Spiritualized Alive!

Jason Pierce, the singer-songwriter responsible for Spiritualized, claims that his funereal new album was largely composed before the bout of life-threatening pneumonia he suffered in 2005. The claim sounds credible, especially because the album traffics in Pierce's typical themes: addiction, withdrawal and recovery, and agonies and ecstasies both physical and spiritual. But listening to Songs in A&E, which is named for the British equivalent of the ER, it's also sometimes hard to believe. The record's focus on matters of life and death is deepened by Pierce's felt knowledge of the subject, and the overall effect is eerily prescient. Whether you're walking toward or running away from the grave (hey, that's life), the themes Pierce addresses here will resonate.

I'm glad he lived: learn more on a Slant.