History Music / Spiritualized

Spiritualized is best described as what happens when [[JustForFun/XMeetsY a psychedelic space-rock musician who loves soul and gospel music]] writes a ton of songs about life and love and using drugs to cope with it all. [[BetterThanItsounds Don't let that scare you off.]]

* LiteraryAllusionTitle - ''Ladies and Gentlemen'''s title comes from ''SophiesWorld'' by Jostein Gaardner.

Their third album, ''Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space'' (1997) is widely regarded as their masterpiece. Here, Jason injected influences from soul, gospel and blues music into his psychedelic blueprint and dialed up the lush production (Creator/PhilSpector and Music/BrianWilson were cited as influences increasingly loudly around this time). He was rewarded with universal critical acclaim and respectable commercial success, ''Floating in Space'' reaching #4 on the UK charts. Notably, the album won the NME's ''Album of the Year'' award versus Music/{{Radiohead}}'s ''OK Computer.''

A new lineup was unveiled, with Tim "Thighpaulsandra" Lewis on keyboards, Tony "Doggen" Foster on guitars, Martin Schellard on bass and Kevin Bales on drums. The band's next album, ''Let It Come Down'' (2001), took four years to create - Pierce's musical illiteracy required him to sing all the orchestral parts into a tape recorder and then transcribe them onto a piano. ''Come Down'' took ''Floating in Space'''s sound UpToEleven, employing 115 session musicians which included an orchestra and the London Community Gospel Choir. ''Come Down'' also stripped the space rock, psychedelic rock and shoegazing influences form previous albums, doing away with drones, tremolo and free-jazz freakouts in favour of creating an orchestral, baroque pop album with an even heavier Creator/PhilSpector influence. Despite the generally positive reception, some critics commented that the album's excessively dense, ornate sound harmed the songs.

Their third album, ''Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space'' (1997) is widely regarded as their masterpiece. Here, Jason injected influences from soul, gospel and blues music into his psychedelic blueprint and dialed up the lush production (PhilSpector and Music/BrianWilson were cited as influences increasingly loudly around this time). He was rewarded with universal critical acclaim and respectable commercial success, ''Floating in Space'' reaching #4 on the UK charts. Notably, the album won the NME's ''Album of the Year'' award versus Music/{{Radiohead}}'s ''OK Computer.''

A new lineup was unveiled, with Tim "Thighpaulsandra" Lewis on keyboards, Tony "Doggen" Foster on guitars, Martin Schellard on bass and Kevin Bales on drums. The band's next album, ''Let It Come Down'' (2001), took four years to create - Pierce's musical illiteracy required him to sing all the orchestral parts into a tape recorder and then transcribe them onto a piano. ''Come Down'' took ''Floating in Space'''s sound UpToEleven, employing 115 session musicians which included an orchestra and the London Community Gospel Choir. ''Come Down'' also stripped the space rock, psychedelic rock and shoegazing influences form previous albums, doing away with drones, tremolo and free-jazz freakouts in favour of creating an orchestral, baroque pop album with an even heavier PhilSpector influence. Despite the generally positive reception, some critics commented that the album's excessively dense, ornate sound harmed the songs.

Spiritualized is best described as what happens when [[XMeetsY a psychedelic space-rock musician who loves soul and gospel music]] writes a ton of songs about life and love and using drugs to cope with it all. [[BetterThanItsounds Don't let that scare you off.]]

'''Spiritualized''' is best described as what happens when [[XMeetsY a psychedelic space-rock musician who loves soul and gospel music]] writes a ton of songs about life and love and using drugs to cope with it all. [[BetterThanItsounds Don't let that scare you off.]]

* BreakupBreakout - Jason found success with Spiritualized after the breakup of Spacemen 3. His main collaborator in that band, Peter Kember... didn't.

Their third album, ''Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space'' (1997) is widely regarded as their masterpiece. Here, Jason injected influences from soul, gospel and blues music into his psychedelic blueprint and dialed up the lush production (PhilSpector and Music/BrianWilson were cited as influences increasingly loudly around this time). He was rewarded with universal critical acclaim and respectable commercial success, ''Floating in Space'' reaching #4 on the UK charts. Notably, the album won the NME's ''Album of the Year'' award versus {{Radiohead}}'s ''OK Computer''.

