SPIRITUALIZED

Everything Was Beautiful

BELLA UNION

9/10

WHEN Jason Pierce surfaced during that sweltering summer of 2018 to promote the new Spiritualized album And Nothing Hurt – his first for six years – he spoke of its protracted gestation in gruelling terms, as if producing and mixing the record on his own had pushed him to the edge of madness. With typical candour, he was the first to admit that the ordeal was entirely self-inflicted and preventable, and that however pleased he was with the results – his best since Ladies And Gentleman…, some said – after what he’d gone through, even for such a perfectionist, he couldn’t guarantee that there would ever be another Spiritualized album.

No-one really believed him – what else could Pierce do at this point, aged 55, retrain? – but what’s surprising about is how quickly, and has had the vision to transform these over the last couple of years into a record that manages to be both direct and concise yet also wildly experimental, tender, nihilistic and joyous.