Customer Reviews

The Perfect Prescription [Vinyl]

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3 star:		(3)
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Do you like long periods of sustained feedback? Do you like a heady drone? Do you like to enhance your high? Do you like Jesus? Do you want to know what heroin is like without taking it? Yep their that good!

The current version available in the U.S. is the Taang! version with added tracks. I own the earlier Genius version, but then it doesn't really matter. Showers of pure noise (Take Me to the Other Side) hold hands with quiet symphonic masterieces (Walkin With Jesus). Ecstasy Symphony/Transparent Radiation is a dreamy space song in the finest sense. The centerpiece is the 17:00 minute version of Rolercoster which is what the title says it is. From the era when Sonic and Jason still worked together, and what a document it is.

Apart from the Revolution 12" this was my real introduction to Spacemen 3. Some of my friends thought it/I was weird - but I didn't care. What a record. The cover of 'Transparent Radiation' must be one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded. 'Take me to the Other Side' is pure rock'n'roll energy and excitement. 'Ode to Street Hassle' (their tribute to Lou Reed) is appealing in its catchiness - but it is no pop tune.

This is a heavily drug influenced record - "In 1986, all I want to do is get stoned. All I want for you to do is get yourself a little higher." What more needs to be said?

Take this gem to the counter of your local record store and say its been prescribed to you - I guarantee you'll enjoy it.

Perfect Prescription was the soundtrack for my late adolescents. My original vinyl copy of the album is well worn and I regularly listen to it on CD too.

I was excited, therefore, to see the re-release especially on 180 gram vinyl with the implications being that it would be of great audio quality. Unfortunately the release, or at least my copy of it, is a very poor quality pressing. The pressing mutes the extremes of the original so sounds are murky and congealed. Worse still the drone quality of Spacemen 3 with this production loses its nuances and becomes clumsy and repetitive. Most disappointing. Also little thought has gone into the packaging for the album. The card of the sleeve is great quality but the inner sleeve is generic white. There is a one page insert with some naff hyperbole by R Hunter Gibson on one side and a good shot of the band on the other. Hardly stuff to excite collectors or new explorers.

I strongly recommend the album but not in this format. For those who have not heard it before, it proceeds on the narrative arc of using heroin with songs of bliss and euphoria and others of the grind and grimness of addiction. It has a brutal honesty and a residual menace.

That an album could contain both the elegant, droning psychedelia of "Walkin' With Jesus" and the aggressive and vitriolic grind of "Things'll Never Be the Same" is a testament to the force and range of Spacemen 3. Starts out frenetic with "Take Me to the Other Side" (which contains a piece of a riff lifted from AC/DC of all bands!) before settling into an extended hypnotic and dreamy phase propelled by "Transparent Radiation" and the "Jesus" track, as well as a few others. Then the mood is flipped over, going from on-the-back relaxing to on-the-belly punishment as "Things'll Never Be the Same" turns sinister and violent. What once was the sound of acid becomes the noise of heroin (quite literally, as "Things" makes intentionally unsubtle references to spiking).

The whole thing is clearly influenced by 60s pop and the drug culture of the very same era. "Come Down Easy" especially sounds like a cover from the time (if not for the lyrics containing the year of 1987). Most fans consider this their masterpiece (but Playing With Fire, being both artier and heavier, is the superior effort). Although they clearly owe a tremendous debt to Velvet Underground (fans of them should love this), they were already starting to craft their own personal sound. Later reissues would add various singles from the era, which are good, but best separated from the album as only singles.

Best cuts: "Walkin' With Jesus," "Come Down Easy," "Things'll Never Be the Same," "Ecstasy Symphony/Transparent Radiation (Flashback)," "Take Me to the Other Side," "Feel So Good"

I will not go on about how brilliant this album is, or that any one who is into Brit-pop, Indie, shoegaze, what-have-you, ought to get Perfect Perscrition. Truth be told, it is more or less an inaccessible album that neither features noteworthy musicianship nor lyrics. But, that is not to say that it is not good and quite appealing to a minor contingent of people, myself included. Yes, it is drony. Yes, it is repetitive. And yes, the lyrics are a bit hokey, waxing everything from religious fervor to indulgent drug banter. Yet there remains something immensely appealing about Perfect Perscription, hence its near cult status. In some ways Perfect Perscription might even be the quintessential Spacemen Three album.

