cyo8xivbk8

That looks like the ones, thanks!

"Hey Jane" actually picks up with the early freak-out and post-freak-out groove...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbYm6GlAm8o

Yeah, I'm definitely really liking the extended 'finale' of "Hey Jane" now.

Couple months ago at Albert Hall, Spz. played the new album in it's entirety, and there's plant of YouTubes and bootleg downloads out there. Most promising song to me is "Heading For The Top" which (at least live) busts out of us usual languid Low Earth Orbit.

back-to-basics, let's remake 'Electricity' eight more times under different titles Spiritualized

God, I hate this approach so much. Whereas he can remake 'Shine A Light' as many times as he wants as far as I'm concerned.

Suspect this is going to be closer to back-to-basics really, although there are good and bad ways of doing that. I doubt there's enough money for another huge statement album.

LGM couldn't have had much of a budget, though - or Pure Phase for that matter, and yet..

to say nothing of his half of Recurring!

I mean, he's done great reconfigurations of familiar American blues/gospel/jazz tropes, but they became a crutch for him at some point. But if he can anchor his craftmanship w/ something emotionally resonant like he did w/ Songs in A&E, the songs will at least on their own merits be worth listening to - whereas LICD & Amazing Grace just seem like window dressing.

whatever nits you might pick w/ his post L&G output, though, the man can and always delivers stunning live performances. There's a very good reason why I have seen Spiritualized more times than any other touring band, by a fair margin even.

Songs In A&E felt like his laziest record yet to me. Also that one with the iron lung noise was genuinely horrific to listen to.

last time i saw spiritualised live - which, tbf, is prob more than five years ago now - the group he'd assembled were nowhere near as good as the Royal Albert Hall band.

Isn't his crutch that from S3 on he's never quite deviated from the template set by Suicide's "Cheree?"

I kid, I like this guy.

the man can and always delivers stunning live performances.

the Thighpaulsandra/Doggen/Kevlar lineup in 2002 was amazing

Ladies & Gentlemen live with his own band and scratch choir & strings at the Sydney Opera House in 2011 was probably the best live music experience I had last year

some bunch of scruffy teenagers backing him* at ATP in 2009 was so pissweak I left my friends and went off to see something else**

*probably the same group as 2011 but who knows

** Rowland S Howard with Mick Harvey on drums tbf

I saw the LAG show at Radio City and it was probably the best Spz show I've seen since 1995.

sic OTM (though obviously I didn't see the SOH show).

Er, ok.

http://www.spin.com/articles/how-spiritualizeds-jason-pierce-fooled-reviewers

"Tinkering?" he says irritably. "Is that what you think I'm doing? Tinkering?"

disingenuous twat

Seems like an honest answer to me tbh. Poor choice of words by Marchese indeed

Also, should probably add I saw them at the Albert Hall, where he played the whole new record. It's going to be good, more spacier moments than Songs in A&E, but lots of ballads (if you like that sort of thing), but his lyrics are possibly some of his worst. I remember rolling my eyes at the last one in particular. The 'rock' songs also tend to last for a while, but then it's Spiritualized live so that's probably nothing to go on. 'Hey Jane' is one of the best he's written in years, though.

just saw those videos upthread. Duh.

Spz is playing in a p small venue for $26; should I get tickets?

sure why not

Yeah go for it dude!

Can't wait. The noise in the live tracks is stunning.

Not to be Debbie Downer, but it really depends how you feel about the past couple of albums.

If you like them, go for it. If you're one of those people that still keeps Laser Guided Melodies clutched to your heart, well... I saw them live recently-ish (well, this decade at least, in the 2010s) and it was one of the most excruciating experiences of my concert going life.

oh I dunno the tour he did with just him and Dogen and a string quartet was quite good imho. haven't seen him perform with a full "rock band" setup in years tho.

I know he's not celebrated as a wordsmith but the lyrics on this album are a disgrace. Like Bobby Gillespie bad.

Spz is playing in a p small venue for $26; should I get tickets?

I would pay double that but no one of any quality ever plays my part of the country anymore.

he's written some good lyrics in his day. couldn't make out most of the words on the live boots of the new material, so reserving judgment there.