After touring in support of ''Floating in Space'', Spiritualized's current lineup disintegrated. Vocalist/keyboardist/Jason's girlfriend Kate Radley left before the tour began as a result of a complicated LoveTriangle between her, Pierce and TheVerve frontman Richard Ashcroft. Band members Cook, Reece and Mooney also butted heads with Pierce over poor salaries and other payment issues. In 1999, Pierce responded by drawing up new employment contracts [[JerkAss and then using them to fire Cook, Reece and Mooney]], a move that triggered surprise and controversy among the press. The three went on to form their own band, Lupine Howl.

Spiritualized were formed by guitarist/vocalist Jason "J. Spaceman" Pierce in 1990 after the breakup of his old band, {{Spacemen 3}}. Ever since then he has been the [[IAmTheBand only constant member and principal songwriter]], supported by a revolving door's worth of musicians that have included over the years:

* 1993 - ''Good Dope, Good Fun'' single[[note]]split single with MercuryRev for Greenpeace benefit; Spiritualized's contribution is an instrumental version of "Lay Back in the Sun"[[/note]]

** In a rather hilarious incident, {{Slowdive}} went to record material for ''Souvlaki'' in a Bath studio that had previously been used by Spiritualized, and found a huge Scalextric model train left in the live room. Neil Halstead snarked that since it took them so long to get it out and the sessions turned out to be unusable, it would've been more productive if they just played with it instead.

* CreatorCouple - Jason and Kate.
* CreatorBreakdown - Happened to Jason at least twice. First, during ''Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space'', where the depressing material was caused by his breakup with Kate and worsening drug abuse (which infected even some of the upbeat tracks - "Come Together"'s riffery is supported by lyrics about a drug-abusing "fucked-up boy" [[AuthorAvatar named little Johnny]]), whereas ''Songs in A&E'' was influenced by his near-death experience (the fact that the more haunting material was recorded before that just makes it worse).

* ExecutiveMeddling - See the above note for the three [=EPs=] released in 1991. Additionally, "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" originally borrowed the lyrics and melody from ElvisPresley's "Can't Help Falling in Love", but his estate objected and forced Pierce to release an alternate version with new lyrics. However, they relented and allowed him to include the original in the 2009 remaster, now retitled "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (I Can't Help Falling in Love)".

[=Spiritualized=] is best described as what happens when [[XMeetsY a psychedelic space-rock musician who loves soul and gospel music]] writes a ton of songs about life and love and using drugs to cope with it all. Don't let that scare you off.

Their third album, ''Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space'' (1997) is widely regarded as their masterpiece. Here, Jason injected influences from soul, gospel and blues music into his psychedelic blueprint and dialed up the lush production (PhilSpector and [[BeachBoys Brian Wilson]] were cited as influences increasingly loudly around this time). He was rewarded with universal critical acclaim and respectable commercial success, ''Floating in Space'' reaching #4 on the UK charts. Notably, the album won the NME's ''Album of the Year'' award versus {{Radiohead}}'s ''OK Computer''.

-->''Lay back in the sun''
-->''Good dope good fun''
-->'''Spiritualized''', "Lay Back in the Sun"

-->''Makes me feel so good, makes me fucked up inside''
-->'''Spiritualized''', "Medication"

* Mark Refoy - guitar (1990-1994) [[hottip:*:played on ''Pure Phase'' but got sacked during recording]]

* John Coxon - guitar (1994-1997, 1999-present) [[hottip:*:also engineer for ''Pure Phase'' and co-[[RecordProducer producer]] for ''Ladies and Gentlemen'']]

* Jonny Mattock - drums (1990-1994) [[hottip:*:contributed to ''Pure Phase'' and then got sacked]]

* 1991 - ''Smiles/Sway'' EP [[hottip:*:these three [=EPs=] are more of a curiosity; Jason was forced to put them out by Dedicated Records because he was taking too long mixing ''Lazer Guided Melodies'', and most of the material on them are preliminary or alternate mixes of songs that ended up on ''Lazer'')]]

* 1993 - ''Good Dope, Good Fun'' single [[hottip:*:split single with MercuryRev for Greenpeace benefit; Spiritualized's contribution is an instrumental version of "Lay Back in the Sun"]]

* 1996 - ''Pure Phase Tones for [=DJs=]'' [[hottip:*:a single containing different versions of the "Pure Phase" tone]]

{{Spiritualized}} is best described as what happens when [[XMeetsY a psychedelic space-rock musician who loves soul and gospel music]] writes a ton of songs about life and love and using drugs to cope with it all. Don't let that scare you off.

