The Psych Ward: Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space by Spiritualized
The Psych Ward: Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space by Spiritualized
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.
This album tears itself apart in the constant conflict between the infatuation of new relationships vs. the deep regret and spiritual void we can project onto losing the ones we love in separation. These themes alternate almost track to track on the setlist and it does so using the language of addiction. All comparisons to love and loss on this album are made with words that acknowledge the temporal nature of those feelings, creating a comparison of relationships with people like hits, beautiful in the brief moments after you shoot up and leaving you with intense withdrawal when those moments pass. The lyrics never offer up so much as a single question in the way of resolution for this back and forth, leaving the listener with the reality of how hopeless falling into cycles like this can feel.
Spiritualized attempts in this piece to reach out to the listener and talk about the struggle of addiction through the lens of an idea that almost anyone can relate to: love. Everyone in their lifetime experiences love and loss in one form or another, but an addict experiences it daily. Putting the listener in the shoes of this back-and-forth vapid lifestyle comes as close as anything to shouting something as nihilistic as Ladies and Gentlemen… We Are Floating in Space!
Related: The Psych Ward–Lazer Guided Melodies
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