Featuring everything from blues to gospel, to quiet ruminations about addiction, and to halucinatory space rock (the only description I can conjure to describe what is in all liklihood the best track and worth the money - Ecstacy Symphony), Perfect Perscription runs the gammut of musical styles while staying well within the confines of the more basic genre of go-lightly indie guitar rock and certainly the more specific Spacemen 3 brand of minimalism.

Perfect Perscription is not pop, but nor is it necessarily experimental. The songs range in length from the standard three to four minutes to the ten minute Ecstacy Symphony and even the seventeen (yes, seventeen!) minute Rollercoaster, making it somewhat reminiscent of the early days of ambient techno like the orb for example. And indeed it is easy to treat Perfect Perscription in similar fashion, keeping it as background rather than as something that one intends to carefully decifer or examine. Hence, the persnickety musician will be a bit disheartened to hear simplistic guitar work. But, as I believe, there are musician's bands and there are listener's bands, and often the two do not meet. Spacemen Three is a listener's band, or, if it is a musician's band, it is one for those willing to take music to a new level and are not afraid of throwing away the rules of rock.

As a last caveat, some may be interested in Spacemen Three based upon their affiliation with Spiritualized. (In case you did not know, Jason Pierce, one half of Spacemen Three, is the frontman for Spiritualized.) While sharing a somewhat similar tone to Spiritualized, Spacemen Three are quite removed from the former's richer and more pop-oriented stylings. However, the other half of Spacemen 3, Sonic Boom, has several releases under the moniker Spectrum as well as his own name that are more akin to Spacemen 3.

To put it quickly, this album features cool hypnotic melodies & soft spoken lyrics.

Songs are simple and repetitive in meditational kind of way. Each song apparently uses few chords, but I hear more stuff than there really is (is that just me?).

Highlights include 'take me to the other side,' 'transparent radiation,' and 'feel so good.' 'Call the doctor' features their best guitar work. There are 13 tracks, 5 are purely instrumental, 8 have lyrics.

Amazing. Simply, astoundingly, amazing. Listening to this is an epic, truly awesome adventure in sound. Equal parts Beatles and Velvet Underground, Spacemen 3 iron out SOLID rock jams with heavy 60's inspiration. It is a spiritual and deep album that evokes a mystical "sensuality that I can't explain."

Highlights include the stunning violin work on "Transparent Radiation" and the jazzy, chilled out trumpets on "Feel So Good." Albums like this are refreshing in the extreme... it gets back to some of the original inspirations.

Stands up to heavy rotation. A great album for summer. If you like this, you might like:

Lemon Jelly
Spiritualized
King Tubby
Tristeza
Dead Meadow

this was the singular record that flipped my ear over to genuinely druggy noise. the title of their first record (taking drugs to make music to take drugs to) really says it all. this isn't for the A&R hacks or critics or catalog dweebs, it's for the stoners who want to go home and get into a deep nod to something made for just that. comparing it to other things or even really describing it is sort of beside the point; it's not so much music as a situation, an ocean to lose oneself in. the reviewer that says it has little noteworthy musicianship or some such is missing the point altogether. and man if you find anything at all redeemable in Spiritualized, go try this, the real thing (man, did jason go on Prozac or something? what a bunch of fluff they make now, yuck). Sonic Boom continued on as Spectrum, which made some good stuff, as well as some fabulously narcissistic drivel, then later on to become E.A.R., which keeps pumping out top quality leftfield trippiness. This is an essential record if there ever was one.

If you haven't heard this album, then do yourself a favour and track it down as its just brilliant! BUT....AVOID THIS TAANG RECORDS VERSION - as its recorded straight from vinyl as track 3 contains skips...TWICE! try and track down the Space Age Recordings version...you wont regret it.