Lazer Guided Melodies

the album is formed into "suites". the easiest way to explain it is... that theirs several songs... in one big song. theirs actually 12 songs, formed into four suites. this makes the album much more... to put it, put together. all of the suites go over ten minutes, in the end giving you 61 minutes of a beautiful album.

suite one - [13:08 minutes] (You know it's true/if i were with her now/i want you) is the typically "Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space" love songs, giving you plent of experimental sounds, streaming guitars, and echoes in the background. definitely not the best of the four suites... but its not bad either. ALL of the songs in this album are great, you just simply CANNOT skip a single track.

suite two - [14:44 minutes] (Run/smiles/Step into the breeze/Symphony space) is better than suite one, giving you four songs instead of three. it has a lot more lyrics and rockier songs but giving you plenty of slow and melodic tunes. actually, as each suite goes the album gets better. i say again, ALL of the songs are great and none are bad. but anyways, each suite gets better and better. you can say suite one is the worst, but NOT AT ALL in a bad way. just doesn't compare to suite two, three, and four. of course, leaving the last suite the best. suite four leaves a great ending to the album.

suite three - [14:08 minutes] (Take your time/Shine a light) is even better. "take your time" is brillant... but "shine a light" steals the show. sounds incredibly a lot allike a Pink Floyd song. maybe Comfortably Numb? you hear a beautiful stream of echoes saying "shine a light!". one of the best songs i've ever heard. enough said.

suite four - [18:55 minutes] (Angel sigh/Sway/200 bars) is the most beautiful, phenominal suite of all. just like suite three... the first two tracks are phenominal of course, but 200 bars steals the show. best song on the whole album, maybe even best Spiritualized song? it gives a epic performace, hearing a woman in the background counting up starting with the number 'six' going all the way up to 200... in the middle i had to catch my breath on how beautiful this album really is. amazingly unique.

not only is Lazer Guided Melodies one of the greatest albums of the '90s, its the best spiritualized album out there, and simply put, one of the greatest records of all-time.

That said, this is a lovely bit of fuzzy psychedelia. My ears may deceive me, but I do hear a lot of Jason's previous band - the Spacemen 3 - albeit a tad cleaned up, and with more meticulous production. There's little to none of the gospel flourishes, lush orchestration or free-jazz freakouts that show up in Jason's later output. And depending on your tastes that may or may not be a good thing.

What there is, is a collection of lovely, fuzzed-out tracks, insistent even in moments of softness. Jason's voice is haunting, melancholy (though he has yet to plumb the depths of anguish). The songs burble up through layers and layers of fuzz and reverb, tremelo and phaser, and come together into lovely little nuggets of psychedelic fuzz.

Sure, it's not my favorite Spiritualized album, but, like everything else they do, it's rather spectacular.