Tulip Frenzy

What a joy it was, back in the Spring, to listen to the return of Jason Pierce, in comparatively fine fettle, releasing the gorgeous “Sweet Heart Sweet Light.”  This was the best outing for Spiritualized since 1997’s Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space. 

As we noted at the time, “Sweet Heart Sweet Light is variously thrilling, beautiful, a little sappy, uplifting. It is a glorious rock’n’roll album, exciting and pretty in turns.  Pierce’s affinity for taking minimal numbers of chords and drenching them in maximalist orchestration —  not just strings and horns, but wicked guitar feedback and blues harp, trilling piano and gospel choruses — is back, fifteen years after Ladies and Gentlemen. Spiritualized’s music is, at times, so over the top, and also so simple: R&B informed by the Brill Building’s lessons taught to young Lou Reed.  ”There She Goes Again” meets “Heroin.”  We find spirituality in the ecstasy that comes from music, not music that comes from Ecstasy.   For us, Spiritualized’s cup runneth over.  We are so glad that Pierce has survived to deliver something this pleasing, both to his old audience and, potentially, given the amazing run of media coverage these last few weeks, to new ones.”

This entry was posted on November 23, 2012 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Music with tags "Sweet Heart Sweet Light", Spiritualized, Tulip Frenzy Top Ten List. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.