Everything Was Beautiful - Spiritualized: Review
are a British space rock band fronted by Jason Pierce, or J Spaceman, who originated as a member of Spacemen 3. They've been around for 30 years with a number of acclaimed albums under their belt, highlighted by 1997's Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. Everything Was Beautiful is their 9th record and follows 2018's And Nothing Hurt.
Review By Lav:
While I enjoy Spiritualized's highlights I can't say that I'm a fan on the same level as their most dedicated followers. Despite that I've enjoyed the bands last two albums quite a bit and I think it's their best work since the 90's. So I was excited for this album before I even had the chance to digest some of the great singles which only worked to further build my hype. Now that the full record is here it's even better than my expectations and fully cements a decade long streak of releases that can go toe to toe with almost anyone in indie rock.
The first two singles really blew me away. Always Together With You is an absolutely wonderful start to the record with the bands gentle spacey atmosphere on display immediately and building up to a chorus that feels like something Sufjan Stevens would write at his most triumphant. The layering starts to mix into an absolute haze with different vocal refrains blurring over each other and sweet guitar tones blaring away in the background. It's a great introduction. I also fell in love with Crazy pretty much immediately. It's a gentle, breezy and mostly acoustic love song about falling for someone so hard it makes you crazy. the group refrains give the track a sense of depth and development but never pull it from the intimacy it relies on and the results are just excellent.
I also find myself enjoying Let It Bleed quite a bit. It's one of the shorter tracks here so it doesn't spend nearly as much time building to its climax. The hook introduces a flood of instrumentation we haven't heard yet on the record and it's a very welcome moment. I like the swaying, languished verse that speed up into a dramatic chorus. I will say I'm not as crazy about the way the track ends just riding the same short refrain over and over again but it certainly doesn't go on long enough to be a problem. I also really enjoy the closing track I'm Coming Home Again, the longest song on the album. It really takes until the halfway point for the song to build up layers of instrumentation but it still makes good use of the time spent along the way. Unsurprisingly though the climax totally steals the show with methodical chanting and a wiry, wandering electric guitar that makes for such a striking combination.
The Mainline Song was the records third single and I was a bit shaky on it at first. I do still have my reservations about the way it builds up in certain sport but the finale feels much more rewarding now than it did as a single. The refrains get catchier as the song goes on and it builds into a wonderful climax. The A Song by comparison gets started quickly and is probably the most Arcade Fire sounding I've ever heard Spiritualized. I love the blend of instrumentation that feels slightly rustic but still so exciting when the refrains just erupt out of the mix. Halfway through the song just has a complete sonic breakdown with shrill instrumentation burning and crashing over each other in a very post-rock kind of way. The second half of the song kind of just repeats this dynamic and while I don't find it to be quite as exciting it still holds me until the end.
The simplest song on the record is Best Thing You Never Had which is a directional and groovy rock song, but one with a h\jangle to it that sounds more Black Keys than Spiritualized. It has punchy guitar riffs and a simple chorus that never quite reaches the level of saturation that most of the other songs do, but I can at least appreciate it for what it is.
Even if Everything Was Beautiful runs nearly 45 minutes long, it still has only 7 songs and really needed to make the most of the. Thankfully while I have a complaint here and there, there's not a single track here I would want to do without. From the simple shorter tunes with their catchy refrains to the expansive pieces blending together layers of sound on top of each other the record certainly doesn't waste any spots in the tracklist. It's just further proof that the songwriting of Spiritualized is great, but the instrumental vision they back it with is even better and I think they've once again done something really special. 8.5/10
This cover is a cool concept. The deconstructed packaging idea is something that isn't seen in your average album cover so it gets well deserved originality points. It has so much text and information packed into a small space that when viewed on say a streaming service it will all get lost. I think it could have been made at least a little bigger to help it stand out. I'm not sure I understand the background at all. It just floating in space on top of a stock image doesn't really do anything for me. I do like the soft colors and text a lot, the concept works quite well but it could be improved with some tweaks. 7.5/10
For more indie check out my review of Duster's Together here
