Spiritualized-Songs in A&E

by Steven in Album Reviews, Musician Reviews, Reviews

Jason Pierce of Spiritualized, even after a close brush with death, released a post-recovery album this year that has quickly become one of my favorites. It is, in fact, my go-to record after a trying day. Songs in A&E is a beautiful collection of poignant songs that, frankly, we are lucky to even have the opportunity to purchase given Pierce’s hospitalization and recovery process. This is one of the albums that one truly appreciates more after realizing the context in which it was written/finished/recorded. Most people will not really buy that last sentence, which is kind of unfortunate.

In 2005, Jason Pierce was hospitalized with a very serious case of pneumonia, and the illness nearly killed him. By this point, most of the songs for the album (which, by the way, stands for Songs in [Accident & Emergency]…not Songs in [the diatonic major keys of] A & E…did not realize that until later. Oops.) had already been written, but at this point, it was not certain whether or not the album would ever be finished, given Jason’s health complications.

However, upon recovering, Pierce met with a friend, filmmaker Harmony Korine, who reportedly inspired Jason to complete and release the album. Songs like “Death Take Your Fiddle,” which had originally been written before Jason’s hospitalization as a song about facing death without reserve and regret, suddenly took on a different meaning and appreciation. It’s interesting to think about how this song must have been intended to sound like when first written, because the recording on the album is quite the sad-sounding dirge [with an eerie sample of what sounds like an iron lung playing throughout the entire track].

The album itself is a beautiful work of gospel-infused rock with very obvious moments of tender reflection. Interspersed between tracks are various instrumental tracks titled “Harmony (*****)” where the parentheses hold names of various instruments such as glockenspiel, mellotron, etc. These were apparently tracks that were written by Pierce when Harmony asked him to simply make some backing music for a film score. These interruptions of instrumental texture add a wonderful calm between songs that are somewhat dark in nature and sometimes heavily tracked and dense to the ear. Nevertheless, the tracks on this album sound heart felt and, for lack of a better word, huge. The production of the many layers of guitars and vocal harmonies blend together to create a truly beautiful and epic texture of sound that complements PIerce’s lyrics perfectly.

[note: Much of the information about Jason Pierce's sickness/recovery was taken from various interviews that Pierce has done with different sites. You can read more about his recovery here and here.]