Songs in A&E is the sixth studio album by the group Spiritualized and is their first since 2003's Amazing Grace. It was released on May 26, 2008 in the UK and on May 27 in the USA. It was released on standard CD worldwide, as well as a limited edition book (with further artwork) and double 12" vinyl in the UK. The album's first single was "Soul on Fire," released on May 19, 2008 in the UK. Frontman Jason Pierce has said that the album is "the work of The Devil...with a little guidance from me."

The album leaked onto the internet on March 29, 2008.

Background

Songs in A&E comes five years after Spiritualized's previous album - 2003's Amazing Grace - and following Pierce's near death experience in 2005, after he had contracted advanced periorbital cellulitis with bilateral pneumonia with rapid deterioration requiring intensive care and c-pap for type 1 respiratory failure. . Indeed, the album takes its title from the long period Pierce spent in the Accident and Emergency ward (A&E) during this illness and it is also dedicated to the staff at The Royal London Hospital where he was treated.

However, most of the songs were written before Jason fell ill. The record was about a family that wasn't his, but when he revisited them Jason felt it predicted his near-death experience in some way. After his recovery, Jason was hesitant to finish the album, but a meeting with cult film director Harmony Korine inspired him to complete it. He also released a solo experimental record, Guitar Loops, and recorded the soundtrack to Korine's 2008 film Mister Lonely, with the Sun City Girls. The six Harmony tracks on the album are named after the director.

Jason wrote most of the songs on a 1929 Gibson L/00 (referred to as 'The Devil' in the liner notes) he bought in Cincinnati.

Music

Musically the album marks a return to "the more expansive elements of sound even though it features the fewest noise-scapes and most terse songs in Spiritualized's history." The Observer Music Monthly has described the album's sound as "touching and harrowing belligerent." New songs such as "Death Take Your Fiddle" and, especially, "Sitting on Fire" - which sounds as if Pierce recorded the vocal from his deathbed - are eerily prescient, while "Don't Hold Me Close," a tender duet with film-maker Harmony Korine's wife, Rachel, recalls Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris Throughout the album there are interludes of church chimes, otherworldly beeps and odd noises. In places it could be mistaken for an album of elevator music made for funeral homes and released on electronic label Warp. It is quite a trip.

The album features a number of guest vocalists, including backing vocals from The Dirtbombs on "Yeah Yeah" and a duet with film-maker Harmony Korine's wife, Rachel on "Don't Hold Me Close." The album also introduces a greater influence of string arrangements to Spiritualized's sound. Pierce credits the compositions of the album's orchestrations to his paucity of technical skill. "I don't write music. So I just sing what I want into a tape machine. That way I'm not limited by what I can't play."

The ending of the last track, "Goodnight Goodnight," features a brief lyrical and melodic nod to Daniel Johnston's "Funeral Home" (from his albums Continued Story and 1990), which itself is a nod to Bruce Springsteen. Pierce has stated this was a 'thank-you' to the singer, as Pierce's first live performance after his recovery was supporting Johnston at a tribute concert, in which he played a version of Funeral Home, as well as two other Johnston songs.

Singles

* "Soul on Fire" (May 19, 2008)

** CD: "Soul on Fire" (Single Edit) / "True Love Will Find You in the End" (Daniel Johnston cover) / "Harmony 2 (And Then a Miracle...)"

** 7" red-colored vinyl: "Soul on Fire" (Single Edit) / "True Love Will Find You in the End"

* "Sweet Talk" / "You Lie You Cheat" (November 10, 2008)

** 7" #1: "Sweet Talk" (Single Edit) / "You Lie You Cheat" (Live BBC Session)

** 7" #2: "You Lie You Cheat" / "Sweet Talk" (Live BBC Session)

References

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Artist/Band Information

Spiritualized are an English space rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Jason Pierce (who often goes by the alias J. Spaceman) after the demise of his previous outfit, space-rockers Spacemen 3. The membership of Spiritualized has changed from album to album, with Pierce—who writes, composes and sings all of the band's material—being the only constant member.

Spiritualized has released six studio albums. The best known and most critically acclaimed of these was 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, which NME magazine made their Album of the Year.

Biography

Following a breakdown in relations between Spacemen 3 co-frontmen Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, the group's bassist Will Carruthers, drummer Jonny Mattock, and guitarist Mark Refoy decided to form a splinter group, before persuading Pierce to join alongside local friend Steve Evans to create Spiritualized. The band took their name from an adaptation of the text on the back label of a bottle of Pernod. Due to formation from a majority of Spacemen 3 members, a technical clause meant that Spiritualized had to maintain the Spacemen 3 recording contract with Dedicated Records.

The first Spiritualized release, in 1990, was a cover of The Troggs' "Anyway That You Want Me"; the record heralded the official split of Spacemen 3 following contractual wrangles over the band's name and its use in Spiritualized-related promotional material (initial copies of "Anyway That You Want Me" came with a Spacemen 3 logo on the sleeve).

