Playing With Fire
Spacemen 3
1989
Album Summary
Playing with Fire is the third studio album by Spacemen 3, released in February 1989. The original CD version included two live bonus tracks recorded in the Netherlands, and an ensuing release on Taang! Records included two more b-sides from the "Revolution" single. A reissued version from 2001 has an entire extra disc of demos and rarities. The album was featured in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In a similar musical borrowing to those on the band's prior albums, the song "Revolution" bears more than a passing resemblance to "Black to Comm" by the MC5.
WikipediaI don’t know what the right drug to pair with this is, but it doesn’t seem to be coffee.
I really like psychodelic rock and this is not an exception. Didnt knew the exitstence of this guys before and that is why i love this generator.
'Playing With Fire' is considered a psychedelic album but what is heard can be far more confusing. The use of minutes-long wave synths repetition combined with the sudden and unexpected instrument added here and there makes it a disconcerted presentation overall. Hollow, flat, and almost dull become fitting descriptions of the album arrangement - it feels as if the record is unsure of "how" it wants to be, not necessarily "what" it wants to be.
I really liked some things about this, the way the tracks built up energy was interesting and Suicide was cool. However, it was kind of mind-numbing sitting and listening to an entire album that's this minimalistic/repetitive. 6/10
Pretty good, but this feels like another example of the people writing the list skipping over the obvious classic for a second or third best choice. Why this album over Perfect Prescription? Why Warehouse by Husker Du over Zen Arcade? Why Blue Lines and Protection by Massive Attack over Mezzanine? Head scratchers, the lot of 'em.
A puzzling album, ambitious in its sonic soundscapes but half formed in some of its ideas - many songs start and fade out without ever building. Somewhat ahead of its time, the psychedelic rock predicts later artists such as Mogwai, Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine, an intriguing listen but not a satisfying album.
I knew Revolution already so wasn't expecting such a spaced out quiet bore-fest! I did like So Hot, but it's a very short pretty song. Not a revolutionary listen, but not 1 star either.
Playing With Fire either shrinks into the background, contently becoming invisible turn-of-the-decade ambient music or it gets all spikey and post-punk and noisy when it randomly feels like it (but the Skeptics already got there and got there better). This album retcons itself, with the late 80s album art being the only memorable thing about it.
Like a garage band of college dropouts tried to make an album inspired by the generic new-age music playlist they heard in the waiting room of the “discount massage parlor” they frequent.
J'écris ces quelques lignes dans une colère noire: cela fait maintenant plusieurs semaines, que dis-je semaines, cela fait maintenant plusieurs mois que Robert s'amuse à nous distiller des albums d'une banalité effarante, dénués de tout intérêt. Chaque matin quand je me reveille et me rend sur mon générateur, qui autrefois fut mon générateur favori, je ne vibre plus, je suis résigné d'avance à voir un nom complétement inconnu s'afficher sur mon écran. Une fois l'album lancé, 30 secondes me suffisent en général pour décréter que l'album sera inintéressant. Je n'ai rien contre les Spacemen 3 en particulier, ils ne sont pas plus nuls que les autres, ils arrivent tout simplement au mauvais moment. Pour l'ensemble de l'oeuvre de Robert, je vais donc accorder la note de 2/5 à cet album, faisant d'avantage office de bruit que de musique. [...] Mea culpa, j'ai écrit ce review avant d'avoir fini l'album, les Spacemen 3 méritent amplement ce 2/5, voir même plus puisque je vais leur accorder la note de 1/5 la faute à l'horrible Suicide présent sur l'album en tant que 8ème piste.
Ooh, I am diggin' the drones. Noisy, repetitive, driving. This is exactly my thing. Hints of 60s punk (MC5 and Stooges), 70s krautrock, and 80s no wave, this really hangs together. It's a collage of musical references built into a whole new thing. The NY Times obituary for Lou Reed referred to him as the godfather o f"high IQ, low technique" rock and roll. and that's exactly what this is. I could listen to this all day. I never knew where to start with Spacemen 3 (although I am long time Spiritualized fan), but I think I need to rush out and buy this record. I have been listening to this all day. It's magical noise.
oh shit! I thought this came out in like the early 2000s like “huh, this is a pretty good alternative album” blows my fucking mind this is from 1989 anyway, beautiful album a bit long, it’s got some lengthy slow-jams but I’m all for that, 10/10
Jack_Nicholson_maniacally_nodding_yes.gif Awwww yeah, this is exactly my jam. Hypnotic, repetitive, drifting in and out of ambient. You can see the foundations of what would become Spiritualized but it's not as lush - raw, jagged edges. Fave track - "Revolution" and "Suicide" are both bangers....
