Spiritualized

Jason Pierce's two-decade career as a member of Spacemen 3 and absolute dictator of Spiritualized's ever-revolving cast have left the man a strange combination of musical master and utterly exhausted man-child. As a producer he almost always impresses: choirs, strings, and horns, but he is equally adept with spacey guitar and keyboard effects, and here there are endless variations on grittier, distorted sounds, often working in tandem with the sweeter elements. The problem with much of Songs in A & E is the lyrics. Pierce continues to plunder ages-old rock, blues, and soul tropes, but is no longer able to twist them into nakedly touching—much less incisive—statements, cleverness and emotional clarity both having been lost somewhere along the way since 2003's Amazing Grace. A nearly fatal bout of pneumonia a couple years back has certainly left an impression on him, contributing to the album's most lyrically focused song (and its lost in translation album title—A & E is the British equivalent to Intensive Care Unit), "Death Take Your Fiddle", in which he seems to be admitting that nothing seems to reach him the same way anymore.

Musically, the album follows his increasingly familiar template of alternating sentimental, even mournful, ballads with calculatedly crass, Stooges-simple rockers. Fortunately most of them are catchy, and the quality and ingenuity of the sounds are simply a pleasure, from the smeary sonar blips that open the aforementioned "Death…" to blasts of guitar distortion faded almost poignantly in "Soul on Fire", and others so far in-the-red you expect it to come dripping out of your ears, as on fully committed rocker, "You Lie, You Cheat". Even the Dylan-aping "Baby I'm Just a Fool" is freshened by a bright vibraphone, and a jammy, but persuasive, coda climaxing in a flute tone so alien you could almost mistake it for pure feedback. Spiritualized still achieves transcendence here and there, but the promised land is getting hazier and hazier.

—Nathan Cunningham
06.02.08