Amazon.co.uk review
Considering some of Jason Piece's beguiling (if a little bombastic) output over the last few years,
Amazing Grace is a refreshing breath of raw sweat-laden air from Spiritualised. With the tracks recorded live and the whole album completed in just three weeks, gone are Mr J Spaceman's often grandiose orchestrations in favour of an urgency all but extinct on Spiritualised albums since 1992's
Lazer Guided Melodies.
Opening with a 10-second slice of screeching feedback, "This Little Life of Mine" paves the way to the garage of rock with heaving guitars and Piece's growling vocals setting the album's standard. There is a delicious disregard for continuity throughout Amazing Grace, most notably when "Oh Baby" a neck-hair teasing ballad of listless beauty trickles into the rousing Stooges flavoured rock of "Never Going Back". But elsewhere it's back to gospel choir backed business as usual with "Lord Let It Rain on Me", which in isolation, remains a welcome ingredient. Diverse, vital and unpretentious throughout, Amazing Grace is a welcome return to roots and a bewitching album that itches to be played again and again. --Christopher Barrett
CD Description
Fifth album from notorious Brit psychedelic/trance rock outfit follows 2001's 'Let It Come Down'. Moving away from the epic, heavily orchestrated approach of that album to embracea straightforward, stripped-down rock 'n' roll sound, this neverthless retains the repetitive, minimalist jams and the religious and drug imagery on which their best work is based.