After a lengthy wait, Jason Pierce returns with Spirtualized’s seventh studio album. Inspired by the band’s 2009 front to back live performances of their landmark release, Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space, Sweet Light is a poppier album. Album opener “Hey Jane” is an eight-minute Kraut-rock groove inspired by early Rolling Stones, while “I Am What I Am” has the swamp rock carnage of Primal Scream. It’s an entirely less druggier affair (possibly because Pierce is now a family man—his 11-year-old daughter guests on the record) with less effects and more straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
This article appears in May 3-9, 2012.