Twenty-six years ago this summer, Spiritualized released what would arguably be their best work, Ladies and Gentlemen… We Are Floating in Space. The album has been on a myriad of “greatest (x) of all time” lists from high-profile publications during its now quarter-century lifespan, and the reason behind that is audible; it rocks, but we’re going to talk a little bit about deeper reasons why it’s stood the test of time. From open to close, this LP showcases extreme, energetic highs and dreary, broken lows that characterize the gradient spectrum apparent in this work between coping with heartbreak through drugs and fast-paced junkie love lust.

After the sort of overture-esque title track, “Ladies and Gentlemen… We Are Floating in Space”, Spiritualized knocks the pace of the album into some proper high-gear shit with “Come Together.” This song centers around vocalist Jason Pierce chanting about some heroin addict named Johnny with a gospel choir backing him over a righteous, bass-driven thrasher laden with screeches from harsh transitional guitar riffs and a horn section, and it leads perfectly into “I Think I’m in Love”.

The closing track to the album “Cop Shoot Cop” is a little masterpiece unto itself. Typically, songs this length come off as unjustifiably self-indulgent to me but, in this instance, the length is not just excused but welcomed due to the dichotomously smooth and explosive nature of the cut. The song encapsulates the concept of the album nicely, evidence of which lies in the title “Cop, Shoot, Cop”, the cycle of getting a drug, getting stoned, getting a drug, stoned, being trapped within that and reflecting the reason for it all off of the love experienced in a relationship, personifying the feeling. It’s clear underneath that thin veil when comparisons of absence are made to a desert and presence to a heaven you can’t be happy in, that the only thing being spoken of is heroin.