Spiritualized

'Sweet Heart Sweet Light' (album stream)

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Apr 14, 2012

Following 2008's stand-up Songs in A & E, some much-deserved reissues and slight delays, rock'n'roll-loving space cadet Jason Pierce is finally ready to unveil Spiritualized's latest studio album. Dubbed Sweet Heart Sweet Light, the record arrives on Tuesday (April 17) but you can currently stream the entire 11-track effort now on Exclaim.ca.

When first announcing Sweet Heart Sweet Light, Pierce said, "When you make a record, it has to be the single most important thing in your world. This time around, I wanted to do something that encompassed all I love in rock'n'roll music."

However, this apparently wasn't an easy task for the man also known as J. Spaceman. As revealed in a recent interview, Pierce has been suffering from long-term liver disease and was in ill health throughout the recording of Sweet Heart Sweet Light.

According to Pierce, this had an impact of the resulting album, with the songwriter taking an experimental treatment to battle his disease -- something that left him wrapped in a fog of haze while making the record. Of course, this may explain choice of album art: an octagon sporting the slogan "Huh?"

"The further I get away from the treatment the more I feel it wasn't me making that record," he told the Guardian. "It was like I wasn't in my own head. It was made in such weird conditions, it's hard for me to get a handle on it."

To hear what all this amounts to, stream Sweet Heart Sweet Light below

As previously reported, Sweet Heart Sweet Light arrives via Fat Possum, and Spiritualized will be taking the album out on a North American tour, which includes Canadian stops in Toronto on May 5 and in Vancouver on May 26. See all the dates here.

UPDATE: This stream was available for one week only and is no longer available.

Latest Coverage