WHOA! I've never heard of this band and now I need to know more about them. LOVED THIS.
I am familiar with Spacemen 3 through the album Recurring which has some brilliant moments. This album also has brilliant moments. Starts off with dense hypnotic music that draws me in. Then suddenly Revolution comes on and I think I've morphed into listening to a Stoofes song. Brilliant! More hypnotic sounds culminating in the 11 minute gem Suicide. The only version of the album I found was a 2 hour deluxe edition with some live tracks, alternate takes and other bonus material that proved too much for a single listening session but taken as a 50 minute or so album I think this is great....better than Recurring. 4 🌟
That was great. I heard of these guys before, but never got to listen to them. Definitely something I want to delve into.
Never heard of this group before and only saw that it was listed as neo-psychedelia which sounded interesting. After giving it a listen, I did enjoy it but it didn't sound really unique or ground breaking. Some songs are a little too long but overall the album doesn't out stay its welcome and I will be checking out some of the other albums from this band. Unfortunately can't give half stars so I round up to 4 stars.
Really cool sparsely populated psychedlia. I'd be interested to see where this band went.
Very good album, with kind of progressive vibes, a lot of synthesizer with prog riffs, but sometime very repetitive.
I think this is actively changing my life; I am also a musical artist, and I think they get what I’m trying to do? Sorry, this is just the first time I’ve heard that. Also, the organ on “Let Me Down Gently” is so beautiful. 3.75
I used to live this album when I had more time/attention span/weed to smoke to long repetitive albums
If you have a day where a touch of experimental space rock is the tunes du jour, this album is near perfect. Melodic, sensical, and reliably less annoying than other experimental pursuits out there, "Playing With Fire" will break the monotony in a good way with its own kind of it. It may not change the world, or even rock it a little bit, but somehow this album was the respite that this reviewer did not know they needed.
Oh, wow, never listened to these guys before but am a big fan or Spiritualized. What a fun trip.
Not sure how I'd classify this, but surprisingly good. Kind of like an analog EDM. ADM?
Pretty boring. I see where they're coming from with the old psychedelia feel but the production just ends up getting in the way. 5
5/10. How Does It Feel? Bad, because I swear the sound of this song is designed to give me a headache. Aside from that song though, which gets better after the first 5 minutes or so, the rest of the album sounds good enough, but I found parts of it a little dull.
Very minimalist, very psychedelic. Not something I would regularly listen to, but cool listen.
very accoustic. never heard of em though. Good listens but onhe song `suicide` is really really painful vomit.
Kind of expected to hate this (I'm not entirely sure why, something about the whole presentation put me off. I think I could have gotten way into this much earlier in the development of my tastes. Now it's striking me as frequently self-indulgent, and lacking in range. Even so I generally enjoyed listening to it OK.
Hmmm, late 80's Pysch Rock/Shoegazer music, whilst seeing some merit in the originality and creativity must admit I prefer Jason Pierces later work with Spiritualized than this rather raw output. "Revolution" & "Suicide" are a little to heavy on the fuzz/psych for my taste and I find the whole album a little self indulgent at times. Top Tracks for me are "Let Me Down Gently" and "Any Way That You Want Me" (which I found Reminiscent of the Beach Boys) which are much more mellow and precursor to the Spiritualized modus operandi I think. Don't get me wrong I do see the credit and influence they have had on music, just a little to heavy for my taste.