* CallAndResponseSong - "I Think I'm in Love". Doubles as arguable CrowningMomentOfFunny.

* CoverVersion - "Anyway That You Want Me" by The Troggs (their first release under the Spiritualized name), "Born, Never Asked" by Laurie Anderson, "Why Don't You Smile Now" by Lou Reed and John Cale (a song pre-dating TheVelvetUnderground), the gospel standard "Oh Happy Day", "The XFiles Theme" by Mark Snow, and a free-jazz version of "Amazing Grace".

** In a rather hilarious incident, {{Slowdive}} went to record material for ''Souvlaki'' in a Bath studio that had previously been used by Spiritualized and found a huge Scalextric in the live room.

* VocalTics - "Come on!"

* Music/{{Instrumentals}} - A few ones show up on their 1992-1997 albums, more on the ''Complete Works'' compilation.

{{Spiritualized}} is best described as what happens when [[XMeetsY a psychedelic space-rock musician who loves soul and gospel music]] writes a ton of songs about life and love and using drugs to cope with it all. Don't let that scare you off though, it is way BetterThanItSounds.

A new lineup was unveiled, with Tim "Thighpaulsandra" Lewis on keyboards, Tony "Doggen" Foster on guitars, Martin Schellard on bass and Kevin Bales on drums. The band's next album, ''Let It Come Down'' (2001), took four years to create - Pierce's musical illiteracy required him to sing all the orchestral parts into a tape recorder and then transcribe them onto a piano. ''Come Down'' took ''Floating in Space'''s sound BeyondTheImpossible, employing 115 session musicians which included an orchestra and the London Community Gospel Choir. ''Come Down'' also stripped the space rock, psychedelic rock and shoegazing influences form previous albums, doing away with drones, tremolo and free-jazz freakouts in favour of creating an orchestral, baroque pop album with an even heavier PhilSpector influence. Despite the generally positive reception, some critics commented that the album's excessively dense, ornate sound harmed the songs.

* CreatorCouples - Jason and Kate.

* TheMuse - Kate Radley in TheNineties, making her one of the few people to be this and half of a [[CreatorCouples Creator Couple]].

* Kate Radley - vocals, keyboards, [[CreatorCouples half of a Creator Couple]] (1990-1997)

Pierce promised to avoid the arduous recording sessions and complex orchestrations of ''Come Down'' for the next album, ''Amazing Grace'' (2003). He delivered on his promise, using a more stripped-down production style and a heavier garage rock influence while continuing to draw from gospel music. Reception was mixed to say the least.

Pierce fell severely ill with severe pneumonia in July 2005 and almost died, spending a long period in hospital undergoing treatment. This near-death experience provided the impetus for the [[DarkerAndEdgier bleak]] ''Songs in A&E'' (2008) - ironically enough most of the songs were written before said near-death experience. ''A&E'' saw Pierce return to his more expansive ''Floating in Space'' sound, but with the psychedelic elements still AWOL, replaced by heavy garage rock and gospel influences, though the free-jazz freakouts reappeared on a few tracks.

Albums iscography:

Other releases:

* EarWorm - Many.

* EpicRiff - Many.
* WatchItStoned - Both played straight and averted. I mean, once you create a song with the chorus ''Lay back in the sun/Good dope good fun'', it's hard to not be this trope.

* FaceOfTheBand - Take a wild guess.

* TearJerker - "Ladies and Gentlemen...", "Broken Heart", "Stay With Me", "Cool Waves" (dear GOD, "Cool Waves"), "Stop Your Crying" ("Cool Waves" taken BeyondTheImpossible).

* RecordOfLoudnessWar - ''Ladies and Gentlemen'' is a bit squished at times, but doesn't clip and remains a dynamic, great production. ''Let It Come Down'' and ''Amazing Grace''... well, ignore the last part and worsen the first.

* EverythingsBetterOnDrugs - Both played straight and averted. I mean, once you create a song with the chorus ''Lay back in the sun/Good dope good fun'', it's hard to not be this trope.

* TheTropeSong - "The Slide Song", "Rocket Shaped Song".