I would pay double that but no one of any quality ever plays my part of the country anymore.

Of course I immediately have to retract my statement but I'm happy about that.

Hope J. spends as much time editing as he does mixing this.

Also: Huh?

Wonder if Jason ever heard this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6oqgS35_2w

I'm sure he did

cover:
http://cdn2.pitchfork.com/news/45536/9680614a.jpg
out via Fat Possum in the U.S. on April 17 and Double Six on April 16.

Did Peter Saville's secretary design this album cover too?

pretty good sez I

What. A. Jam.

Had a long long drive in the sun yesterday, wish I had been able to play this song on repeat. Awesome.

As much as I love Spiritualized (a lot), the sound of 20 musicians breaking down and playing whatever, the [insert noise here] moments, they are the musical equivalent of stock footage. Great song though

I can't hear any [insert noise here] stock moments in the new song, although I know what you mean.

This is streaming on NPR. Very excited to give it a listen, I love Hey Jane.

I also don't think it's true that Spiritualized's reputation rests entirely on "Ladies and Gentlemen...".

The morose lyrical ambiance is off set by a winsome string / jangling guitar combination that sounds like Cast. There is a strong late 90s pop sensibility at play elsewhere, too. 'Get What You Deserve' smacks of something that Ian Brody of the Lightening Seeds would come out with, were he asked to write a song in the style of George Harrison

There's also a drum beat reminiscent of Shedd Sevan.

To say nothing of Guy Dodd

I'm yet to meet anyone who considers them merely 'alright'.

sup

it's too bad that this album is getting such a bad rap! it's true that it's kind of a boring album, but "hey jane," "headin for the top" and "so long you pretty thing" are all mega-classics imo, and scattered strategically so that their good vibe carries over to the next song, and the whole thing is a delicious treat. that's what i think anyway.

also reading this thread, i remembered that shakey mo collier is a michael moorcock character and that's why i'm really posting, sup dude??

i don't *really* care about lyrics, but dag

mark iv otm, imo

yep

also sup

bad rap? http://www.metacritic.com/music/sweet-heart-sweet-light

I think So Long... will definitely become one of my favourite Spiritualized songs. There's just something infectious about it.

Nice live version here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbYm6GlAm8o

I'm seeing them in a week and a half and am gonna spend the time re-listening to everything. I just got my hands on the 3CD "Ladies and Gentlemen..." set and all of the "I Think I'm In Love" demos are so fucking gorgeous.

word. i really love the straight acapella demo of the "suuuuuunnnnnn, so bright that i'm nearly blind" vocals from the first half.

i'm seeing them (for the first time!) on monday and i am so fuckin excited.

that 'Pretty Things' video weirdly makes me a bit nervous about the show though. i love the new album and i love that song, but it seems a little flat or phoned-in there.

seen them over half a dozen times and it's usually a great show. there was only one set I was disappointed by, and that was on the Let It Come Down tour and things just seemed sloppy (drummer missed cues, Jason forgot lyrics, etc.)

did you ever see them with the full array of guitars/synths/strings/choirs etc?

yep - both the LAGWAFIS and the LITC tours were like that. LGM tour was a five-piece augmented by a sax/flute player iirc. And then the Pure Phase tour was just a quartet, and that was honestly the best version I think. Also saw the recent small tour he did with just Dogen on piano plus trio of backup singers and a string quartet. It's always a little different. The light show does a lot of work lol.

Loved the Pure Phase tour, which might as well have been called the small clubs and strobe lights tour. I saw them a couple of times behind LAG, once opening for Radiohead at their "OK Computer" peak. Seen them a few times since then - a surprising number, actually - and will see them again tomorrow night, though of course every show has been more or less the same.

lol I left after Spiritualized's opening set for Radiohead (who I have never cared for fwiw). It was weird seeing Spz play truncated versions of all their songs.

Pure Phase tour was really special, feel like that was the one time I really just could not figure out how such a small group of people were making all that sound

Radiohead tour was also the peak of their internal discontent, iirv

I never realized the song "Pure Phase" was just a milder "Ecstasy Symphony" until just now. I always assumed Sonic Boom was the one behind that one.

