Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space

Apologies, but this is a cut and paste of my review for the original album...with a notable addition at the end:

Forget OK Computer, this is THE album of the 90s (OK don't, just get Radiohead next). The imminent re-release has made me listen to this again recently, and I now realise how amazing it is; like vintage wine, some albums better with age (either of the record or the listener - see Pink Floyd).

This is a 70 minute sonic landscape, combining noise (and what a racket it is at times, particularly during the album's epic finale Cop Shoot Cop) with the most gorgeous guitar and piano whispered melodies that you will find anywhere. Ever. Add into the mix strings, free jazz, choirs and Spaceman's voice and it really is the perfect prescription for a night in, LISTENING to music. It is an album to listen to in its entirety, from the whispered words of "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are floating in space" (spoken by Kate Radley, later to become Mrs Richard Ashcroft) to the sonic noise terror of the aforementioned Cop Shoot Cop, rather than in iSnippets (i.e. "random") on your MP3 player of choice. You would not read random chapters of a novel now would you, or only admire an eighth of a picture?

Few artists will ever deliver the full set of human emotion (and an awful lot more) in their careers worth of recording than this does on a single album.

Personally, I do not believe Spirtitualized have or will ever better this, although Lazer Guided Melodies , their début does run it close, but that is more relaxing, with less noise.

Buy it and play it from start to end, loud.

1997 was obviously a very good vintage.

The Re-release:-

Is it worth a re-release? I have bought the single disc version, without all the out takes (etc), so the only unreleased track on here is the title track, now building up to the climax of Elvis' "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" as a full sample (as I believe originally intended but due to legal issues was amended just prior to release), in a manner similar to Gavin Bryars' "Jesus Love Never Failed Me Yet" but over 4 minutes, rather than the aforementioned 76. As a "completeist", yes it is worth it, but this version contains nothing extra (other than that) than the original, as Jason Pierce believes the original was damn near perfect (and he may be right). It does however prevent me from ruining my original "Pill" case, everytime I want to play the album!

With 'Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space' (1997), Jason Pierce, Spiritualized's main creative force, had abandoned the lush, trance-pop and 'shoegazing' style of his previous releases to the extent that the album was almost the antithesis of it. Overall, Pierce and producer Brian Eno conjured up an altogether texturally richer sound which crowned the formers ambition as a post-modernist arranger. For the album, Pierce had enrolled a string quartet, a mixed voice choir and a horn section which was utilized brilliantly in 'Come Together'. The track is a kind of loud, dense, stratified Spector-ian gospel choral waltz.

The title track is de facto a classical sonata that is both solemn and elegant, whilst 'Electricity' is a driving bubblegum freak-out. Eno's influence is most prominent on the beautiful heart-wrenching chamber piece, 'Broken Heart' and the mellow spiritual 'Stay With Me'. Meanwhile, the large-choir hymn of 'Cool Waves' exudes the detachment of a magician. The album's centrepiece, 'I Think I'm In Love' features a breathtaking 8-minute crescendo that fuses cosmic keyboard drone, sleepy bass riffs, languid wah-wah guitar, minimalistic piano notes, sentimental harmonica and Beach Boys-style vocal harmonies.

The deafening and energetic blues-rock jam instrumental that constitutes 'No God Only Religion' and the waves of distortion in 'The Individual', emphasize the experimental nature of the album. The triumphant moment of this experimentation is evidenced in the epic 16-minute free-form pandemonium jam of 'Cop Shoot Cop'.

There can be no doubting the album exudes grace and majesty and is overflowing with influences from multiple genres, traditions and styles. But it is the latter that highlights one of the albums weaknesses. Pierce's studied reappropriation of gospel, soul and, blues does at times sound rather a contrived and cynical painstaking study. It's almost as though he has taken to riding a musical merry-go-round outdoing everybody at their own game while not playing any games at all of his own.

Moreover, the Spector-ian production on some of the tracks is somewhat overdone to the extent that at times composition appears to be only a marginal detail, compared with the effort and care to arrange and produce the songs. It remains to be determined whether the album represents a triumph of art over technology or technology over art. However, these flaws do not detract from the fact that ultimately 'LAGWAFIS' is a brilliant work in which the postmodern Jason Pierce finally triumphs.