The Double Doghouse

hello folks! our record this week, Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space, is the 3rd studio album from Spiritualized, and was originally released in 1997. i dont know that ive ever heard of Spiritualized before, so i fully dont know what to expect. let’s dig in!

the title track, Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space, is a really neat track sung in the round, where each vocal bit layers in on top of previous verses. the bits lifting from Elvis’s Falling In Love With You caused a bit of a stir that left this track edited in CD form for nearly adecade, but i think the final product is very very cool. Come Together is about addiction – its a whirling track that reaches some cacophonous crests. really like this one. i think I Think I’m In Love is where i started hearing the type of stuff that reminded me of the Gorillaz – this track is one of a few here that reminds me of some of the less collaborative Gorillaz albums (looking at you, The Fall). neat sound, especially for a track about a guy getting all up in his thoughts on a drug binge. All of My Thoughts does that a lot in the bridge too – i think its specifically the way the horns are used thats causing the connection in my brain, though it may be that vocalist Jason Pierce has a delivery similar to Albarn as 2D. considering this record came out the year before Albarn and Hewlett even started living together… it wouldnt surprise me to see this on an inspiration board, haha. i like the way All of My Thoughts has that longer, drawn out quiet moment after the crest, nice use of breather space. the transition from that chunk of the song to Stay With Me really does sell the “we are floating in space” vibes, ngl. very pleasant, drifting song. Electricity brings the tempo way back up, with a lotta distortion and energy. really like this song a lot. gotta love a rock track with that kinda harmonica – fun bluesy flair to it. Home of the Brave is neat – slowly builds from a quiet moment back to that wall of instrumentation that slowly overwhelms the singer. The Individual, an instrumental track, kind spins off that wall, almost feeling like a hangover. Broken Dream uses some real heartbreaker strings. really effective use of space here too. No God Only Religion is a fun instrumental track – a lot of layered soubds here, and the shouts/screams get echoes until they feel like sirens going in and out of the horns. i used the phrase “cacophonous” earlier but yeah its back in full force here. Cool Waves is an interesting track – musically and thematically, its a moment of peace and clarity before we move into the closer, but it also shows a kind of acceptance in regards to love that shows a level of growth above what the earlier tracks were struggling with. Cop Shoot Cop is the closer and the longest track on the record. love the intro, with the bluesy piano and snappin backing up the percussion. legit – took me several listens to realize the “cop” in the title meant “to acquire”, not a police officer, so he’s describing a cycle: cop, shoot up, repeat. feel a bit dense for that one. after the last chorus around the 7 minute mark the song start building and building and building and layering on the noise. the outro here leaves a lot of space to ride that energy out.

faves – Come Together, Electricity
dislikes –

very neat record, taken holistically. the narrator here is struggling with a kind of twin obsession – between taking drugs a fraught romance, many of the tracks are a kind of “caught between”, a limbo that lends an air of uncertainty to a lot of the tracks. i also think there’s a solid reading here where the drugs are the romance, yknow?

musically – this was fun, but not my style, a took a bit for me to connect with. neat to see, but i also get the vibe reading about the record like this may be an album where some of what it was doing has inspired and been copied so much it seems to shine less amongst its contemporaries. dunno!

Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space – 5/10

for the next Weekly Album Review, i’ll be listening to something a little different – a fanmix of the Bomberman Hero OST, by Lighieris. i’ll be back on Friday, January 12th with that review and to pick another weekly record, and in the meantime, let me know what album you’d like me to review! (i pool all suggestions in one place, and draw a person, then one pick from that person, so feel free to drop as many as you’d like! if you leave an email or username i’ll contact you when i’ve gotten through all your suggestions.)