Jason Pierce’s work in Spacemen 3 and two previous albums as Spiritualized could not have prepared anyone for Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, a widescreen masterpiece that still stands as one of the best albums of the ‘90s. Coming on the heels of a breakup, and written in the throes of Pierce’s heroin addiction, Ladies and Gentlemen is a Death Star-esque explosion of genres (folk, blues, jazz, New Orleans stomp, rock ‘n’ roll and sheets of noise appear in various forms here), instrumentation (there’s a literal string quartet here), and raw, ripped songwriting. It’s rare that an album’s title can capture the experience of listening to it; it’s impossible not to feel like a disembodied celestial figure when spending time in the vast Spiritualized galaxy. Appearing here as the first Pierce-sanctioned vinyl reissue, it’s as essential now as it was almost 25 years ago on its release.