On Letterman tonight...

http://p.twimg.com/AsUqMe7CMAA8gk5.jpg

I never realized the song "Pure Phase" was just a milder "Ecstasy Symphony" until just now. I always assumed Sonic Boom was the one behind that one.

He was. There's some minor differences and FWIW, "Symphonic Space" on LGM is Jason (but using the same principle)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx2ImCXMw8U&feature=youtu.be

Sounds good! Solipsism.

Better than I expected. Wanted the all-too-brief noise break at the early 3:00 mark to keep going, though.

NPR is streaming live video/audio from their Washington DC show right now: http://www.npr.org/event/music/152291064/spiritualized-in-concert?ps=mh_frhdl1

They were pretty good last week, but I have a feeling the band can do this in its sleep. I wish it were a bit ... free-er.

Funny admission: it was not until last week that I realized, all these years later, that the title "Cop Shoot Cop" was a drug pun. I just always thought of it like "Spy Vs. Spy" or "Man Bites Dog."

huh I never got that either. I thought it was a reference to cop-on-cop violence.

I like this record pretty well. Sometimes I feel like the bass is missing, it feels a little thin in places. Like you can hear basslines but it doesn't have any punch. I'm sure that's an aesthetic choice in how they mixed it but I wish there was more low end.

So Long is pretty good...

Oh my GOD! We got to hear "Ladies and Gentlemen...", "Come Together", "Electric Mainline", and !!!"WALKING WITH JESUS"!!! Plus a near-30 minute encore with "Cop, Shoot, Cop" (which I was never crazy about on the album but was transcendent live), and at the 15 or so minute mark they did one of those end-of-show freak outs where all the musicians play their instruments all crazy for like five minutes, except instead of ending the show they abruptly went back into the mellow part for another 2 or 3 and ended really gently. It was such a brilliant and incredible thing.

I seriously was not expecting them to be as incredible as they were. I don't think I've seen a show that good since LCD

Yeah, I never noticed the "Cop Shoot Cop" pun until right now. Clever.

I don't feel so bad for not figuring that out until about three months ago, and this is after me owning albums by the band with said name for years.

Super psyched to get to see them tomorrow in Austin...I dig the new record a bunch.

Jason on the cover, writing the album, etc. etc.

@SteveDeux you know that's exactly how Cop Shoot Cop is on the album, right?

I never really cared for/paid close attention to the album version

saw them last night in SF, they were fantastic. I haven't seen them since the Rollercoaster tour in the US, and I thought they were super boring then.

also we had cute backup singers

i still don't get the pun

cop heroin shoot heroin cop heroin

cop shoots another cop with a gun

rmde at you people

lmfao@upeeps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwC7n8q-oHQ

New Jason interview: http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4145686-i-think-festivals-are-the-death-of-art-dis-meets-jason-pierce-from-spiritualized

Worth reading. Nice to have Jason fully back again

Apparently he played new songs and keyboards at last nights show. Maybe I should go when he hits Brighton...

interesting interview. he has funny opinions.

New songs - one a drippy sounding waltzy ballad which had a few zingers and got progressively less lovely as it went. Not bad, called A Perfect Miracle iirc.

Other one was this insanely heavy one chord blues which lasted about 8 minutes and lyrics revolving around 'one man's x is another man's y' and I could have sworn he was saying 'hoo-rah' a lot. But they were playing so loud his wittering was hard to make out.

But he ended up playing most of the new record (which gets a bit dull live), with the exception of Take Your Time, Ladies & Gents, and a version of Electric Mainline that was the loudest thing I've ever heard. Ever managed to drown the drummer out towards the end, just this massive sound/huge bass. But J was playing tonnes of intricate guitar stuff and keyboards, and even got his daughter out onstage to sing that song she's on on the new record.

Saw them tonight, they played COME DOWN EASY in the encore.

Agreed about the new songs, "A Perfect Miracle" is corny but still all right, but the eight minute one chord blues thing was a major highlight of the concert.

Is Huh? a universal word