Album Review: Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Drug abuse, troubled musical relationships, pneumonia, liver disease; what doesn't kill Jason Pierce – aka J Spaceman – only makes Spiritualized more of a single-minded anomaly it seems.

In tune with the symphonic instrumental opening of 2008's Songs In A & E, the poppier intention of Sweet Heart Sweet Light is made known with intro Huh? which moves straight into the twangy strums of Hey Jane. It's vibrant enough to soundtrack the ad for a zippy hatchback, especially with those damned cheerful female backing vocals, until it collapses into a noisy heap midway only to make good by picking up and strutting confidently to its near nine-minute end. These are the artistic freedoms afforded for an album's lead single when both NME and Pitchfork wanna have your babies, though it probably says more about Pierce's ambition (or arrogance) over a long and exalted career of druggy psychedelia coherent enough to entertain bents on everything from gospel to shoegaze.

Still, Sweet Heart Sweet Light is tough going when it flips between the sugary insincere fluff of Little Girl (again with pop chanteuse backing vocals) and the soulful stomp of I Am What I Am alongside the wretched depths that Pierce is so good at on Mary. Headin' For The Top Now sounds as though someone hit record right at the tail-end of a live jam that has the full attention of some spaced-out guitarist feeling the moment so hard that the poor old keyboardist is forced to maintain some kind of storyline (two choppy chords repeated) amidst it all. And why even bother adding a bassline that packs as much punch as a deep hum? Still, it's Spiritualized, innit?