Evans was replaced on keyboards by Pierce's then-girlfriend Kate Radley for the follow-up single, "Run"/"I Want You". A number of singles followed, before the band, in early 1992, released their first LP Lazer Guided Melodies, which had been recorded in Rugby over the previous two years. A second album, Pure Phase, was released in 1995, and a third Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space emerged in 1997 to critical acclaim and commercial success.

In 1993, Spiritualized were asked to open for Depeche Mode on the European leg of that band's "Devotional Tour". They were met by intolerant and hostile crowds. Consequently they had to leave after only six shows, Gothenburg, Sweden, being the last. According to sources at Mute Records, people in charge thought Depeche Mode's singer Dave Gahan was a Spiritualized fan which led to booking them.

The musical style of Spiritualized relies heavily on sustained 'pedal' notes and drones. Lazer Guided Melodies and Pure Phase incorporate elements of the shoegazing style, drones and tremolo. The landmark Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space saw the influence of African-American gospel and blues beginning to show, while "walls of sound" modelled after the production styles of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson also made their presence felt. Such influences dominated Spiritualized's next album, Let It Come Down which included over 120 musicians. Amazing Grace favoured a more stripped down sound with the gospel, blues, and soul influences even more dominant than before.

On 15 June 1997, Spiritualized became the last band to play at Factory Records' famous Manchester nightclub The Haçienda.

After several years of work and Pierce's serious illness in July 2005 , the album, Songs in A&E was released on 26 May 2008 in the UK, and on 27 May 2008 in the US. The first single from the 18-track album was "Soul On Fire". The release was backed by an Electric Mainlines UK tour which began in May. http Pierce has also scored Harmony Korine's 2008 film Mister Lonely.

Pierce is quoted as saying in a 2008 interview that Spiritualized was scheduled to play the CERN collider. "They asked us to do it! We were gonna play in it before they’d thrown the switch. But it was a timing thing—their timings didn’t coincide with ours."

In October and December 2009 the band performed 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series. It was recently announced that the band have been chosen by Matt Groening to perform the album again at the edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival he is curating in May 2010 in Minehead, England.

Band members

spir1.jpgleftthumbJason Pierce, 1998 The band was formed by messrs Carruthers, Refoy and Mattock following the impending split of Spacemen 3. Pierce was invited to join, and due to a technical clause inherited Spacemen 3's new record deal with Dedicated Records. Only Pierce remains from the original line-up of the band. Will Carruthers left the band in 1992 and now records as a solo project under the name Freelovebabies, Carruthers was replaced by Rugby musician Sean Cook from local band Electrahead. Following the completion of recording sessions for Pure Phase, Mark Refoy was jettisoned in 1994, deciding to concentrate on his own fronted band Slipstream. He was initially replaced by Kevin Cowen from fellow Rugby band The Darkside, Cowen only completed one gig (Glastonbury 1994) before himself leaving to be replaced first by John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack, Betty Boo) and then later on by Julian Cope's former guitarist Michael Mooney (Coxon returned to replace Mooney following his eventual departure). Mattock played in The Breeders for a spell (during a lull in Spiritualized activities in 1991, he appears on the Safari EP) and left Spiritualized later in 1994 following the recording of Pure Phase, working as a session musician before joining Lupine Howl, he was replaced by Damon Reece. Kate Radley appeared for some initial dates promoting Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, before leaving the band in 1997 with a reported unspecified illness. (Radley had married The Verve's singer Richard Ashcroft in 1995, however after a reconciliation with Pierce, she eventually returned to Ashcroft by the time of her illness.) Kate was replaced by Thighpaulsandra from Julian Cope's band Queen Elizabeth. Sax player Ray 'Moonshake' Dickaty was added to the lineup in 1997, and Gregg Hale (guitar) also augmented the band in 1997 and 1998.

Following promotional activity for Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, Sean Cook, Damon Reece and Michael Mooney threatened a strike in protest over low salaries and appearance fees. New contracts of employment were drawn up between Pierce and the musicians, and the same contracts were then used to fire them (to general disbelief by the music press at the time). In response, Messrs Cook, Reece and Mooney formed the ill-starred Lupine Howl. Ray Dickaty departed in 2003, quitting to play in the free-jazz Solar Fire Trio.

Retaining only keyboardist Thighpaulsandra (keyboards), Jason Pierce then debuted a new (and current) line up of Spiritualized, introducing classical percussionist Tom Edwards and former Julian Cope string arranger Martin Schellard on bass guitar. Completing the new Spiritualized line-up were guitarist Doggen of Brain Donor and the Julian Cope band, Richard Warren and drummer Kevin 'Kevlar' Bales, who is was also a member of Brain Donor. This line-up finished recording their newest album Songs In A&E in Nottingham and London. Jonny Aitken stepped in on drums for the recording of "Amazing Grace" while Kevin Bales was recovering from illness.

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Discography

References