Hey Jane - Spiritualized are back!

An eight minute epic called Hey Jane with a na na nar ending. Haven't I heard that something like that before. The answer is yes and no. You certainly haven't heard it coming from The Beatles. Despite the title and track length it doesn't appear to be a cheap counterfeit of Hey Jude. However it is nice and upbeat, certainly for Spiritualized and certainly compared to A&E, their last album 4 years ago.

If you haven't come across Spiritualized before I suggest you purchase Ladies and 'Gentleman We Are Floating In Space' and 'Let It Come Down'. The reason I guide you is that their albums seem to be hit and miss, those two are certainly hits and up there in my favourite albums from the years they were released.

As you will probably appreciate from Hey Jane they're not a singles band and all you can take from one track is a guide to what is to come and I'm excited. The picture above is the artwork believe it or not and the album and single will be out on April 16th.

Album Review: Spiritualized - Songs in A & E

As you can probably guess from the title it's not a light hearted type of album, in fact when they start to sing "Goodnight goodnight" on the last track you wonder whether he is talking about the end of a trip "you're coming down", just signing off the album or talking about dying (it's made clear when he sings "funeral home, funeral home" at the end).

They are a band that have been through the mill a few times - and their fair share of drugs and the lead singer sounds like he's been through 100,000 fags since the last album. The drugs message is clear throughout the album with them singing "I've got a hurricane inside my veins..." on the current single which will be part of June's WWWTM playlist. An uplifting song, it harks back to the great songs from previous albums and was exactly what I was hoping for from the new album.

The rest of the album definitely has the Spiritualized feel to it but the singer's voice has changed their sound and they now have a hint of, well, Kings of Leon about them. The "garage-rock" track (as their blurb calls it) You Lie You Cheat is a good example of this. On Baby I'm Just A Fool they sound like the Kings of Leon crossed with Lou Reed which I never expected when buying the album but it's a good track nonetheless.

If you're expecting an upbeat, uplifting album then this probably isn't the album for you but if you like Radiohead and Elbow maybe you'll enjoy the elements that make up this album. After 18 tracks (some are only around the 20 second mark) you feel like you've had an experience, full of relief, pain, joy and tiredness, perhaps like a trip to A & E - but don't let that put you off.

MP3: Baby I'm Just A Fool - Spiritualized

MP3: You Lie You Cheat - Spiritualized

Why you should already like Spiritualized:

Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating In Space is widely regarded as their best album (although not by me) and this is the title track from the LP. Some of the other songs on the album are a bit heavier but this is a great floaty (as in like a cloud not a poo) song, if you've not heard it before download it now!

Mp3: Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating In Space

I struggled to decide what song to put on from Let It Come Down (my favourite album of theirs), which was their follow up to Ladies and Gentleman... I've decided not to post the singles from that album and post my favourite instead. Don't Just Do Something is a song about sitting around and doing nothing instead of doing something. "I could let it go but I'd rather know if I sat around would another show" "I like to sit around I'm just contemplating sitting 'round". Excellent, forget all these uplifting "quit your day job and seize the day" lyrics, just sit around. Enjoy (oh and remember to sit around and do nothing while listening to it!).

MP3: Don't Just Do Something - Spiritualized