Spiritualized had sound problems at Coachella, but everything (including the visuals) are crystalline in the video for the lovely return-to-form track “Soul On Fire.” The downcast, orchestral clip stars J. Pierce in silver, rolling around on the icy and dusty ground and prostrate on a hospital bed, reminding us there’s a hurricane inside his veins (hence the various syringes) and that “freedom is just another word.” True, from the looks of it, there’s nothing left to lose.
(Via P4K.tv)
“I’ve got too little arms to hold on tight and I want to take it higher.” And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space.
Songs In A&E is out 5/19 on Universal/Spaceman.
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Maybe I’m getting old and maybe I’m a bit sensitive because I’m strangely affected by news of the kid (21) who OD’d in his tent at Coachella this year (been twice, camped both times) but I’m getting sick of J. Pierce and all the drug imagery in his visuals.
I’ve been a fan since Laser Guided Melodies but for fuck sakes does he really still have to allude to a long history of drug use. Is that what his ‘intended market demographic’ is and wants to see.
We readily blam rap/hip hop artists for glamourizing a gun culture but I’ve had enough of idiots in the indie world pushing syringes. Ask the parents of the kid who OD’d at Coachella how they feel about it.
I believe Pierce was alluding to illness in hospital and various efforts to revive and heal him–Pierce had to be resusited twice from respiratory failure — perhaps, if you are a concerned parent, take your child to visit a hospital for volunteer service or volunteer at a hospice and you will see the variety of gurnees, tubes, IVs, canulas, etc. that are used by caring, compassionate members of medical staff to help patients through crisis.
If it is your own guilty history that makes you associate hospitals and IVs and medical syringes with recreational drug use, then best be prepared to speak honestly to your children.
Give Pierce a break and enjoy his music.
Very sad that someone died at Coachella from stupidity, however, a person, age 21, is an adult, not a child, and is responsible for their own behaviour–the musicians who perform at festivals are not to be blamed for the foolish actions of one of the concertgoers. If an individual happens to drink to excess and get ill or die from alcohol poisoning, do we blame beer commercials during Superbowl or World Cup?? I think not.
There’s a hole in his arm where all the money goes. He has to sing about the hole to make more money for the hole. What a life.
@ g, yeah sounds like you’re getting old
Hm. Doesn’t sound like a return to form to me. It sounds like the freakin’ Verve. And yeah, the druggy references are getting a little tired.
but the drugs don’t work…
g – you’re an idiot. give up.
Songs In A&E is awesome btw.
Looks like all that time in hospitals and rehab has really worked out for him?
I agree. Sounds like g is getting a little long in the tooth. What? Would you really expect J to be sining about unicorns and rainbows? The track is vintage Spiritualized. Drug references and all.
spiritualized has a very distinct, otherworldly aesthetic. j.’s references to drugs don’t make him a junkie any more than his references to God/Jesus make him a fundamentalist religious nut.
that being said, “g” is certainly an idiot, and songs in a&e is solid from start to finish.
While the Spiritualized/Spacemen canon, and visual history, includes countless hard drug homages, the “hurricanes inside my veins” and imagery in this video refer to the recent months J. spent in the hospital surviving double pneumonia.
Suck it.