Spiritualized Detail 'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space' Reissue

It's the latest release in "The Spaceman Reissue Program"

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Jul 26, 2021

Spiritualized have announced the next release in the group's ongoing "The Spaceman Reissue Program," and this time it's a re-release of their classic 1997 album Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.

Called the "definitive" vinyl release of the album, 
the reissue will arrive on September 10 via Fat Possum, making for the third release in the campaign following reissues of the band's Lazer Guided Melodies and Pure Phase.

The Ladies and Gentlemen reissue will find the album being pressed onto two 180-gram LPs, with it being presented as a gatefold with reworked artwork by Mark Farrow.

Of the Ladies and Gentlemen reissue, the band's Jason Pierce offered the following statement:

We went out to America ahead of recording this record. John [Coxon] had joined on guitar and I'd recorded the title track and a number of other demos that ended up on the finished record.

But we got to play "Cop Shoot Cop" and "Electricity" live and to work them out before we recorded them for the record and then John became integral to the band. He came from a world of Syl Johnson and Al Green, Teenie Hodges and Reggie Young; a different world within the guitar lines. And then there was Kate (Radley)'s hugely influential keyboard that was relentless and loud. 

I like 
Pure Phase the best of these four records, but people still say Ladies and Gentlemen is where everything kind of came together. I'm still astounded by both records, where they don't let up. There's no kind of curfew. Or no "you can't stay on that section for that length of time." They sit on where they arrive and stay there, and I found that kind of amazing.  

The abstract parts were just as beautiful as these kind of pop / simplistic nursery rhyme ideas and they were no less important. I went all over the place to make it. I went to Memphis to see (country recording legend) Jim Dickinson for two weeks, I think. Parts of his recordings are in there but by the time I finished, I had all these different mixes. There was very little that was one single mix. There were some mixes from the old A&M studio on La Brea in Los Angeles. Part of the reason that I've never received any royalties from any of these records is that I was always thinking, 'Well where should I go now?' Suddenly, the move from Rugby to London was small-time compared with "well can I do this in L.A, can I do it in Memphis, can I do it again?" And then "Can I fly out to New York and put Dr John on the record?" 

With Dr John, I just wrote a letter, sent the track and his response was immediate. He said "absolutely, absolutely, love it". It was where he wanted to be. I was completely in awe of him and his playing and everything he put to it. I could hardly speak, to be honest. Not that I needed to speak much. It didn't add anything little or less to the proceedings. It was an amazing session, amazing to do.


The final instalment of the reissue series will be the Ladies and Gentlemen follow-up Let It Come Down, which originally arrived in 2001. Spiritualized's most recent album remains 2018's And Nothing Hurt.

The Ladies and Gentlemen reissue will arrive on black vinyl, as well as limited blue vinyl.

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space:

1. Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (I Can't Help Falling in Love)
2. Come Together
3. I Think I'm in Love
4. All of My Thoughts
5. Stay with Me
6. Electricity
7. Home of the Brave
8. The Individual
9. Broken Heart
10. No God Only Religion
11. Cool Waves
12. Cop Shoot Cop…

Pre-order Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.
 

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