By: Jeff Hassay

Maybe it was the near death illness or the recent acoustic tour, the new obsession with Daniel Johnston or just good ole’ fashioned aging, but Jason Pierce mustered up some inspired mojo on his new album Songs in A&E. It contains a restrained delicacy that Pierce touched upon in previous albums, though he never managed to maintain the tone before often ruining the buzz with indulgent tangents like “No God Only Religion” (on “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space”), “Symphony Space” (on “Laser Guided Melodies”), the ever-present pulsing bleeps on “Pure Phase” or the too-numerous-to-mention pseudo Stooges songs that usually feel less inspired than calculated. Here the diversion is six different songs called Harmony that act as short harmonic breathers between the songs. For once the buzz is not blown, it is enhanced.

Pierce obviously has many interests, but his songs are best served when he sticks to his strengths, and that is precisely what he does on this album. Spiritualized’s sound has been summarized as “Stooges for airports” (referring to Iggy Pop’s boisterousness mixing into Brian Eno’s ambience). Here they mainly stick to the airport side of that equation ... and it is one beautiful airport. The central theme, present in some form since Pierce started recording over 20 years ago as Spacemen 3, boils down to getting high and inevitably coming down—all the while focusing on fire, love and God which often blur into a single interchangeable mystery.

Auxiliary themes also emerge; death, waves, loneliness and dreaming factor into Pierce’s mythology though these all seem like part of a comedown to me, which can only be overcome by taking more drugs, finding some sort of God/love or going into upbeat rock mode. Pierce also likes to appropriate lines from the Classic Rock canon: “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space” liberally borrowed from Elvis, “Cop Shoot Cop” from John Prine and here “Soul On Fire” cops a line from Kris Kristofferson (“…freedom is just another word”) and the album closes with a short chant of “Funeral Home” which is a Daniel Johnson song that Spiritualized have been playing on their recent Acoustic Mainlines tour.

Rigidly following a theme may seem limiting (so does recording an album entirely in the keys of A and E) but there are an infinite amount of variations possible. Love, for instance; its wonder, its power and its ugly downside, Pierce tackles them all. Sometimes in the same song. On the album’s highpoint (pun only partially intended) “Soul On Fire,” exhilaration, bewildered love and an ominous comedown are all present. And that’s literally in the first minute. The rest of the song is just a wonder. The Magnetic Fields released 69 songs about love. One could easily imagine an inspired 100 song Spiritualized box set about being high.

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 VIDEO: Spiritualized - Soul On Fire