Everything Was Beautiful

Everything Was Beautiful

by Spiritualized
Everything Was Beautiful

Everything Was Beautiful

by Spiritualized

CD

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Overview

By most rock & roll standards, Spiritualized's 2018 album And Nothing Hurt was a rush of fuzzy gospel and intergalactic blues, but compared to much of the band's 30-odd-year discography, it was subdued and even slight. Spiritualized founder and core member Jason Pierce had made a habit of crafting epic masterpieces that reshaped Phil Spector's jam-packed production into his own narcotic wall of sound, and though And Nothing Hurt filled up all available space with lush arrangements, the songs themselves were largely restrained and more distant than usual. Four years later, Everything Was Beautiful serves as both a counterpoint and a companion piece to its predecessor, with seven songs drawn from the same demo sessions that produced And Nothing Hurt delivering the full-boil performances and ecstatic power that seemed to be lying dormant in their sister songs. The difference is quickly apparent in exquisite opening track "Always Together with You," one of the most immediate and hypercharged songs Pierce has created in years. The song's devotional melody, soaring hooks, and mishmash of familiar rock idioms (doo wop backing vocals ping-ponging over stardusted percussion and Marc Bolan-styled guitar leads) all feel referential to the band's 1997 high-water-mark Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space. It's an undeniably beautiful album opener, and a reminder of just how specific of a musical language Pierce has built with Spiritualized as the project has gone on. A nervy bassline and trancey rhythms drive "Best Thing You Never Had," with a grungy horn section and full choir of backing vocalists bringing some Exile on Main St. energy to an otherwise motoric psychedelic rocker. More gospel vocals, burbling synths, and everything from bass harmonica to woodwinds congeal into radiant light on the joyous "The Mainline Song," and the nearly ten-minute closing track "I'm Coming Home Again" is a simmering dirge that builds in intensity until the tension finally breaks in the song's final 30 seconds. Only on the sighing country tune "Crazy" does the album briefly relax, with every other moment finding Pierce crowding his songs with overblown sonics and pushing the performances to their brink. It's one of the liveliest albums Spiritualized have made, and it's easy to imagine the passionate Everything Was Beautiful and the comparatively withdrawn And Nothing Hurt as two halves of a double-album statement. On its own, however, Everything Was Beautiful is delirious and exciting, a perfect distilment of the best parts of the band's various phases that feels reinvigorated and new. ~ Fred Thomas

Product Details

Release Date: 04/22/2022
Label: Fat Possum Records
UPC: 0767981171623
Rank: 131299

Tracks

  1. Always Together With You
  2. Best Thing You Never Had (The D Song)
  3. Let It Bleed (For Iggy)
  4. Crazy
  5. The Mainline Song
  6. The A Song (Laid in Your Arms)
  7. I'm Coming Home Again

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Spiritualized   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Cenzo Townshend   Engineer
David Wrench   Mixing,Engineer
Dan Cox   Editing,Engineer,Additional Production
Drew Smith   Engineer
Nikki Lane   Composer
Oli Bayston   Engineer
Iggy B   Engineer
Max Prior   Assistant Engineer
Robert Sellens   Assistant Engineer
Micha Hering   Engineer
Ben McCluskey   Assistant Engineer
Armelle Pignon   Assistant Engineer
J. Spaceman   Design,Mixing,Editing,Arranger,Composer,Producer,Art Direction,Additional Production
Tom Leach   Engineer,Assistant Engineer
Guy Massey   Engineer
Darren Lawson   Engineer
David Stanley   Engineer
Josh Green   Assistant Engineer
Mark Farrow   Design,Art Direction
Matt Colton   Mastering
Jason Buckle   Engineer
Emre Ramazanoglu   Engineer
Aaron Cupples   Engineer
Shuta Shinoda   Engineer
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