Lazer Guided Melodies

Očekivala sam nešto baš specifično i da mi se nikako ne dopadne. Samo me nije posebno oduševilo, a inače je ova ocjena koju dajem baš čvrsta trica.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump down to a 4.

This is SO close to being a great album from start to finish, but it just falls short on a handful of tracks for me. Their sense of atmosphere here, while not as polished & immersive as it is on “Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space”, is certainly already a marked improvement over what was on “Playing With Fire” from the Spaceman 3 days. When this album is at its best, it gets kinda close to that floating vibe; not in space, but at least a few feet off the ground, and most potently on “Shine a Light”, which might be the best track here. This album’s slow drift from a rock-driven soundscape to a more atmospheric & spiritually driven one by the end is done relatively well, & as a total package, I think the entire hour is used pretty effectively.

It’s the snags along the way that are dropping this from a 4.5 that had the potential to bump up to a 4.5 that will go down to a 4, though I still think it’s an album worth one’s time. The first snag is, ironically, the opener – I think “You Know It’s True” just isn’t very striking as a tonesetter for the entire project, at least from a listener’s perspective. It fits thematically with the rest of the album, but it doesn’t do a great job of actually showcasing what the album at large is going to sound like. There’s no real evolution in the track until it’s nearly done, and even then, it just feels like instrumentation for the sake of it.

The second snag, though not as big of a snag, is “Symphony Space” – I’m all for a great atmospheric track when it’s done well, and while I think this is a really good listen & a fascinating soundscape to sit in, it never hooked me in with a broader sense of an actual musical narrative. I know that’s weird to say, but my imagination didn’t hit the same potent points as it did on the tracks leading up to it. It’s a good soundscape, but the lack of an actual evolution / shift in the soundscape at all never gave me the outstretched hand to feel something deeper from it. It’s certainly a track that could hit differently on another day, but on a first pass here, it just felt like 6 minutes of a car ride with nothing but grass to see out the windows.

The third snag is the last track, “200 Bars” – it’s just a little flat as a closing track, & one that doesn’t feel like it properly wraps up the album. The concept is cool, & using the length of the track itself is a novel idea, but the first 100 bars don’t do a great job of selling the sense of inevitability that’s meant to be portrayed here. The soundscape is a bit stagnant & the counting feels a bit trite. After that, the final 100 bars feel a bit too folksy in a way that just doesn’t mesh with the first 100. It’s a track with missed potential, and as the final track to a portion of the album that seemed to have a much more spiritual lean, it doesn’t really thematically fit either.

I know focusing on the negatives doesn’t feel too great, so here’s a bit of scattered praise for the rest of the tracks: “If I Were with Her Now” does a good job of earning its big layered outro, “I Want You” has a really good soundscape behind its lyrics, “Run” has a nice Beatles-y vibe, “Smiles” is short but effective, “Step into the Breeze” feels like sex mixed with spirituality, “Take Your Time” (while monotonous) does a good job of expressing its frustrations with the ignorant, “Shine a Light” has an incredible sense of progression with its plea to God, “Angel Sigh” does a great job with its explosive guitar work, & “Sway” (while awkwardly structured) is an interesting take on bearing one’s sins.

Those other 9 tracks here range from good to great, and the entire album is generally enjoyable. However, those three snags, especially the last one, are why I feel inclined to bump this down to a 4, though it is an album with the potential to bump itself back up someday. If nothing else, I was hoping for an album that had at least 70% of what made “Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space” feel so good to listen to, and I think I got that. The basis of that album is here, and their overall style feels well established for a debut album. I just wish it had a little bit more behind it, to really immerse the listener more in the well-intentioned tones of each track. Regardless, it’s a 4.5 that could go back up someday, but for now, it’s a recommended 4. I’m glad it’s on the list.

If Ladies And Gentlemen is a bombastic intergalactic adventure then this is a slow float through the solar system with the occasional passing asteroid. I like how the songs on each side flow into each other. The lyrics are mostly secondary with the vocals acting more as texture to the instrumentation. Favorites are I Want You, Run, and Angel Sigh.

Blissful and blissed out, dissociative, mesmerizing and trance inducing - a warm bath of sound. Soothing, depressing, tender, hurt and hopefull. Rich arrangements, melodies and beats bounce around, pulse from section to section, refracting off each other, replicating, duplicating, doubling and canceling each other, sound waves washing over each other. An album to give yourself over to.

Quite boring at times but overall vibe was nice

Well I got spiritualized. Low 4 for this one, their other one was better.

Decent enough album for the most part. Nothing overly memorable about it. It was sitting on three stars but it went on 3-4 tracks too long for me. Was quite bored of it by the end.

Top Track - Step Into The Breeze

OoOOoOOoOOoOOOoOoOOoOOOOooOoooo~

Some tracks were oddly hypnotic with moments of unexpected loveliness, and others were just... dull. I'd have to listen to it again though to work out which ones were which.

A couple of ok songs on here, but mostly it was pretty meh.

Great album from start to finish

Unsure how i managed to get the sane band 2 days in a row

i was pleasantly surprised by this album very good nice and chill and summery just a bit bloated

This album is really fun and floaty. I also like the cover. Spiritualized's first song is "Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space" and I think that perfectly encapsulates what this album feels like to listen to. I love shoegaze I think it's yummy. I paused my project and was going back through them because I had to catch up on some I hadn't even listened to but I also didn't write out a review for some of the ones I left a star rating for. Revisiting this one I'm realizing how much I like it. I think it might go up one or two stars. This seems like a good album to listen to when I don't know what to listen to or I'm doing homework or something.

Cool, beautiful and relaxed

Not bad, and not good either. Just forgettable. Generic melodies and riffs. Good for background sounds.

This is a vibes album. So far, Run was a solidly good vibe. Take Your Time, also cool vibes. This album is a mood and I'm gonna come back to it in the future.

Inoffensive. Not interesting.

I can sum up the entire album by talking about the final track: This person is counting off, like 1,2,3,4 like musicians do to start a song. 5. What? I waited until 25 before being sort of irritated, then looked at the name of the song. 200 Bars. There's no fucking way I'm listening to someone count to 200.

⭐⭐

Really liked how spacious and ambient this was while still having lots of more focused moments of songwriting

It flows very well but weirdly inconsistent in sound / quality throughout, sympathetic to the ambient stuff but I much prefer when they rock out