One of the many eye-opening aspects of the pandemic, which we’re still in, has been understanding our relationships with solitude. Some people were comfortable staying inside for months, while others truly lost their shit. I mean, we all kind of lost our shit, and are still losing our shit, but what I’m trying to say is that some people lost their shit less, because they can adapt to isolation well. One of those people who seemed to cope alright was Spiritualized‘s J Spaceman. “I felt like I’d been in training for this my whole life,” Spaceman said in regard to this insane past year and a half years. Today the project has announced its latest album Everything Was Beautiful—seemingly the prequel to 2018’s Slaughterhouse-Five referencing And Nothing Hurt—which was finalized with Spaceman’s “solemn birdsong walks” at the pandemic’s beginning.
For Everything Was Beautiful, Spaceman played a variety of 16 instruments and recorded at 11 different studios, in addition to his home. There’s also 30 different musicians, including his daughter Poppy, John Coxon, and decadent embellishments from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. “There was so much information on it that the slightest move would unbalance it, but going around in circles is important to me,” Spaceman said. “Not like you’re spiraling out of control but you’re going around and around and on each revolution you hold onto the good each time. Sure, you get mistakes as well, but you hold on to some of those too and that’s how you kind of…achieve. Well, you get there.”
The announcement of Spiritualized’s ninth album comes with the release of the song “Always Together with You,” which is a reworked demo from 2014. Listen to it below, and pre-order Everything Was Beautiful here.
