Spiritualized-Totally Shuffled extract

March 2^nd

Spiritualized-All of My Thoughts-Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space 

“Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space”- the ultimate break up-album of all time. There may be others of course, probably country records from the 50’s or 60’s or some singer songwriter stuff from the 70’s, but this must be up there. The track titles alone give it away; “I think I’m in Love,” “Stay with Me”, “Broken Heart”. If you can call music sad, or resigned, or world weary-just the music, not the lyrics or the vocal style, then this is it. Add into this the saddest, loneliest words sung by Jason Pierce, with the most tired, fed-up voice since Neil Young on “Tonight’s the Night”. 

This gives us the best break-up record of all time.

It’s also the best drug record of all time. 

Are drugs necessary for good music? 

Personally, I think that using drugs is the biggest waste of time and quite frankly, ridiculous and naff. 

It’s beyond all the clichés of evil and stupid-which we all know to be true anyway-it’s just crap and daft. 

Having said that, and this is where I’m conflicted so much-some great records have been made on drugs-Miles Davis’ entire output for example. 

This is not only an album probably made on drugs, but one blatantly about drugs as well -when Jason Pierce sings about “there’s a hole in my arm where all the money goes”, he’s not pulling any punches or being obscure. 

To allay any possible confusion, the album originally came packaged as a blister pack pill, with the same generic typeface as prescription medicine. The track listing and inner sleeve was made like the information leaflet you get in a packet of pills and to cap it all, they affixed a label to the sleeve, sized and typed exactly the same as you get on a bottle of pills i.e. take one daily, avoid alcohol, may cause drowsiness, if affected do not drive.           

It’s also the best Spiritualized album and I think, the most successful. It’s my favourite one anyway. 

They did release a good live album after this, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall, but the best tracks on that were from “Ladies and Gentlemen...” so maybe it doesn’t count as a different album in itself. 

Their previous two albums were the sound of a band finding their feet, and after “Ladies & Gentlemen…” I had the feeling that they’d said all they really could in one record, and were sort of grasping and struggling to say something different. 

They’d done all they could with one record-sometimes that’s enough and when it’s time to stop, it’s time to stop.

 

I think I’ve previously written that some records are only suitable for a certain time of the year, or certain weather-I think it was about Sigur Ros and winter. 

Well, this is a hot, hazy summer record. The ideal place is the middle of a park, lying on the grass with an orange mivvi, staring heavenwards and making shapes out of the clouds in a blue sky.  

This is an extract from "Totally Shuffled-A Year of Listening to Music on a Broken iPod"

        

  and what "Totally Shuffled" is all about:

One track per day for 366 days on a broken iPod. 

366 tracks out of a possible 9553. 

From the obvious (The Rolling Stones), to the obscure (Karen Cooper Complex). 

From the sublime (The Flaming Lips) to the risible (Muse).   

From field recordings of Haitian Voodoo music to The Monkees. 

From Heavy Metal to Rap by way of 1930’s blues, jazz, classical, punk, and every possible genre of music in between. 

This is what I listened to and wrote about for a whole year, to the point of never wanting to hear any more music again. Some songs I listened to I loved, and some I hated. Some artists ended up getting praised to the skies and others received a bit of critical kicking. 

There’s memories of spending too many hours in record shops, prevaricating over the next big thing and surprising myself over tracks that I’d completely forgotten about. 

But with 40 years of listening to music, I realised that I’ll never get sick of it.  I may have fallen out of love with some of the songs in this book, but I’ll never fall out of love with music.     

Get/read Totally Shuffled here

Kindle:
          

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CJYZ3CA 

Paperback:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Totally-Shuffled-Listening-Broken-iPod-/dp/149495687X