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Rating: Music (with a capital M) as medicine.
Mental, and therefore psychic, or "spiritual" healing indeed. An old idea, perhaps Jung and Freud, the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, already tried to heal some mixed-up music lover (read de-lover or demented?) with music. Perhaps just before moving on to electroshock!
As we were saying, music as medicine is certainly not an idea conceived first by Spiritualized or at least not by them alone. Yet their final product truly turns out to be something soothing and refreshing, it manages to bring relief. This must have been noticed by our "one-man band" Jason Pierce, so much so that the inside of "Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space" indeed seems more like a container of drugs than a CD cover.
Only pseudo-medical prescriptions, pharmacological advice, usage frequencies, and side effects. No lyrics, after all, who would read the chemical components of a drug? When the doctor is a former Spaceman 3, I swallow with my eyes closed, without even the "spoonful of sugar," as the pill goes down well anyway. The album is from 1997, a vast amount of musical water has flown under the bridge, yet it remains very current.
As an opening, a faint female voice announces to us that we are floating in space. The idea of flight and floating will not leave us for all 70 minutes of this masterpiece's duration (I'm already expressing a bias here). We take off with the track bearing the same name as the title, starting softly but inexorably; slow and barely audible, yet determined to stretch toward its grand symphonic finale. In the second track "Come Together," we find that virtuosic soul so dear to Jason Pierce, which had already been his manifesto of intentions on side B of "Recurring," the farewell album to Spacemen 3.
A slow piano prelude opens the urgent "All Of My Thoughts," which, skillfully enhanced by winds and harmonica, abandons its fast pace at the end to close just as it began.
In an album that doesn't feature any "filler" songs, "Home Of The Brave" and its natural conclusion "The Individual" are notable, where psychedelic guitars and distortions sound more like animal cries than solos. Finally, the rarefied space-ballad "Broken Heart" and the distinctly gospel "Cool Waves" are stunning and moving. Magniloquent soul and gospel, psychedelia, and pop symphonies for a journey through space unparalleled in the musical world.
An indisputable masterpiece of the last decade signed by Dr. J. Spaceman!
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (03:40)
Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space
All I want in life's a little bit of love
To take the pain away
Getting strong today
A giant step each day
All I want in life's a little bit of love
To take the pain away
Getting strong today
A giant step each day
I've been told
Only fools rush in
Only fools rush in
But I don't believe
I don't believe
I could still fall in love with you
I will love you till I die
And I will love you all the time
So please put your sweet hand in mine
And float in space and drift in time
All the time until I die
We'll float in space, just you and I
And I will love you till I die
And I will love you all the time
So please put your sweet hand in mine
And float in space and drift in time
All the time until I die
We'll float in space, just you and I
Baby I love you today
I guess that's what you want
And I don't know where we are all going
Life don't get stranger than this
It is what it is
And I don't know where we are all going
I will love you till I die
And I will love you all the time
Everything happens today
And we're out here in space
And I don't know where we are all going
Baby I love you today
I guess that's what you want
And I don't know where we are all going
02 Come Together (04:40)
Little Johnny's sad and fucked
first he jumped and then he looked
Those tracks of time those tracks are mine
Little Johnny's occupied
Come on, Come together
Come on, Come together
Little Johnny had an ache
That hung around the poor boy's mate
every time that Johnny ate
The little fucker fed the ache
Come on, Come together
Come on, Come together
Little J's a fucked up boy
Who doled the pain but killed the joy
And little J's a fucking mess
But when He's offered just says yes
Little J is sad and fucked
First he jumped and then he looked
The tracks of time those tracks of mine
Little J is occupied
Come on, Come together
Come on, Come together
03 I Think I'm in Love (08:09)
Sun so bright that I'm nearly blind
Cool, 'cause I'm wired and I'm out of my mind
Warm as the dope running down my spine
But I don't care 'bout you,
and I got nothin' to do
Free as the water and air that I breathe
Even freer than DMT
Feel the warmth of the sun in me
But I don't care 'bout you,
and I got nothin' to do
Love in the middle of the afternoon
Just me and my spike in my arm and my spoon
Feel the warmth of the sun in the room
But I don't care about you
And I got nothin'
I think I'm in love,
probably just hungry
I think I'm your friend,
probably just lonely
I think you've got me in a spin now,
probably just turnin'
I think I'm a fool for you babe,
probably just yearnin'
I think I can rock and roll,
probably just twistin'
I think I wanna tell the world,
probably ain't listenin'
Come on
I think I can fly,
probably just fallin'
I think I'm the life and soul,
probably just snortin'
I think I can hit the mark,
probably just aimin'
I think my name is on your lips,
probably complainin'
I think I have caught it bad,
probably contagious
I think that I'm a winner, baby
Probably Las Vegas
Come on
I think I'm alive,
probably just breathin'
I think you stole my heart now, baby
Probably just thievin'
I think I'm on fire,
probably just smokin'
I think that you're my dream girl
Probably just dreamin'
I think I'm the best, babe, come on
Probably like all the rest
I think that I could be your man, oh, probably just thinkin'
I think I'm in love
I think I'm in love
I think I'm in love
I think I'm in love
I think I'm in love
I think I'm in love
I think I'm in love
06 Electricity (03:46)
Driving fast down a one way street
Lord of loving you dance so sweet
Going fast to hit the sky
Lord of love you don't ask me why
I said electricity
Let it rain all over me
Let the light be forever green
I'm playing with fire if you know what I mean
I need someone to help me
Turn it on
Driving fast babe I'm on my own
I'm gonna meet you on a one way road
Gonna crash, kiss the sky
Lord of love you don't ask me why
I said electricity
Let it wash all over me
Let the light be forever green
I'm playing with fire if you know what I mean
I need someone to help me
Turn it on
Driving fast down a one way street
Lord of loving you dance so neat
Baby try not to hit the sky
Baby try not to make me cry
I said electricity
Electricity
Electricity
Electricity
Turn it on
07 Home of the Brave (02:22)
I don't even feel it
But Lord how I need it
When I'm not with her
I'm not all myself
Sometimes have my breakfast right
Off of a mirror
And sometimes I have it
Right out of a bottle
Come on
I'm gonna rip it up
Tear it out
Gotta get it off of my soul
I don't even miss you
But that's 'cause I'm fucked up
And sure when it wears off
Then I will be hurting
And just 'cause the sun shines
When you're out of my time
And just 'cause I feel bad
And feel good to fly high
Come on
Come on
I'm gonna rip it up
Tear it out
Gotta get you off of my soul
09 Broken Heart (06:38)
Though I have a broken heart
I'm too busy to be heartbroken
There's a lot of things that need to be done
Lord I have a broken heart
Though I have a broken dream
I'm too busy to be dreaming of you
There's a lot of things that I gotta do
Lord I have a broken dream
And I'm wasted all the time
I've gotta drink you right off of my mind
I've been told that this will heal given time
Lord I have a broken heart
And I'm crying all the time
I have to keep it covered up with a smile
And I'll keep on moving on for a while
Lord I have a broken heart
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Other reviews
By C.H.A.R.L.I.E Nokia
Never before has the music of Spiritualized attempted to reconcile abstract and concrete, physical and immaterial, desire and its fulfillment.
The suite of Cop Shot Cop with Doctor John’s magical piano sets everything right again.
By Cervovolante
"Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space remains a timeless masterpiece of alternative music, a sort of 'Dark Side of the Moon' of the '90s."
"It is a work that offers comfort and consolation in a world often chaotic and confusing."
