Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

Holy wall of sound Batman. There is good & interesting stuff going on here, but getting bashed over the head by the kitchen sink for 70 minutes is a bit much for these ole ears.

If I’m floating for eternity out in space and need to boom sound waves reverberating out to the endless galaxy- this ain’t a bad option at all.

Wall of sound any and every day.

I was aware of Spiritualized in name only. As an introduction to them, this album is pretty neat. I'll probably listen to this again.

Recuerdo que me prestaron este CD y era bastante impresionante el formato de producto farmacéutico con su prospecto y todo. No me ha interesado, no suena mal, pero no me he guardado ningún tema.

Dit album ken ik door de Chemical Brothers. Zij remixten I think I am in love in en beëindigde hun mixalbum Brothers Gonna Work it Out er mee. Het nummer intrigeerde me. Dus sinds 1998 staat dit album in mijn luisterlijst. En ondanks dat I think I am in love mijn grote favoriet bleef, kon ik prima luisteren naar het hele album. Ik dacht altijd dat het een obscuur oud album was. Maar nu lees ik dat het gezien werd als het album van de ‘90s. Twee van mijn aannames in een paar woorden ontkracht. Leer ik toch weer bij.

Toch blijft het album mij wat ouder aanvoelen. Spiritualized zal wel slaan op het soms psychedelische geluid wat ik met de jaren ’60 associeer. Tegelijk is de link met de genoemde Chemical Brothers ook makkelijk gelegd. Wat dat betreft past het ook wel bij de jaren’90.

Dat kruisverband tussen jaren ’60 en jaren ’90 heb ik al vaker geconstateerd, lees ik terug. Zo noemde ik Tomorrow Never Knows vanwege dat gevoel als fijnste Beatle nummer. Ergens waardeer ik die jaren ’60 blijkbaar meer dan ik dacht. Als zijn die jaren ’90 beats precies wat er dan mist.

When i got my first impression of Jason Pierce's music, i thought i was gonna hate it but after listening to all three albums he worked on that are on this project, I actually kinda liked them and Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space may actually be the best one of them all. One of the most interesting things about this album is how it was packaged. It was packaged as if it was prescription medication, even going so far as to having a booklet containing "Dosage Advice". It is weird since i don't think that this is the most drug-tripy album on this list, not even close. Even so, the music was pretty good and fit the space rock sound quite well. It's still not perfect but it is Jason Pierce's best work.
Best Song: Broken Heart
Worst Song: All of My Thoughts

From the jump, Spiritualized proclaims an ethos of layering and hard work: this isn't any run-of-the-mill production, this is a group that takes seriously the sounds they aim to achieve. That achievement, capsuled in '1 tablet 70 min,' is not only real but often breathtakingly complete. Like My Bloody Valentine, the intention appears to be to fill the space entirely, yet there's always some invisible room left for the advantages of silence. Striking too are Jason Pierce's lyrics, which run the gamut of the abstract and tangible: 'Warm's the dope running down my spine'; 'Just me, my spike in my arm, and my spoon.' Simultaneously the Pet Sounds and Velvet Underground and Nico of the 90s, it's mournfully - brokenly - spiritual. And real heavy.

HECK YEAH

Lots of callbacks to better musicians - Elvis of course, but also The Beatles, Stones, Pink Floyd, VU, etc. The heavier stuff got my attention but nothing here sticks or got me excited. Drug songs are getting tedious around here too. Enough.

Pitkä ja meditatiivinen. 3.5/5.

This was great, lots of variation.

2.75

On one hand, I remember kind of liking it as I was listening.

On the other hand, that was less than 24 hours ago and I remember almost nothing about it.

Sidenote, this album beat out OK Computer for that year’s NME award, which is yet another example of how worthless the NMEs are.

Twenty-eight years ago this week, my family was on vacation. I think we went to NYC, but it may have been Toronto. On our drive home, we stopped at a gas station and I picked up a copy of Rolling Stone with Puff Daddy, who was then one of my favorite rappers, on it.

Cover in question: https://www.ebay.com/itm/284352921187 - I did not recall until now that Jeff Buckley and Prodigy were also on the cover. I got a lot out of this one magazine.

