Quote:

The title of the album is taken from the philosophical novel Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, the context being: "Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence. Some of them fall off, but others cling on desperately and yell at the people nestling deep in the snug softness, stuffing themselves with delicious food and drink. 'Ladies and Gentlemen,' they yell, 'we are floating in space!' But none of the people down there care."

"There's a hole in my arm where all the money goes," moans Jason Pierce at the start of "Cop Shoot Cop...", the 17-minute closer of Spiritualized's third album and lone masterpiece, Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space. His bedraggled voice drips through the words. He's an addict, but it's as if he realizes none of it mattered, anyway-- there's no salvation, no redemption, only cold life and sudden death. One cop lives to kill another cop. (Or a junkie survives only long enough to shoot up again.) The world keeps turning. Just like in his opening line, he quotes John Prine: "Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose."

Since the 1997 release of Ladies and Gentlemen, Spiritualized have recorded three LPs, a handful of singles and EPs, and two double-disc sets called Complete Works. And the noise-gospel rock sprees that followed Ladies and Gentlemen cemented Spiritualized's reputation as one of rock'n'roll's best live spectacles. Pierce has also scored a Harmony Korine film, recorded a solo electronics album, collaborated with Spring Heel Jack, and sculpted a mesmerizing long-form drone record with pianist Matthew Shipp. He also almost died, in 2005 of bilateral pneumonia, only to recover and finish a remarkable return to form-- Songs in A&E. Yet Pierce unequivocally reached the height of his recorded powers with Ladies and Gentlemen. Bolder than the term Britpop might suggest, more focused than the term psychedelic might imply, Ladies and Gentlemen is one of the great triumphs of the 70-plus-minute CD era. Alternately chaotic and meticulous, thundering and quivering, Ladies and Gentlemen finds power in conflict-- between restraint and excess, addiction and isolation, and ultimately, love and hate.

Ladies and Gentlemen is, at its core, an album about wanting something you don't have until, as "Cop Shoot Cop..." says, it brings you to your knees. Pierce wants to fill that hole in his arm, or-- as it were-- the hole in his heart. Kate Radley plays keyboards and sings on Ladies and Gentlemen, and she begins the album with that famous telephone call: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space," her voice delivering horrible news with ruinous calm. Her romance with Pierce had just ended. Four days before Spiritualized were to open for the Verve in England in 1995, she secretly married the headliner's Richard Ashcroft. "All I want in life's a little bit of love to take the pain away," Pierce repeats for the album's first minute. Your heart would hurt, too.

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I'm seeing them perform it in its entirety, for the last time ever, next Friday at Radio City Music Hall. I'm already planning out my neurochemical perturbations for the evening. I think it'll be 60% tryptamine, 40% phenethylamine...4-HO-MiPT with a touch of 2C-B perhaps.  We'll see.  They're performing it with a full orchestra and a gospel choir.

Should be epic.