Spiritualized - Songs in A&E Review

Lurking on the edge of every great drug trip is the threat of death, the hint that one might never come down. Few musicians have captured that peculiar mix of euphoria and existential panic like Spiritualized's Jason Pierce, who, beginning with Spacemen 3's credo of "taking drugs to make music to take drugs to," has built his career on the sound of getting so fucked up that it feels like dying. But the new Songs In A&E is the sound of rebirth: Barely surviving a bout of life-threatening pneumonia in 2005, Pierce spent time in the accident-and-emergency ward (the A&E of the title), and it was only through working on the Mr. Lonely score for Harmony Korine—honored here by three instrumental tracks bearing his name—that Pierce regained the confidence to come back to the Songs he'd been forced to abandon....full text Given a pedigree as distinguished as Jason Pierce’s, expectations are high when it comes to releases bearing his name. Couple this with an expanse of nearly five years since the last proper Spiritualized record, anticipation for the imminent release of Songs in A&E is undoubtedly high. The wait was more than just a vanity exercise or a round of writer’s block; Pierce was dealing with a well-documented health scare that ceased initial work on the album and ultimately imparted its physical and emotional effect on the tone of the recording....full text When it comes to a case of life imitating art, you're unlikely to hear a tale as eeriely prophetic as the one behind Spritualized's sixth album, Songs In A&E.

In 2005, Jason Pierce was working on a collection of songs whose main subject matter was death and mortality. Then, he contracted advanced periorbital cellulitis and then developed bilateral pneumonia, ending up in intensive care and close to death....full text