Let It Come Down (Spiritualized album)
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| Let It Come Down | |||||
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| Studio album by Spiritualized | |||||
| Released | September 25, 2001 | ||||
| Recorded | mid-2001 | ||||
| Genre | Space Rock | ||||
| Length | 63:01 | ||||
| Label | Arista Records | ||||
| Producer | J Spaceman | ||||
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Let It Come Down is the fourth album by the space rock group Spiritualized, released in 2001. It was recorded and produced at Abbey Road and AIR Studios. It took Jason Pierce, Spiritualized's lead singer, guitarist and sole constant member four years to write, perform, produce and release. The album utilizes 115 session musicians, including orchestra and London Community Gospel Choir. The wall of sound technique (most notably used by 60's record producer Phil Spector) is evident on this album, especially on such tracks as Do It All Over Again, Stop Your Crying and The Straight And The Narrow.
It is unusual amongst Spiritualized's other releases in that it doesn't utilize many of the bands usual trademarks, such as guitar effects pedals, free jazz and drones, being a mostly orchestral work. However, it was not unexpected - the album was preceded by the lush soundscapes of previous album Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, and the live album released in 1998. Pierce also headlined the Edinburgh Flux Festival in 1998 and 1999 playing a orchestral set with a full choir, which hinted at the direction of LICD. Phil Spector also played a role in the records sound - Pierce had displayed a liking for Dion's album Born To Be With You, a little known 70's effort produced by Spector- he was interviewed with Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, where the pair enthused about the record. Pierce has also regularly credited big band leaders such as Duke Ellington, the orchestral sound of Ray Charles and Brian Wilson, and gospel music as major influences, and this album could be seen as these coming to prominence over his more psychedelic influences.
Jason Pierce is unable to read music - he wrote all the orchestral parts for the album by singing them into a portable tape recorder, transcribed those to a piano, then helped the players turn those into their specific parts. This also led, several years later, to him humming the music he composed for Silent Sound, a experimental piece for an installation by Ian Forsyth and Jane Pollard, down the phone to the pair. The final song, Lord Can You Hear Me, was originally written for and recorded by Spacemen 3 by Jason in 1989 and initially released on the album Playing With Fire. However, inspired by a cover of the song by the band Low, Jason started playing the song live and subsequently re-recorded it as a gospel ballad. Mimi Parker of Low appears on several tracks of the album as a backing vocalist, and is clearly audible dueting with Jason during Lord Can You Hear Me.
The first leg of the supporting world tour saw Jason use a 13 piece band comprised of Spiritualized, a horn section and a choir. However, in 2002 Jason felt that the extra musicians weighed the show down, and carried on the tour with the regular line-up.
[edit] Album cover
The album was released in two different sleeves - one in a standard jewel case, the other in a much bulkier one-piece box, with the cover image (the wife of the artist) embossed in the case material.
[edit] Track listing
- "On Fire" - 4:02
- "Do It All Over Again" - 4:38
- "Don't Just Do Something" - 6:54
- "Out of Sight" - 6:12
- "The Twelve Steps" - 4:43
- "The Straight and the Narrow" - 5:12
- "I Didn't Mean to Hurt You" - 5:14
- "Stop Your Crying" - 5:16
- "Anything More" - 5:36
- "Won't Get to Heaven (The State I'm In)" - 10:34
- "Lord Can You Hear Me" - 5:38
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