Vinyl love: Spiritualized “Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Spiritualized
Album Title: Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space
Year released: 1997
Year reissued: 2010
Details: 2 x 180 gram

The skinny: Big fans of Jason Pierce’s space rock outfit, Spiritualized, that might be following along as I’ve been travelling backwards through my collection of their records will likely have been watching out for this one. The third record, “Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space” is largely and widely considered their best and I am definitely not one to disagree. It came in at number one when I counted down my favourite albums of 1997, a stacked year that also included seminal albums by Radiohead and The Verve. This double album of gospel, noise rock, and free jazz, tells the dual and intertwining tales of a breakup and a psychedelic trip and it is near perfection in its beautiful and pain. The 180 gram reissue I have from 2010 faithfully reproduces original album art that was modelled after medicinal packaging, right down to the wrapper-like album sleeves, instructional insert that includes Qs & As, and the expiry date and storage instructions on the back cover. This was a must have for my album collection and the first one from this particular ‘Vinyl love’ series that I purchased.

Standout track: “Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space”