Record Rebound: Spiritualized reissue its heaviest album, ‘Amazing Grace’
In the 1980s, Jason Pierce and Peter Kember infused psychedelic nostalgia with the subversive grit of punk innovators like The Velvet Underground and Suicide as Spacemen 3. This highly influential project spanned from sedate trance to propulsive electro, with heavy drug consumption as the only guiding constant. Naturally, the wheels of such a self-destructive vehicle wore clean off, leaving Pierce, or J. Spaceman as he’s commonly known, to reinvent his career as the leader of Spiritualized.
Throughout the 1990s, Spiritualized found a crucial foothold in the decade’s underground rock scene, providing an eclectic, often sombre alternative to the garish Britpop wave. Pierce struck a career-high in 1997 with Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, leaving his devout cult aching for more.
After spending four years on a follow-up, Pierce maintained a symphonic approach in the comparatively underwhelming Let It Come Down. From the gnashing teeth of stagnation, Pierce sensed it was perhaps time to mix things up in the studio heading into the fifth Spiritualized record. Amazing Grace would shed Pierce’s symphonic skin, instead presenting a platter of calamitous garage tunes relieved by strains of jazz and gospel – hence the name.
From Ladies and Gentlemen’s parental platter, Amazing Grace took most of its genes from ‘Electricity’ and ‘Cool Water’. The former’s cacophonous jazz and heavy guitar presence is echoed in tracks like ‘This Little Life of Mine’ and ‘Never Goin’ Back Again’, while the latter rests the eardrums in ‘Lord Let it Rain On Me’ and ‘Lay It Down Slow’.
The album’s most enduring moment is the lead single, ‘She Kissed Me (It Felt Like A Hit)’. The track remains a staple presence of live shows, often performed near the beginning of each set to inject proceedings with its anthemic energy. As usual, Pierce reflects on an ongoing battle with drug addiction through the lens of promiscuity.
A similar tempo was carried into the second and final single, ‘Cheapster’, an attractive garage jaunt propelled by a frenetic organ progression. This time, Pierce taps into the album’s religious connotations in a moral conversation – yes, you guessed it – about drug abuse. “Well, you may not be good looking, but you haven’t got no faith / Sometimes I get a mouthful when I only want a taste / Sometimes you kick the devil out, but angels smash your face / You can lay the law out baby, but I don’t think I’ll behave,” he sings in the third and final verse.
Despite moments of tranquillity and divine grace, Amazing Grace isn’t for the faint-hearted. Of Spiritualized’s nine studio albums to date, this is about as heavy as it gets. Still, esoteric as it may be, balancing moments of intimacy reflect Pierce’s sensitive side and provide a crucial piece to the colourful puzzle that is Spiritualized.
In September 2023, Amazing Grace turned 20 years old. To celebrate, Spiritualized announced a reissue in association with Fat Possum Records. Remastered by Matt Colton, the modern relic is encased in a gatefold sleeve on either black or limited edition dove grey 180g vinyl. The reissue arrives on Friday, January 19th. See pre-order and purchase options here.
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