Everything Was Beautiful shows Spiritualized accessing yet another artistic plateau, forging an exemplary hybridization of unshakeable songs and sublimely assembled music.
If it turns out that Everything Was Beautiful is the last Spiritualized project we ever get, it is an unexpected gift that lives up to the best of Jason Pierce’s storied career.
It all revolves around the showstopping Mainline, charging through the night on locomotive rhythms, angelic harmonies, Ozark harp grit and Pierce’s compulsive offers to head downtown to watch the Trump riots. Everything was beautiful?
No doubt, Pierce is preaching to the converted with Everything Was Beautiful, but his followers will rejoice when they hear that he's finally hit that rich vein of form again.
Everything Was Beautiful is delirious and exciting, a perfect distilment of the best parts of the band's various phases that feels reinvigorated and new.
The album ... presents itself as a rich sonic puzzle with dozens of unfolding parts.
You don’t need to be in an altered state to become overwhelmed by his mastery of controlled cacophony. It is a pleasure to report that everything is still beautiful in Pierce’s strange sonic world.
Spiritualized have delivered yet another great project with Everything Is Beautiful, an incredible mix of genres bringing forth truly impressive instrumentals with compelling lyrics.
A gorgeous (arguably greater) companion to And Nothing Hurt.
While Pierce is probably playing to the gallery with a work that seamlessly fits in with the rest of his oeuvre, he hasn’t sounded this effective and direct in years. Everything Was Beautiful is an emotional album. It sounds a bit like a defiant up yours to the pandemic.
Much of Everything Was Beautiful has a vital, thundering pulse: anchored on an insistent rock'n'roll riff, Best Thing You Never Had builds to a tremendous din before a trombone solo arises magnificently from the soup.
Organized chaos is something Pierce has down at this point. Everything Was Beautiful is a nice companion to And Nothing Hurt, and is, in fact, an even stronger effort, full of blinding synths and sharp horns and groovy textures, from an outfit known for a very high quality of material.
Spiritualized harness their power on Everything Was Beautiful. Filling the album to the brim with instruments, they find new space in old sounds.
Most of Spiritualized’s ninth LP comes off intricate, elastic, and soulful — just how the group has always intended to sound. Even their deepest trips have a down-to-earth feel.
Idk homie I think this still is pretty beautiful
With only hearing Spiritualized through Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating Through Space, I was interested to see where they would go with this new album. I do really love what I’ve heard, and I feel like on this album, they just redid a lot of what they did on their previous work. While this album is good, it didn’t leave a crazy impact on me. I was expecting a little bit more exploration with sound if that makes sense. And while ... read more
Spiritualized's newest effort sees them taking their signature sound and delivering a healthy helping of what fans know and love, with a few dashes of blues rock sprinkled in for added flavor. Unfortunately, while they do add uniqueness, its these bluesy additives that provide the record's lowest moments. Songs like "Best Thing You've Never Had (The D Song)" come across as tacky blues rock pastiches whose instrumentation absolutely refuses to smoothly meld with the spacey production ... read more
Having heard only 1997's 'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space', I didn't have much to compare this album to but I will say that I personally preferred how concise this album is even if none of the tracks reach the level of the title-track from that album. I expected heartfelt lyrics and vocal delivery (see 'Always Together With You') but was not prepared for the stunning production quality and instrumental variety. Also, this is my favourite cover art from them.
Favourite Tracks: ... read more
1 | Always Together With You 6:38 | 85 |
2 | Best Thing You Never Had (The D Song) 5:52 | 77 |
3 | Let It Bleed (For Iggy) 4:40 | 79 |
4 | Crazy 3:52 | 76 |
5 | The Mainline Song 5:55 | 77 |
6 | The A Song (Laid In Your Arms) 7:07 | 78 |
7 | I'm Coming Home Again 9:53 | 79 |
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