66. Spiritualized - "Everything Was Beautiful"

A second slice of metal free goodness, this time courtesy of psychedelic rock veterans Spiritualized. Now, this is a curious one as I absolutely hated their previous release “And Nothing Hurt” seeing it as nothing more than a vacuous retread of past glories. Bizarrely enough the seven tracks that makeup “Everything Was Beautiful” come from exactly the same demo sessions as the previous record and Jason Spaceman has gone as far as describe it as a companion piece. So something has happened to either me or to their sound in the intervening four years as I absolutely loved this. It felt warm and enriching and took me back to the hazy days of the early 90’s. It felt nostalgic but also forward-thinking and I found myself, for the first of a long time, realising that nobody writes heart-breaking soliloquies like Mr. Spaceman.