Enjoying Puff Daddy has not aged well. Luckily, the issue has redeeming qualities. On top of the articles on Buckley and Prodigy, in the back of the magazine were short reviews of albums. And that week Rolling Stone reviewed this album, which had come out about two months prior. (If they reviewed it a week earlier or later, I may never have heard of it.) They gave it 3.5 stars in a review that, reading it today, doesn’t jump out at me: https://web.archive.org/web/20010919072038/http://www.rollingstone.com/recordings/review.asp?aid=27747&cf=1304

But in August 1997, we didn’t have blogs or Pitchfork or anything like that. We lived under the tyranny of radio. And I think 3.5 stars from the famous music magazine for an album I’d never heard of but sounded cool inspired me. I bought the album without having heard a second of it and hoped for the best.

I don’t love every second of this album. It is a little long—cop shoot cop is great, but it could still work a few minutes shorter. I’m not always in the mood for some of the rockier songs. I’d probably cut “the individual.”

But I know when I turn it on today I will feel much the same way I must have felt twenty-eight years ago when I first heard it: this opening track is one of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever heard, I didn’t know music could do this, Puff Daddy could never. At its best—for me, that’s the title track and cool waves, which is not to say other moments aren’t great—it is an album of transcendent beauty. For that, and for being another one of those pivotal albums that moved my musical taste to a different place, I will always love this album. As the common wisdom holds, you never love music more than the music you discovered when you were 13.

Also, big shout out to Wikipedia for this:
“The original 1997 pressing of the album features the edited version of the song without the intended Elvis Presley lyrics; that version runs 3:40, does not have the subtitle "(I Can't Help Falling in Love)", and did not need to credit Weiss/Peretti/Creatore. This brings the album's run time down to 69:41.”

When I first heard the version that interpolated “I can’t help falling in love” a few years ago, I thought “how did I never notice those lyrics before?” It turns out, I didn’t notice them because they weren’t on my 1997 CD. Phew. Not insane.

This is an all consuming break-up album. One that wraps itself around you many times, constantly exploding outwards, spinning and expanding into ever increasing detail. It has a number of instruments that you'd more closely associate with an orchestra than a rock band. Textually it is in a million places at once but it never loses focus on its awesome singular vision.

It can be difficult to pin down exactly what Spiritualized are doing because any point of comparison seems a little bit off. I can hear elements of Dark Side of the Moon; fragments of The Velvet Underground & Nico; a general sheen of My Bloody Valentine folds itself in at points. None of these parts stay still long enough to pull focus and become an obvious reference point. Dare I say it sounds… new? Unique?

The slower songs are absolutely gorgeous, everything else is a bit meh

Better than Coldplay.

A huge sound surrounds the frail lead vocal which is left alone and raw, overwhelmed and struggling to persist in the turbulence. Quiet pauses and maximalist noise flow beautifully into each other. They do this thing where they're grooving along with as full a sound as you can imagine - a loud space rock band with gospel singers and horns and strings - and then a descending bassline drops in and reveals an entire abyss you've been floating above the entire time and it's pure magic.

I had never heard of this one before. Man, lots of long tracks of just noise. What little coherence there was didn't really find a groove. Better than many other albums on this list, but still not that great.

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space is nothing short of a transcendent listening experience. The album overflows with lush soundscapes, intricate instrumentation, and an exceptional roster of collaborators—including the Balanescu Quartet, The London Community Gospel Choir, and the inimitable Dr. John.

The title track opens the album with grace and power, serving as its emotional and sonic centerpiece. Ethereal and deeply moving, it sets the perfect tone for the sprawling journey that follows.

Across its runtime, Spiritualized weaves a rich tapestry of soaring melodies, adventurous arrangements, and raw, heartfelt lyricism. Each song brings its own distinct flavor, yet the album never loses its cohesiveness. It’s an ambitious and immersive work—part space rock, part orchestral soul—that stands as a landmark in late-'90s alternative music.

Favorite track: “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space”
Least favorite track: “Cop Shoot Cop” – an overlong closer that slightly overstays its welcome.
Album artwork: Minimalist, elegant, and instantly iconic—perfectly aligned with the music’s aesthetic.