Very good album, though not as good as their first two. 7/10 1. Lord Can You Hear Me? 2. So Hot (Wash Away All of My Tears) 3. Come Down Softly to My Soul
Starts with a mythical, synthy vibe. Transitions to heavy rock after several songs (hits good), then back.
gotta be one of my favorite genders, I love psychedelia, it wasn't a perfect album, but I still love this goddamn noise and vibe
This album was putting me to sleep until song 5. Revolution did wake me up and was a good dose of noise with excellent bass lines. Suicide is also quite good and would be excellent for an escape scene in an action movie. The original album has nine songs. Once these songs are out of the way, the music is better. There are some gems in the three bonus songs and the 2nd disc. For example, the cover of "May the Circle . . .”and both the alternate and live versions of Suicide are quite good as are some others on disc 2. Why didn’t these songs make it to the main card? I should be rating this 2. If I make my own 45 min. album with greatest hits from both discs I get to a 3. Holy too generous Batman.
This was pretty interesting to me. Sort of a more modern sounding Pink Floyd. I need to listen to this again. 3 stars for now, maybe going up on further listens.
I’m usually not a big fan of shoegaze/soft core stuff like this. But this one’s pretty alright. Also just thought about my last album and it def felt like a black womans version of a bob dylan album
I like space rock, or at least I thought I did. Turns out I like a specific strain - namely that howling, swooping variety based on motorik rhythms as pioneered by the likes of Hawkwind. Perhaps I just like Hawkwind. With Hawkwind, you felt like you were on a truly cozmik psychonautic rough ride; Spacemen 3, at least on this album, prefer to float in the stratosphere. It's deep in atmosphere and no doubt scratches a certain itch. 'Lord Can You Hear Me' is a pretty, haunting tune. 'Revolution' is the closest they come to achieving blast off. Perhaps a little too spaced out for my liking overall.
This was better than I expected. Not sure what I expected, though. From the cover art - looks like three different kinds of bands. But 'neo-psychedelia describes Spacemen 3 pretty well. Only a few tracks were really grating. The rest were pretty listenable. I might dive back into this band, if not this album, again sometime.
I'll be honest, not really my type of music. I find it a bit boring and repetetive. It's not bad or anything, fine to have in the background, but nothing really going on here.
What an interesting album! "So Hot (Wash Away All of My Tears)" and "Come Down Softly to My Soul" are my faves.
An interesting listen, especially since it's the first band of Sonic Boom and the founder of Spiritualized, whose appeal to many listeners I have never been able to understand. Consequently, I thought I would hate this album too... but against all odds, I did *not*. Most of the minimalistic, ambient tracks can hypnotize you quite well if you are in the right mood or mindset for this, and the rockier cuts such as "Revolution" or "Suicide" are doing a nice job quoting or mimicking stuff by The Stooges, The Jesus And Mary Chain, MC5 and... Suicide, obviously! Just like the latter, Spaceman 3 are here using only one single chord and haunted howlings for five minutes, but those 5 minutes still manage to fly by, miraculously. So sure, "Playing With Fire" might come off as an easy thing to do, but doing those sorts of record is actually riskier than it seems. At least if you don't want to get burned. :) Is this record an *essential* listen, though? As of now, the jury's still out on that. As much as one can appreciate the barebones atmosphere and witty references to past acts, there's still the sneaking suspicion that the project was a little too derivative to be positively compared to its models. Music fans might opt to go directly to the sources that so clearly inspired Spaceman 3 here. Especially today... Number of albums left to review or just listen to: 866 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 74 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 33 (including this one) Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): 28
Mellow. Reminds me of Spirtualized, which I'm pretty sure is connected to this band. I enjoyed the Spiritualized album a bit more, this one was a little too much wallpaper. Favorite tracks: "Revolution", "Suicide"
Das Album der Nachfolge-Band ('Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space‘ von Spiritualized) hat mir überhaupt nicht gefallen, daher war ich skeptisch. Und tatsächlich: auch das hier ist nicht gut, aber besser. Wie man früher zu Zeiten von Plattenspielern zu sagen pflegte: die Platte hat 'nen Sprung. Ach, das gehört so?
I'm bored...I'm restless. Need change in life...ruff!...like imported leather leash, ruff!
Wat was dit nou eigenlijk? Ik heb het wel geluisterd, en het was niet vervelend, maar om nou te zeggen dat er iets van is blijven hangen...
