SPIRITUALIZED

High notes: Jason Pierce takes Spiritualized on another transcendent melodic mission

By: MATT ASHARE |
Published: April 10, 2012 http://www2.the-burg.com/entertainment/2012/apr/18/jason-pierce-takes-spiritualized-another-transcend-ar-1851151/

Spiritualized, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light (Fat Possum)

HUH?: Spiritualized's fearless leader Jason Pierce

In the two decades Jason Pierce has helmed starship Spiritualized, he's steered a single-minded path toward the outer reaches of space-rock, aiming for the highs of chemical intoxication, hypnotically oscillating strum-and-drone guitar, and, ultimately, a kind of religious transcendence. It's a journey that's taken him to places both strange and strangely familiar, from the very nearly scientific explorations of tonal cycles that characterized the dreamy psychedelia of 1992's aptly titled Laser Guided Melodies and 1995's Pure Phase, to the orchestral overtures and gospel inflections of 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space and 2001's Let It Come Down, to the skewed spirituals of 2003's Amazing Grace. By 2008, after battling back from a near fatal case of double pneumonia, Pierce was dabbling in country/folk music on Songs in A&E, even as his finely tuned walls of guitar continued their intergalactic flights. In the meantime, he'd managed to tour as Neil Young's opening act, and perform with something close to a full orchestra and gospel choir on the live album Royal Albert Hall October 10 1997.

       Pierce's new sonic salvo, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light, brings Spiritualized, which long ago evolved into more of a one-man vehicle than an organic "band," closer than ever before to something resembling near-Earth orbit. The product of three years of work — two spent recording in California, Iceland, and Wales; another dedicated to fine tuning the ten tracks at Pierce's home studio in England — it seems like a fairly straightforward consolidation of all that Spiritualized have been since first emerging as an off-shoot of the seminal, druggy, Velvet Underground-inspired group Spaceman 3 in the early ’90s. In fact, "Hey Jane," the disc's first real song (it follows a minute-long orchestral intro titled "Huh?," which also happens to be the only text that adorns the minimalist cover art), mentions the VU classic "Sweet Jane" by name in the midst of what might best be described as an advanced lesson in building intoxicating layers of melody over one chord strummed almost continuously for nearly nine minutes.

       In other words, Pierce hasn't conceded much, if anything, in the way of artistic license here. Midway through the rush of "Hey Jane," the drums collapse inward on themselves, guitars are sucked into a spinning vortex of discord, and clusters of out-of-tune piano notes emerge as the song comes to false halt before picking right back up where it began. Elsewhere, lacerated feedback and serrated noise guitars come to the fore in "Headin' For the Top Now," while a single piano chord bangs away rhythmically in the background, much like in the Velvets' song "I'm Waiting For the Man." Apparently old habits do indeed die hard: Pierce not only tips his cap to VU-era Lou Reed with the line, "We'll be seeing only white light in our minds/And it's been blinding us for years," but also makes one of the disc's several drug references, artlessly incanting, "I've been shooting up my time/I've been holding down the fear."

       But Pierce has a way of making even these more avant aspects of Sweet Heart, Sweet Light oddly accessible, constructing a beautiful balance between the art of noise and the craft of composition. "Little Girl," for example, is a reflective sing-along replete with surging strings and angelic background vocals, a dream-pop reverie that deals bluntly with mortality. "Hey little girl we're on our own/Here today and then we're gone/Before we ride into the sun/Get it on," Pierce sings in a cracked voice before giving the chorus over to a group of gospel singers who take it straight to the church. And the largely acoustic "Freedom" marks another foray into the realm of country music for Pierce, with its twangy guitar riffs and a swaying, meditative chorus: "Freedom is yours if you want it/But you just don't know what you need/Made up my mind/To leave you behind/Cuz you just don't know what you fear."

       Since as far back as the first Spaceman 3 single, 1986’s hypnotic “Walkin’ With Jesus,” Pierce has been interested in, or at least aware of, the link between the consciousness altering effects of religious transcendence and mind-altering narcotics. On Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, he made this parallel explicit with gospel choirs and a collaboration with New Orleans r&b piano giant Dr. John. Once again, on Sweet Heart, Sweet Light, he hooks up with Dr. John, who gets a co-songwriting credit on the testifying “I Am What I Am,” a track that contrasts buzzsaw guitars with a call-and-response gospel-style chorus that posits a middle ground, if not quite a happy medium, between Pierce’s competing compulsions. But the disc’s final track, “So Long You Pretty Thing,” a lullaby of sorts that features Pierce singing alongside his eleven-year-old daughter, finds something along the lines of peaceful resolution. “Help me lord/Help me father/Cuz I’ve wasted all my time/Help me lord/It’s getting harder/Cuz I made a mess of mine,” Pierce admits. And then there’s the sound of his daughter’s voice, reminding him that it really hasn’t been a waste of time after all. It’s a crushing kind of hopeless hopefulness that Pierce turns into a celebration of life. And of rock and roll.