Spiritualized

Staying true to the name that Jason Pierce (a.k.a. J. Spaceman) chose for the band he formed in Rugby after the breakup of Spacemen 3 in 1991, Spiritualized have always been on a musical quest for transcendence. Nevertheless, there have been plenty of developments along Pierce's chosen route. While early releases like 1992's Lazer Guided Melodies and 1995's Pure Phase were rooted in the heavy, droning, psychedelic sound of Spacemen 3, Spiritualized's scope widened to include the blues, folk and gospel influences that permeated 1997's mesmerising Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space and the band's 2001 commercial breakthrough Let It Come Down. Over the next several decades, the scale of Spiritualized's music continued to shift from swelling orchestrations to more intimate showcases for Pierce's plaintive voice and the alternately melancholy and cosmic-minded songwriting that fill such later triumphs as 2022's Everything Was Beautiful.