7. Amazing Grace (2003)

At the risk of derailing all that stuff I said about consistency, I’m going to suggest that Amazing Grace is the one less-than-excellent entry in Spiritualized’s oeuvre. Elsewhere in the band’s catalogue, Pierce has indulged his garage rock interests to great effect, most notably in the Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating In Space tracks “Come Together” and “Electricity.” On Amazing Grace, it’s a scuzzy, distorted rock that’s a lot rawer and more straightforward than anything else Spiritualized has put out, and it’s not really a great look for them. I’ll give a pass to “This Little Life of Mine,” because it starts off the album with the lyrics “This little life of mine/I’m gonna let it slide,” which is one of the most perfectly nihilistic couplets Pierce has ever uttered — or, in this case, growled over positively guttural guitars — and he’s uttered a lot of them. While that track’s cacophony at least displays some Spiritualized DNA, the other three rockers here feel as if any of the retro-rock early-’00s bands could’ve conjured them up.

The rest of the album is slow-burners that traffic in blues and gospel the way plenty of classic rock bands of the ’60s and ’70s did before Pierce. To varying extents, blues and gospel have always been part of Spiritualized, but Pierce often combines them in unexpected ways with droning psychedelia or chaotic jazz. Here, like the rock songs, it’s pretty straightforward, which means some of them feel inert and rote, while Pierce is able to bring others (primarily “Oh Baby”) to a level worthy of his other achievements. Mainly, Amazing Grace stands out as a rickety uneven album amongst a body of work that is known for being extremely considered and controlled.