Album Review- Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful

My first real exposure to Spiritualized was 1997s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. It was not just a bit of a mind blowing album, it was also a bit of a slow burner. Think of it in terms of something contemporary to it like OK Computer or Urban Hymns or Time Out of Mind. It was loved but maybe not as celebrated, and as trends change, it remains a great album but never gets praised as a Radiohead/White Stripes/My Bloody Valentine style greatest album. Of note, I was never a big Spaceman 3 fan and as a friend of some pretty huge Jason Pierce fans, I know that his current direction is something that I enjoy a lot more than maybe others do. Everything was Beautiful is quite literally a continuation of 2018’s Nothing Hurt. Without context, it might be in the ballpark of any other Fat Possum release- some kind of modern gospel blues album created by a kid whose idea of country is that 70s era Rolling Stones and Flying Burrito Brothers. The guest list on this album includes Nikki Lane, one of the more exciting voices in alt country on “Crazy”. The lyrics feel intimate doubling down on a certain outlaw vibe. I can’t help but think of Mercury Rev, a band that I could write the same review about changing the reference to 98’s Deserter’s Songs and more explicitly embraced traditional country similarities by recording an album of Bobby Gentry songs. Yet what to make of an album with a song that is written as an homage to the Fun House Stooges. To crib from Waylon, I’m not sure that Gram Parsons would have done it that way. Nor would I feel comfortable saying this sounds like a different band than the one who recorded Ladies and Gentleman. Best Thing You Never Had sounds like something off Exile On Main Street, yes, but turns up the noise for a modern sound. Closer track I’m Coming Home Again sounds like it could be described a thousand different ways. It fits perfectly in that psychedelic/ Velvet Underground kind of way that won’t scare anyone who heard the previous songs off My criticism of EWB is that it isn’t much different from the last few Spiritualized albums (since And Nothing Hurt came out of the same sessions, that can hardly be a harsh criticism). My counterpoint is that those albums now seen steps to the goal of a fully realized album that is his best in a decade and reaches some of the highs of L&GWaFiS. 2022 - Fat Possum