The Cover Uncovered: Jason Pierce breaks down Spiritualized’s epic artwork
After the dissolution of the revolutionary neo-psychedelic space-rock band Spaceman 3, lead vocalist Jason Pierce, otherwise known as J. Spaceman, formed Spiritualized. Initially consisting of ex-Spacemen 3 members, excluding Peter Kember, Spiritualized has since featured a revolving door of musicians, with Pierce remaining the only constant.
The band released their debut album in 1992, Lazer Guided Melodies, yet it was 1997’s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space that launched the band to critical and commercial success. Critics heralded the album for its transcendental sonic palette, mixing a space-rock sound with shoegaze, psychedelic, ambient and indie influences. Moreover, the band incorporated a gospel choir and a string ensemble, giving the record a fuller, emotive sound.
Since its release, the band has shared six more albums, including Let It Come Down, And Nothing Hurt, and most recently, 2022’s Everything Was Beautiful. Each of Spiritualized’s nine albums has interesting cover art, most notably Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space’s pill packet design. The band frequently returned to drug-themed imagery in keeping with their psychedelic influences, with their latest album featuring a flattened drug packet with the record’s runtime on the front.
In an article for MTV, Pierce shared the stories behind each album cover between 1992 and 2012, consistently aiming to make artwork as fascinating as his music. Learning to adapt to new methods of music consumption, he explained: “I’ve seen artwork getting smaller and smaller. Sometimes people’s only connection with a piece of art is a tiny thumbnail on their iPlayer. I had that in mind when designing the sleeve [of Sweet Heart Sweet Light] that it should work as a thumbnail.”
The band’s first album, Lazer Guided Melodies, contains two alien-like silver figures, which began as a drawing by Natty Brooker before being transformed into a three-dimensional image. “It suddenly clicked with me that we didn’t have to settle for the given standards. My line was always, ‘We’re making beautiful music here. We shouldn’t be packaging it like the cheapest junk we possible can.'”
Thus, for Pure Phase, Pierce decided to take things up a notch and make the cover glow in the dark. “Everybody loves glow-in-the-dark. It’s the best thing known to man, isn’t it?” For Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, Pierce collaborated with Mark Farrow. “He came in and said he had always wanted to do a pill. […] The whole thing was going to mirror this pharmaceutical thing. Because I started talking about music as medicine. […] So we just ran with it, and the whole thing became more and more elaborate, it contained the paperwork you get with pharmaceuticals.”
Interestingly, he added: “The only place in England that can make those foil tops wrappers was the pharmaceuticals industry. They’re the only ones with the machinery and copyright to do it. So the record was made alongside the medicines it was copying. We’ve got photos of people with their hairnets and white coats putting together these records.”
Pierce came up with another great idea for their next album, Let It Come Down, to create a “sort-of low-grade hologram”. Detailing further, he explained: “Don Brown makes these beautiful figures of his muse, his wife, Yoko. And they’re all the same, these beautifully calm figures. We did this with Farrow also. I’d been reading a lot about psychology and just sciences in general, and one of the things I thought was amazing is that if you’re presented with an imprint of a face that goes inward, because you’re so used to seeing that from early stages that noses go outward, your brain can pull this thing out into a three-dimensional thing the other way.”
However, by the following year, Spiritualized had become known for their special artwork, which “wasn’t the intent”. Pierce said: “With Amazing Grace, it was like, ‘We’ve done this. I don’t want to be known for doing sleeves like they’re a thing unto themselves.’ The design should be really important.” Discussing 2008’s Songs in A&E, Pierce detailed his dissatisfaction with making special edition records that cost more than a standard album version. “I don’t want to make a record and put it in a jewel box and then ask people to pay more for a limited edition that is essentially the same music. There’s no difference between the music, it’s just asking people to pay for a bit more paper product.”
Referring to the current trend of bands releasing multiple rare editions of their work, he explained, “You’re still producing the same junk product that we always produced, but you’re making the standard the special. ‘We’ve got it in a wooden box.’ ‘Fuck you, we’ve got it in a wooden box made of oak.’ ‘We’ve got fucking mahogany trim.’ It’s like some kind of fucking hustle.”
He continued: “When we started, it wasn’t about how much more we could charge for these.”
Rather, Pierce believes in making incredible artwork for the sake of creating beautiful art to accompany the music, not to act as a gimmicky cash grab. Although Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space was made available in several different ‘special’ formats, since then, Pierce has stated: “What I’m trying to do at the moment is go back to our original intent, which is that the standard issue, the one that everybody gets and is available to everybody, is beautiful. It’s a simple concept. Why isn’t everybody doing that?”
