Stream: Songs in A&E

By Alex Young on May 21st, 2008

Spiritualized are now streaming Songs in A&E, their new album set for release this upcoming Tuesday via Spaceman Records, on their myspace. The band’s sixth studio album was recorded around the time of frontman Jason Pierce’s bout with Periorbital cellulitis, an experience that shaped the sound of the album…

Recorded before Pierce was taken ill, the album’s death- and life-obsessed subject matter make it touching and harrowing. New songs such as ‘Death Take Your Fiddle’ and, especially, ‘Sitting on Fire’ - which sounds as if Pierce recorded the vocal from his deathbed - are eerily prescient, while ‘Don’t Hold Me Close’, a tender duet with film-maker Harmony Korine’s wife, Rachel, recalls Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris…

‘When I got out of hospital I thought I better go check when my album was out,’ says Pierce. ‘When I got into the studio it sounded like it was all written post-hospital. It was harrowing… emotional. It was really hard to have written something that seemed to have pre-empted events. It was impossible to finish.’

[The Guardian]

In addition to the upcoming release, the English rock band has a series of upcoming dates scheduled…

Spiritualized 2008 Tour Dates:
05/19 - Sheffield, England @ Sheffield Plug
05/20 - London, England @ Koko
05/23 - Athens, Greece @ Gagarin Club
05/24 - Bristol, England @ Dot to Dot Festival
05/25 - Bristol, England @ Dot to Dot Festival
05/28 - Dublin, Ireland @ Tripod
05/29 - Belfast, Ireland @ Mandela Hall
05/30 - Bologna, Italy @ Rocker Festival
06/29 - Pilton, England @ Glastonbury
07/04 - Kufstein, Austria @ Transmission Festival
07/10 - Lisbon, Portugal @ Alive Festival Lisbon
07/12 - Liege, Belgium @ Les Ardentes Festival
07/18 - Benicàssim, Spain @ Benicàssim Festival
07/20 - Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Festival
07/21 - Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
07/22 - Nashville, TN @ City Hall
07/23 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
07/25 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
07/27 - New York, NY @ Terminal 5
08/01 - Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
08/02 - Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
08/03 - Montreal, QE @ Jean Drapeau
08/06 - Toronto, ON @ Toronto Islands Park
08/09 - Tokyo, Japan @ Summersonic Festival
08/10 - Osaka, Japan @ Summersonic Festival
08/15 - Wales, UK @ Green Man Festival
08/30 - Argyll, Scotland @ Inveraray Castle
09/06 - Toronto, ON @ Virgin Mobile Festival
09/17 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Ball *
09/27 - Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
10/09 - Newcastle, England @ Carling Academy
10/10 - Leeds, England @ Leeds University Union
10/11 - Manchester, England @ Manchester Academy
10/13 - Oxford, England @ Oxford Academy
10/14 - Portsmouth, England @ Portsmouth Pyramid Centre
10/15 - Birmingham, England @ Birmingham Academy
10/16 - London, England @ London Roundhouse