Songs In A&E
****
Sanctuary 1765609, £11.99As I've pretty much been able to take or leave Jason 'Spaceman' Pierce and Spiritualized in the past, this warm, crackly mess of a record comes as an unexpected but welcome surpri
se.
Informed by his hospitalisation with pneumonia and its complications, this is a remarkably uncomplicated album. From the bluesy choir of 'Soul On Fire' to the sprawling redemption-free zone that is the lengthy 'Baby I'm Just A Fool', this is a man scared of precious little.
'Goodnight Goodnight' lilts like a lullaby but stings like a bee, full of sorrow, short on remorse in a painfully tender farewell. It is a terrible cliché that musicians never sound better than when suffering for their art, but as he mutters "funeral home" on the fade-out it sounds like a convincing argument.
Previous grandiose flippancies have been supplanted by genuinely affecting tales such as 'Sitting On Fire' as Pierce saves the best twist until the death. Songs In A&E has its heart in the Sixties and Seventies, with its head chillaxing to the muted modern grooves of 'The Waves Crash In' or the nagging Dylan-style insistence of 'Yeah Yeah'.
Displaying most of the aspects that make indie rock worthwhile, Pierce has chosen to make his most life-affirming record after suffering from his poorest health. It seems life can be strange, and mercifully, surprising.
Download this: Death Take Your Fiddle, Sitting On Fire
The full article contains 249 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
