Sweet Heart Sweet Light by Spiritualized

Truly, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light is one of those gorgeous things and, if nothing else, the most profound late statement Spaceman has given us in a decade.

Sweet Heart, Sweet Light covers a broad aural spectrum from surrealistic haze to outward pop and as such, is some of Jason Pierce’s and Spiritualized’s best material since Ladies and Gentlemen.

It's not a drastic transformation as much as an acute refinement.

Spiritualized have mastered the use of these instruments to be able to lift a song effortlessly from its standard verse into a magnificent chorus.

From its opening moments, in fact, Sweet Heart packs in one of Pierce’s most impressive works yet. 

Iit's another resounding triumph for Pierce.

Though there’s no shortage of beauty or orchestral decoration on Sweet Heart Sweet Light, the influence of a middle age precipice on those pop trappings gives the album a rare and yes, spiritual, power.

This is the best and most complete set of songs Spiritualized have made since Ladies And Gentlemen. 

His tendency for perfection shines through once again on an album put together by an obsessive personality – in more than one sense.

This record is, as you’d expect, by turns breathtaking, entrancing, deafening and challenging, and Spiritualized are still the Vatican of bands.

The atmosphere of utter, abject sorrow is never properly established enough to get your guts and I don’t get my gateway track.