Songs In A&E [VINYL] [Limited Edition]

Patchy? Who said 'patchy'? Hardly. I've only given this album one listen yet it's beauty is instant. It's a wonderful album. No white noise freak outs like on Ladies & Gentlemen, just pure harmony, soft instrumentation on most tracks....some more up tempo but not abrasively so. It has the feel of his acoustic mainlines shows from last year which were out of this world where joy can be found in the most sad heart ripped open lyrics and songs.

On the subject of harmony, whilst the album is 18 tracks long 6 of these are interludes called Harmony 1 thru to 6. Strange sounding instrumentals that I can only assume were the sounds Jason was talking of when he said the hospital machines were musical. Only a guess. I really like them.

At 51 mins its hardly over long so I really doubt whether anyone would say it is.

Anyways, it's a stunner. Can't wait to get an official copy of it.

When I clocked that this album features no less than eighteen tracks, I sighed in anticipation of the tedious criticisms that this would inevitably reap: "Were this album a more succinct ten tracks or so it would have been a classic, but it appears unfocused and several tracks feel like unnecessary filler". Yeah yeah. I've not seen any reviews for this yet, but I'll wager that at least one reviewer will offer the above sentiments in their assessment. It's a tedious inevitability.

But...listening to this, I can sort of see where these (hypothetical) reviewers are coming from. Sort of. Almost. Whilst the album does not feel unbalanced or overlong (though containing 18 tracks it's only 51 minutes in total), some tracks are undoubtedly weaker. That's not to dismiss them as filler, however. These...inferior tracks can still create an impression. "Death Take Your Fiddle", for instance, is the most overtly disturbing song ever penned by Mr. Pierce, sampling, as it does, a respirator. It might just be me that finds the sounds of medicine so distressing, but I find that particular song to be a most uncomfortable listen.

The other "lesser tracks", "I Gotta Fire", and "Yeah Yeah" are simply too short. They're immediate and exciting like the best bits of Amazing Grace, but they fail to build upon their ideas and, as such, are wholly unfulfilling. They're not BAD songs, they're just not good enough...

Well, all of these "lesser tracks" appear during the first half of the album, which itself isn't short of merits. The opening duo of "Harmony 1" and "Sweet Talk" is gorgeous: Atmospheric, heartbreaking, huge...think "Broken Heart" or "Stop Your Crying". The single, too, "Soul on Fire", has a timeless quality about it. It's a lush gospel epic which could very well have been penned by Van Morrison, Mike Scott or even Dylan. "You Lie, You Cheat" is even better...it starts off with a catchy yet inoffensively strummed acoustic guitar, before the whole thing is suddenly rudely engulfed by the sort of squalling feedback which harks back to the loudest moments of "Ladies and Gentlemen...". It really could not have been written by any other band.

So, the first half of the album is indeed a bit...patchy. However, from "Harmony 3" onwards we have what will most probably turn out to be the most beautiful twenty five minutes of music released in all of 2008. "Baby, I'm Just a Fool" is the centre piece of this album, musically and literally. It exudes a woozy sense of regret throughout its extended running time, with a simple two-chord guitar rhythm perfectly complimented by the playful chimes of what sounds like a xylophone. As Spiritualized songs are wont to do, it kicks into a higher gear towards the end, allowing for more unusual instruments to experiment with their own melodies without losing the overall drive of the song. Absolutely stunning.

The six "Harmonies" scattered throughout the album serve variantly as interludes and bridges and ensure that rather than a collection of songs, this really is a cohesive, flowing ALBUM. Pierce may be dealing with some uncomfortable subjects, but the sounds he creates are, as ever, strikingly beautiful. After the comparatively stripped down Amazing Grace, this seems like a return to the symphonic experimentation of Let It All Come Down. Be that as it may, whilst Let It All Come Down seemed to strive for excess, here orchestrations and instrumentations are deployed in far subtler manners. It's hardly minimalist, but instruments are given space to breathe and, more than ever before, the spaces between sounds seem just as important as the actual sounds. This approach is perhaps best sampled on "The Waves Crash In", in which the ebbing and flowing vocals and music really do serve to create the impression of, well, crashing waves.

The closing "Goodnight, Goodnight" initially sounds like the sort of saccharine optimistic closer as deployed by The Grateful Dead on Live Dead...and it is lovely, until Pierce starts gently chanting "funeral home, funeral home" as the album fades out...the effect is unnerving, and suddenly it becomes clear that all that preceded, even if it may at times have sounded beautiful, was only so on the surface for, inherent in the lyrics rather than the delivery, is an undertone of misery, despair and menace as was foreshadowed so horribly in the use of hospital samples in "Death Take Your Fiddle". Such a realisation only serves to induce a desire to listen again as soon as the album has finished...which is quite a powerful reaction.

So...to conclude, whilst this album is definitely flawed, any reviewer who says anything along the lines of "could have been shorter" is just wrong. Yes, some tracks stand out quite obviously, but the shorter tracks succeed in transforming this album into a cohesive, conceptual whole. And what a concept! Such a collection of hazy, engaging, intense and fractured songs could only have been written by somebody who came so close to death.

Verily, this album could not have been written by anybody else. It's acid blues or chemical gospel performed by a truly singular talent. It may lack immediacy but it has a depth unrivaled by many other albums and it will be listened to and talked about for years to come. This is not merely another chapter in the narcotic adventures of Jason Pierce. In its own right, it is an excellent album, very powerful, and bears all the hallmarks of a classic.

And the "lesser tracks"? Well, they're making more sense with every subsequent listen. I want to listen to it again. Right now.

A very interesting album, Songs In A&E had escaped my notice when it was released but I recently read very flattering things about this album when looking at the end-of-year editions of various music magazines, as it featured in many of their top 50 albums of the year lists.

The music at times sounds as if it's underwater; it's that sort of dreamy, muffled, slightly disorientating sound where you cannot hear it clearly and wonder if you or it are really quite all there.

It's dreamy and ethereal and makes you think and listen, and although it's soothing and relaxing, it at least kept me stimulated. My favourite track is Do It All Over Again.