Spiritualized Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space CD

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN is Spiritualized's crowning acheivement, a masterpiece of '90s psychedelia that captures the mystery and invention of groups like Pink Floyd and Spirit while sounding thoroughly contemporary. The seeds were sown with Spacemen 3. After J Spaceman defected to form Spiritualized, those seeds were nurtured on the latter's first couple of albums. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN is the full blossoming of Spiritualized's lush, spacey vision.

Avid experimentalists from the beginning, the band takes the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach beyond its limits, with strings, horns, a gospel choir, steel guitar, and even Dr. John's piano added to the carefully constructed aural palace of harmony and dissonance. It's that balance of chaos and beauty that makes the songs so special, as unrelenting cavalcades of processed sound give way to ambient soundscapes. Perhaps most importantly, the band's songwriting is at a high point here, with subtle but unforgettable melodies attached to each song, no matter the extent of the sonic explorations.

Additional personnel includes: Dr. John, The Balenescu Quartet, London Community Gospel Choir.

Engineers include: Darren Allison, Mads Bjerke, Trevor Curwen.

Spiritualized includes: Jason Pierce.

Rolling Stone (8/7/97, pp.60-62) - 3.5 Stars (out of 5) - "...their most rocking album to date....monumental in scope, boasting 58 contributors, who range from Dr. John to the avant-classical Balanescu Quartet....Both ethereal and earthy..."
Entertainment Weekly (6/27-7/4/97, p.125) - "...The zero-gravity guitar drone can get monotonous, but Memphis-soul horns, blues harmonica, and gospel singing keep the songs from drifting away altogether." - Rating: B+
Q (12/99, p.92) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s."
Q (8/99) - Included in Q's Best Psychedelic Albums of All Time
Q (1/98, p.115) - Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1997."
Q (8/99, p.139) - "...a sprawling 70-minute meditation on the highs and lows of love and beyond....it gnaws away incessantly to take you to the kind of places never normally marked on the map..."
Uncut (p.116) - "[W]ith love as the drug, Spiritualized found their own space, choreographed a floating army and made a cast-iron, feather-light classic."
Alternative Press (5/01, p.104) - Included in AP's "10 Essential Breakup Albums" - "...Jason Pierce's cure for a broken heart is to soak it in 48-track layers of vocal melodies, strings, vintage keyboards, horns, guitar noise, harmonica and whatever else is in the studio..."
Melody Maker (12/20-27/97, pp.66-67) - Ranked #4 on Melody Maker's list of 1997's "Albums Of The Year."
Melody Maker (6/14/97, p.53) - "...you'll feel like your soul has been stretched somehow....one mind-blowing perspective-fusing supernova of an album....that redefines notions of bittersweet and love-hate to the point where everyday emotions seem very small indeed. "
Musician (8/97, p.91) - "...an often gripping and adventurous record, oozing bluesy slide guitar, wailing harmonica, hymnal organ and strings, drenched in churning rock blowouts and anthemic gospel epics....a masterpiece of equal parts sonic exploration and resplendent inner madness..."
Village Voice (2/24/98) - Ranked #17 in the Village Voice's 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
Mojo (Publisher) (p.66) - Ranked #12 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "[D]ramatic, drenched in string arrangements to rival those of Jack Nitzsche's."
NME (Magazine) (12/20-27/97, pp.78-79) - Ranked #1 in NME's 1997 Critics' Poll.
NME (Magazine) (8/12/00, p.28) - Ranked #3 in The NME "Top 30 Heartbreak Albums" - "A warped concept album...offering a portal into the fragile mental state of Jason Pierce. Concerned with heartbreak and drug use..."