Search - Spiritualized Electric Mainline :: Pure Phase

My least favorite Spz album well not counting the new one

musicburgler | DC | 11/03/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album reminds me of White Light White Heat the cover is similar but the music is all over the place as well. You get the soft weepy ballads coupled with loud abrassive rockers. This can be a good thing but it means you are lulled you into dreams only to be kicked in the head out of them.Dont get me wrong this contains great songs some of my favorites. but its not as strong as a whole collection of songs like LGM or LAGWAFIS."

A beautiful, challenging record

Devan | Astoria, OR | 12/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm still trying to figure this one out. This 1995 record by Spiritualized falls into a category which has become so convoluted by anal-retentive critics that I have decided to invent my own moniker for said music: Nyquil Rock. If you are unable to count sheep, just slip this disc into the changer and prepare to be lulled to sleep. Is that a good thing? Hell yes.



The reason I can't sum up what "Pure Phase" is all about is because it's so tangled and backass-wards that you can't go by what it conveys on a song-by-song basis. Instrumentation either comes out of nowhere or lingers for so long that you find yourself wobbling on your heels (warning: do not listen to this while standing up and most importantly not while driving. I nearly steered off the road and ran into a ditch because of "Pure Phase"). The lyrics are meant to delve into drug use and altered states of mind, but to be honest they don't matter when you first listen to the album. The vocals swoop in and out like mere whispers or low, harmonious chants, so you can barely hear what is being said. It's almost as if the voices themselves are instruments (a la "Loveless").



I must say that I like "Pure Phase" if only because it's so hard to place. As disjointed it may be, you can't say it doesn't hold surprises. It will have you drifting to sleep one minute and then BOOM!--some horrible racket of noise will jolt you from your coma. I suppose it's the composition that carries the record's concept more than its lyrics, because maybe that's what it's like to be addicted to a mind-altering substance. When you think about it it's frightening, because if the high felt as soothing as the tracks which spill from your speakers, could you imagine how hard it would be trying to quit? However, I still think "Thirteenth Step" by A Perfect Circle deals with this issue in a more coherent manner. If I haven't made it clear by this point I'll say it again: "Pure Phase" is not accesible.



I recommend this to you, the reader, if you want to solve the musical equivalent of a puzzle. You won't be able to dance, party, drive, have sex or bang your head to it, but if you lie down and put on "Pure Phase" by Spiritualized, you will either find yourself floating or waking up the next morning and thinking to yourself, "What the hell did I just hear? I want to hear it again!" It's one of those records that will redeem itself time and time again. For that it earns my praise.

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