Spiritualized

Spiritualized grew out of Spacemen 3, the drone-rock group Jason Pierce had co-led with Pete Kember through the late 1980s. When Spacemen 3 dissolved acrimoniously in 1991, Pierce formed Spiritualized with several of the same musicians. The name change signalled an ambition: this was not going to be a continuation of what came before.

'Lazer Guided Melodies' (1992) was the opening statement — a record of extraordinary beauty and patience, built from drones, gospel harmonies, and Pierce's quietly devastating vocals. It established the template that Spiritualized would spend the next three decades refining and expanding.

'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space' (1997) is one of the greatest British albums ever made. Pierce wrote it in the aftermath of a devastating breakup — the opening track, with its sample of Elvis Presley's 'Can't Help Falling in Love', sets the emotional register immediately. The album moves from intimate devastation to overwhelming orchestral grandeur and back again. It is a record about love, loss, addiction, and transcendence, and it achieves all four.

Pierce's personal life during the late 1990s and early 2000s was chaotic — addiction, health crises, the dissolution of relationships. The music absorbed all of it. 'Let It Come Down' (2001) was recorded with a full orchestra and gospel choir. 'Amazing Grace' (2003) stripped everything back to near-silence. Both were responses to the same internal weather.

The later albums — 'Sweet Heart Sweet Light' (2012), 'And Nothing Hurt' (2018), 'Everything Was Beautiful' (2022) — have confirmed that Pierce's creative vision is inexhaustible. Each record sounds like Spiritualized and like nothing else simultaneously. 'Everything Was Beautiful' in particular, recorded during the pandemic, was one of the most quietly devastating albums of recent years.