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On an upward curve of exponential musical grandness, each
Spiritualized album finds Jason Pierce trying to trump himself. This
one is no different, with over 100 musicians, including a sizeable
orchestra (replete with full-force woodwinds and timpani drums) and a
vociferous gospel choir. As if its size alone weren't enough to set
the album apart from his preceding Spiritualized outings, Pierce has
removed all the sounds he thought were immediately identifiable as
Spiritualized — delay, phase, Telecaster, Farfisa — and
left the songs as largely orchestral numbers. Starting with a remade
version of "On Fire," Pierce's Spacemen 3 ode to addiction, it's
clear that Let It Come Down (title taken from a line in said
song) is a form of musical rehabilitation for him. It's not long
before the album finds itself in the middle of Pierce's ongoing
clean-up effort: the fairly self-explanatory "The Twelve Steps" is
followed by "The Straight and the Narrow," in which he talks of
stumbling when walking the line ("I don't fall off the wagon no more/
I take a dive and go as deep as I can go/ Don't hold your breath
because I'm coming up slow/ This time") and mumbles about having to
believe in a higher force (long a favorite subject for Pierce). Both
the wrung-out blues-rock of Spacemen 3 and the orchestral space-rock
of Spiritualized have been steeped in an appreciation of gospel
music, and exploring such sounds of faith has often found Pierce
questioning his own. Inspired by a spiritual version of his SP3 ode
"Lord, Can You Hear Me?" by sombre pop-minimalists Low — whose
married central couple are Mormons — Pierce revisits one of his
most stirring tracks, perhaps hoping this fragile, suicidal
questioning/prayer will help him make sense of his current state. He
even invites Low's angelic-voiced drummer Mimi Parker along to help
him, along with all o' that London Community Gospel Choir, and the
result is a bold exclamation mark at the album's end.
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