Customer Reviews

The Complete Works Vol. 1

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Oh, man...have I been waiting for this!! Here are the collected works of early Spiritualized (my favorite era for the band). In this collection we have more than two hours of blissed-out, extra-shimmery tunes to get you through your day.

The collection is presented in (mostly) chronological order, beginning with the first Spiritualized single "Anyway That You Want Me" through the Electric Mainline EP and singles from the Pure Phase album. Also included are hard-to-find tracks from various fanclub-only 7"s and a split 7" released with Mercury Rev to support Greenpeace (the extra-cool "Good Dope, Good Fun" before it was known as "Lay Back in the Sun"). Putting the three versions of "Feel So Sad" back-to-back was an interesting choice, but it gives a listener more than 20 minutes of a great song.

Every Spiritualized fan will have their favorite tracks on a collection like this. That's how it should be. But I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that my faves are the bonus Peel Session tracks from the Medication EP ("Angel Sigh" and "Feel So Sad"), along with "Good Dope, Good Fun." I just wish that version had made it onto Pure Phase.

As one reviewer has noted, the art for this collection is less than sparse. If you lose your outer slipcase, you'll never know the names of particular tracks, and one can only tell the difference between CDs 1 and 2 by the slight color bar printed on them. But that seems to be the visual direction Spiritualized is going in with all releases that aren't completely new; this art is somewhat reminiscent of the Royal Albert Hall sleeve (sparse).

Taken as a whole though, the question remains: Will any new fans be swayed by this? Dunno. I'd like to think that a new convert would take a chance on this and be amazed by what they hear. But the bottom line is this: This release is for current, and older, fans. In my personal opinion, these CDs capture the heyday of Spiritualized. I love it! That said, I can't wait until this fall when The Complete Works, Volume 2 is released. It'll be brilliant!

The title of this disc might be considered to be a bit misleading by some,as 'The Complete...' appears to pull one's attention toward the group's rarities/unreleased archives in their pre-'Ladies And Gentlemen...' days.Taking that into consideration,most fans of founder Jason Pierce and co. should find this compilation CD to their liking.I know I did.Some of the better cuts include "Feel So Sad",the motivational "Run","Lay Back In The Sun"(nice keyboard work),"Electric Mainline,Part 1" and the shoegazing "Good Dope/Good Fun".Nice very choice pickings from the band's personal vault.Recommended to all Spiritualized/Spacemen 3 fans.

More accurately The Complete Works Excluding Album Tracks And With Some Omissions this limited edition release is nonetheless a marvellous collection of rare singles, EPs, promo recordings, flexi-discs, fan club exclusives and a complete John Peel session, all in pristine CD quality (even when one track had to be mastered directly from a flexi-disc as the original acetate master had been destroyed). A few B-sides are missing - yet the 7 minute B-side version of Sway taking up valuable space turns out disappointingly to be identical to the readily-available LP version.
Nevertheless, it is a worthy endeavour to make the bulk of one's catalogue available on CD and the two discs have been sympathetically programmed

Driving to this music can be hazardous to yourself and others on the highway. It is blood-pumping stuff, a beautiful aural assault on your ears that somehow finds its way to the gas pedal. A rare band that fools you with its tranquil overtures, while it really has your head locked into something resembling an F-16 engine on afterburner. When their outtakes sound this good, you know you're witnessing a band at the peak of its many powers.

Spiritualized are probably never going to crack the mainstream market, as their music is too defiantly leftfield & unconventional to have mass appeal. And the release of this compilation (it's not a `Best of') consisting of rarities, tracks, & songs included from their debut EP, that have long since been out of print will only serve to emphasis the point. From the moment the sweepingly majestic "Anyway That you Want Me"....with its slow, reflective angelic Pop prompting lilting soothing classical tones, with singer/frontman `Jason Pierce' singing like a fully impassioned troubadour extolling his pain, through minimal sentences, seemingly looking for redemption.... It's as remarkably glorious as it is bruised and opens the album to stunning effect. But, Not all tracks feature vocals, the emotional intoxicatingly instrumental of "You Know It's True" is as powerfully, spiritually affecting as classical music in general. This is an album of truly, truly beautiful music, irrespective of it's cultist appeal.

I have only three gripes about an otherwise excellent (and thrifty) collection by one of my favorite bands...

1. The acapella version of "100 Bars" is unbearable. My wake & bake days are long behind me, and so is my boredom threshold.

2. "Don't Go" isn't on here. I've got a radio bootleg version of it, but no studio cut. What gives?

3. There's nothing to the packaging. No liner notes, no pictures. Jack-squat.

Still, I think anyone who is even a marginal Spiritualized fan should have this in their collection.

What more to say? It's a great introductory collection. It's perfect for those that have the albums and don't want to spend a small fortune and the rest of their days hunting down the singles. Last, it's oh-so-convenient for those that have the singles/promos to have them all in one place (besides, why would you want to carry all of those 1-4 track, and sometimes more, ep's and singles with you?).
While you're at it get Vol.2 (you know you want it, heh heh heh)

I love this band. The music is so trippy. It's the kind of sound that, well, sticks to your bones. I find that the songs stay in my head, and follow me around, like a soundtrack of life. But it's not annoying, like for instance when you can't get some horrible Phil Collins off your mind that you heard while on hold to your local phone company.

My favorite band is Stereolab, and I find Spiritualized and Spacemen 3 to be in the same category. It's music that takes you to new worlds and delivers kind of a contact high. The synthesizers melodically pulsate in and out like a mantra.

Please give them a chance. Then listen to them again. Like all great music, they get better each time.

Thanks guys for putting out great music, and also well, saving me the money on drugs!

But, please, please, be careful. And I beg of you, don't listen to Spiritualized while driving!

Now that I've collected half these songs by purchasing the singles on e-bay, J. Spaceman finally sees fit to compile all the b-sides and rare tracks on CW:V1 and am I glad he did.

My favorite days of Spiritualized were the early days, so this collection is (in my humble opinion) absolutely perfect. Like a previous reveiwer noted, 'Feel so Sad' pulls a back-back-back in three different versions, which is not what I would do on my album, but then again if I had an album I wouldn't have a song worth repeating three times in a row. 'Feel so Sad' is where this collection takes off for me.

Then we get 'Run' with it's reverberating guitar and rushing pace in a slightly different mix and 'Luminescence' to ease you back down from from 'Run's heart-quickening pace. From there it's just a short wait to 'Why Dn't You Smile Now,' my favorite song on the entire thing. J. uses a loud/quiet dynamic and plinking bass line combined with somewat ambiguous lyrics over love and loss to toy with the emotions.

This whole collection is required fr any Spiritualized fan, especially for the second CD's reinterpretation of tracks such as 'I Want You,' 'You Know it's True,' 'Medication,' 'Smiles,' 'Feel So Sad,' and the double shot of 'Good Dope/Good Fun,' and 'Lay Bck in the Sun.'

All in all this is not to be missed. And if you're new to Spiritualzied, there may be something here to make you a believer.

If you love Spiritualized like I do, buy this right away. I had some of these songs already from various EP's & singles, but the stuff I didn't have has proved to be either difficult or expensive to obtain. When I heard this was coming out, I was overjoyed! These songs are from Spiritualized's (IMHO) greatest era, and it's nice to finally have them all collected in one place. So go buy it now, or perish in flames, infidel!!!!