Spiritualized

Item: Live at the Royal Albert Hall
Author: Pearson Greer

Live at the Royal Albert Hall

(1997)

Reviewed by Pearson Greer

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Label Arista RecordsOpus2000

psychedelic rock space rock

Originally published at Opus

I'm not sure who it was who said that the standard for bloated rock excess was for the fourth album to be double live, but regardless of who it was, or if it was actually the fifth record -- it's pretty darned true in this case. I speak from a certain degree of expertise in this area as I've heard a few bootleg Spiritualized albums, and every one of them had moments more inspired than the average take on this record. Caveat: Not everyone has the time or money (but what they lack in those, they make up in a life outside record collecting) to search for said discs, and for those who haven't heard the boots or Spiritualized's inspired live show -- this will do just fine. Caveat: The recording quality is pretty darn snazzy. Uh huh, and so is the symphonic Great White, I'd venture to say. (If such a horror exists...)

Ok, so what's missing you ask? There's a decent song selection in "Shine a Light/Electric Mainline," "Walkin' With Jesus," "No God Only Religion," and "Oh Happy Day." I say decent because they're still continuing to beat the hell out of "Cop Shoot Cop," which has never done anything for me. There's some different arrangements as in the good ("No God Only Religion") and bad ("I Think I'm In Love"). The problem with the latter is that the old arrangement was fabulous, and the song is now rendered barely recognizable. This may be the goal for some jazz or improv groups, but with Spiritualized the beauty is usually more to be found in watching them fall in and out of the loose structure of the songs.

The backing band has been more impressive in the past. I'm not sure how long Ray Moonshake has been playing with them, but previous sax performances have been much more inspiring and cathartic. The effect of horns here is much too smooth and west-coast, no matter how hard they blow on the out tracks. Working in the craziness inside the more controlled pieces has always been what's impressed me about J. Spaceman's crew. 'Tis hard to find such things here.