Track Listing

1. Honey
2. Comedown Softly To My Soul
3. How Does It Feel
4. I Believe It
5. Revolution
6. Let Me Down Gently
7. So Hot
8. Suicide
9. Lord Can You Hear Me
10. Suicide (Live)
11. Repeater
12. Che
13. May The Circle Be Unbroke
14. Honey (Demo)
15. Let Me Down Gently
16. How Does It Feel
17. Suicide (Alternate Mix)
18. Lord Can You Hear Me
19. I Believe It (Alternate)
20. Che (Maracas Mix)
21. Any Way That You Want Me
22. Girl On Fire (Demo)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10849 in Music
• Released on: 2000-04-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Customer Reviews

Revolution - Purity - Love - Suicide - Accuracy
1987's 'The Perfect Prescription' saw Spacemen 3 develop beyond the garage-rock of 'Sound of Confusion'- drugs & music invoked with 'Take Me to the Other Side' & lines like "1987- all I want to do is get stoned..." The 'Transparent Radiation' e.p. took things further, extending their cover of the Red Krayola-track with their own 'ecstasy symphony.' The e-inflected ethos of "taking drugs to make music to taking drugs to..." The Spacemen 3 sound became less Stooges-Elevators, and more akin to a blend of Laurie Anderson, Harold Budd, Silver Apples & Suicide...

'Playing with Fire' remains their peak (the posthumous 'Recurring' would be let down in its latter half- as Jason Pierce's contributions weren't up there with Peter Kember's)- a minimal take on sounds that would influence the brief-shoegazing scene of the early 1990s, and would be given more epic treatment by Pierce with his band Spiritualized. This epic two-disc version takes in the original nine-track album, the two live bonus-tracks that turned up on the tape/cd, various b-sides ('May the Circle Remain Unbroken', a cover of Suicide's 'Che') & various demo/alternate mixes of 'Fire'-tracks and a demo of 'Anyway That You Want Me' (a Troggs cover that would become the first Spiritualized single in 1990).'Playing with Fire' remains one of the peaks of the late 80s take on rock music, an era when guitars were given more avant-treatments- see 'Isn't Anything','69','Heaven's End','The Young Gods','You're Living All Over Me','Daydream Nation','Ultra Vivid Scene' & 'Locust Abortion Technician.'

At this point Kember and Pierce (or Boom and Spaceman) were writing songs apart - the only co-written song here is 'Suicide', a tribute to Martin Rev & Alan Vega more potent in its epic-live version. Kember's drones from 'Transparent Radiation' are key on opener 'Honey', the kind of sound that would be advanced on with 'Just to See You Smile' & Sonic Boom's solo-single 'Angel.' Pierce's 'Come Down Softly to My Soul' is gorgeous, minimal beauty- sounding like Robert Wyatt fronting a track from the first Suicide album. The minimal-approach should be noted when you realise Pierce re-recorded 'So Hot (Wash Away All of My Tears)' & 'Lord, Can You Hear Me?' for later Spiritualized albums in 1996 and 2001 (!!!!). The versions here are less O.T.T. and a lot purer; 'Lord, Can You Hear Me?' would later be covered by Low - who included it on their recent box-set 'A Lifetime of Temporary Relief.'

Kember dominates the centre of the album - 'How Does It Feel' opening with some stoned-spoken word before veering off into droning guitar loops, while 'I Believe It' is closer to Pierce's material here. A peak remains indie-hit-single 'Revolution' - a song that nods to the intro to The MC5's 'Kick Out the Jams' (John Sinclair's "...takes five-seconds" prior to 'Ramblin' Rose')& a track that would be massacred by Mudhoney- who fused it with a nasty music critic's rambling (quite rude when Kember did a great version of Mudhoney's 'When Tomorrow Hits'!). Kember's 'Let Me Down Gently' is great stuff, like Terry Riley doing a track from 'T.B. Sheets' (or Silver Apples playing something from 'Veedon Fleece'). It could be about love, drugs, or a girl - possibly all of them; the droning climax of 'Suicide' & Pierce's transcendental hymn of despair,'Lord Can You Hear Me?' concludes a classic album and Spacemen 3's ultimate statement.

Last collaboration...
This was the last album the Spacemen produced before the band disintergrated and Jason and Sonic Boom went their seperate ways. The sound is more minimal than the tour de force of 'The Perfect Prescription'. 'How Does It Feel' is the neural jumping off point, the ultimate understatement in simplicity. The spiritual climax; 'Revolution' with its thundering repetion hammering its simple message home. In between; pure poetry from Jason with the gentle 'Come Down Softly To My Soul' and Sonic's 'Let me down Gently'. 'Lord Can You Hear Me' perfectly rounds off the album. There may be no saviour to hear Spacemen but, hearts and minds are certainly reached with this seminal, varied, multi-layered glory.

take a trip to space
If you thought people stopped consuming 'mind altering' substances after december 1969 then this cd may well influence your innocent mind. Each band member sounds as if they invented the formulae for lsd production: space cadets from tranquil rugby shock! Revolution is a scream, come down softly to my soul, as the title clearly suggests, relaxes the heart and mind. This cd is as subversive as a suitcase full of cocaine, but then again with a band member called sonic boom, what can else can the passive listener expect!

Despite the drug connotations the cd stands out as a classic: the church organ playing, whispered lyrics and crystal clear electric guitars merge together to produce a melodic trance that is immediately appealing and , well, addictive. Tune in, turn off, drop out, if only for 50 minutes or so. The best cd to light joss sticks too, made by 4 very strange men! It takes just 5 seconds to buy.