Tag: Alternative Rock

Vinyl

Vinyl love: Spiritualized “Let it come down”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date January 22, 2023
No Comments on Vinyl love: Spiritualized “Let it come down”

(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: Let it come down
Year released: 2001
Year reissued: 2014
Details: 2 x 180 gram

The skinny: Those of you following closely along with my backwards trip through Spiritualized’s discography* might recognize an album sized gap here. I never have been a fan of the fifth album, 2003’s “Amazing grace”, being the one album I couldn’t get into and so I never expect to add it to my vinyl shelves. In fact, I wasn’t particularly fond of this fourth album in 2001 by the group, but as the years passed, I came to realize that very little Jason Pierce could have produced would have held a flame his previous studio release** and I’ve grown an appreciation for “Let it come down”. The version I purchased for my shelves and is represented in these photos is the 2014 reissue by Plain Recordings. It’s pressed to two discs in 180 gram vinyl but other than that, it’s pretty bare bones, containing only a portion of the original artwork I remember from the compact disc copy I had back in the day. Still, I am glad I have it to give a spin on the old turntable now and again and drift off to space with J. Spaceman.

Standout track: “Stop your crying”

*Especially those of you familiar with said discography.

**More to come on that in a couple weeks.

Tags 12", 180 gram, 2000s, 2001, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Double LP, Jason Pierce, Jason Spaceman, Reissue, Space Rock, Spiritualized

Vinyl

Vinyl love: Spiritualized “Songs in A&E”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date January 15, 2023
No Comments on Vinyl love: Spiritualized “Songs in A&E”

Artist: Spiritualized
Album Title: Songs in A&E
Year released: 2008
Year reissued: 2012
Details: Limited edition, 2 x LP, white, gatefold sleeve

The skinny: Continuing the backwards trend through the Spiritualized records on my vinyl shelves, we come to their 6th studio album, 2008’s “Songs in A&E”, aka the album that got me excited about one of my favourite bands again. It had felt to me like Jason ‘Spaceman’ Pierce had lost a bit of momentum with his previous two albums but when this one arrived, a whole five years after its predecessor, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Named for the period of time that he had spent in the hospital after a brush with death, this album felt like a different approach to a similar destination but one that revelled in its journey. And whenever I think of this album, I remember seeing the band supporting its release in Toronto with an afternoon slot at the Virgin festival and being tickled pink by a toddler-aged fan singing along to all the tracks and dancing with his father. Like the rest of the records that will be featured in this series, my copy is a reissue (this one in white) and was plucked from the racks of one my favourite indie record stores*.

Standout track: “Sweet talk”

*I’m pretty sure this one was found on the racks at Rotate This in Toronto.

Tags 12", 2000s, 2008, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Coloured vinyl, Double LP, Indie, Jason Pierce, Jason Spaceman, Limited edition, Reissue, Space Rock, Spiritualized, White vinyl

Tunes

Best tunes of 2003: #20 South “Loosen your hold”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date January 13, 2023
2 Comments on Best tunes of 2003: #20 South “Loosen your hold”

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This will be a short but sweet post for this happy Friday because South’s “Loosen your hold” is a rare example of a song that I truly loved but never managed to discover much about its creators.

All I really know about South are facts that I’ve gleaned from Wikipedia. That Joel Cadbury, Brett Shaw, and Jamie McDonald formed the group in London back in 1998, each were multi-instrumentalists and that apart from Cadbury’s lead vocals, the group shared the work of creating the other sounds amongst themselves. They’ve released five studio albums in total, the most recent being last year’s “From here on out”, but the only one I’m really familiar with their sophomore record, 2003’s “With the tides”.

I’d heard about the song “Loosen your hold” and heard the group compared to Travis, Coldplay, Doves, and Elbow, all groups that were, at that time, filling the British musical void left by the mighty tumble from grace of 90s Britpop. The song certainly fit the mould for me and persuaded me to check out the rest of the album. Ghostly harmonies hover over a banjo and a harpsichord playing hopscotch, and it’s all glued together with thick and sinewy synths.