Not really my bag, was gonna rate 1 star but a couple of tracks were better than a 1. Couple good tunes and some good heartfelt lyrics. Seemed ahead of its time. Some sounded like something you'd hear on Earthed 1. 2 stars
It was alright. Not the sound that I personally will look out for. It got hard to listen to in the middle.
Always found spacemen 3 difficult enough and basically a precursor to Spiritualized, this album has all the main traits, a heavy influence of Velvet Underground and garage rock. Lord Can You Hear Me is pretty but much of the album is hard going.
I didn't like it, and won't listen again, but I will say I see a very, very clear line here between Pink Floyd and Smashing Pumpkins.
Pseudo-cosmic utterances under spacey guitars. If this band didn't have reverb / flange who knows what they would have done. I'm sure being on smack probably makes this album more interesting; however if you're not, all this album seems to be demonstrating how far up its own arse psychedelia is willing to crawl. Best Tracks: Honey; Revolution; Lord Can You Hear Me
The eleven-minute jam on Playing With Fire is pretty good. It would work well has a double-header with Viet Cong's Death, I think. But the rest of the tracks make the Spacemen feel like a markedly inferior band. (I let myself think I might like the closer better after hearing Suicide, but no: Just more of the same.) The instruments sound tinny, the voices squeezed. One track, in all its runtime-packing glory, saves this narrowly from being completely forgettable.
I like psychedelic rock, I really do. But this left we wanting. And 3 different versions of "Suicide" on a single album. 2 cuts of "Che"; 2 cuts of " "I Believe It". Artists need to be more original if going to make a double-album. D+
I really enjoy psychadelic music, from its early origins with Pink Floyd to spacey ambient music and Jazz like Sun Ra which they cite as influences. But I find this to be neither here nor there, and quite boring. I think they get a bit better in their later incarnation as Spiritulized, but in this current state it’s just half baked.
This is a weird one. I read somewhere that this was inspired by the MC5 but I find that hard to believe. It’s more like spaced out psychedelia. The 4 hard rockers (if you include all 3 versions – and 36 minutes – of Suicide) seem out of place, as does the version of May the Circle be Unbroken (!) I reviewed the albums I gave a 1 and this is definitely not a 1.
Ces petits rigolos nous montrent par intermittence qu'ils savent jouer de plusieurs instruments mais préfèrent nous faire subir une heure de bruitages téléchargés gratuitement sur le site universal-soundbank. Passez votre chemin.
Rather uninspired late psych rock. The album started fine but really lost focus near the end, and I almost turned it off.
To me, this sounds like they just made long versions of intros of songs, and then put those on an album. These songs never really get started, it's not a very interesting listen.
I’ll all for spaciness but these songs don’t go anywhere. Was probably a great record to trip to during the second summer of love...
I honestly just tuned this out so hard I don't even know what I listened to. Extremely unmemorable and unengaging.
This album didn’t know what it wanted to be and I found it a struggle to get through. When the first song started I thought maybe it was going to be solid but then I kind of just let it play out with nothing standing out.
I can appreciate what this album was going for, especially considering music had largely moved away from psychedelia by the late 80s. That said, I don't really feel like it pushed any envelopes or reshaped the psychedelia landscape. It felt like a conceptual demo rather than a complete album. Most of the tracks were numbingly repetitive, never really going anywhere, thus missing many opportunities to have some good highs and lows throughout the album. It was okay at best, but overall kind of boring and forgettable.
this really was, like, fine but rather boring and nondescript. i suppose i'm biased because my previous album was another neo-psychedelic album (by MGMT) and i happened to love that one, but spacemen 3's kind of music is rather dull to me.
For a good portion of this i could only think of Tenacious D and their "one note song"... "see, i even did the bendy bit". The music is very basic/repetitive at times and isn't very engaging. Revolution and Suicide take that basic approach and make it a bit edgier, but the whole thing seemed pretty boring to me.
How does it feel? After eight minutes? Numbing. Advice: please keep your experiments under two minutes. I stopped at Suicide. Because can you really go beyond Suicide?
2 or 3 nice songs, but overall, it was as boring as the cover art. As it is described with words like "psych" or "shoegaze", I would have liked to like that so much, but sorry... I can't.
Better than I thought it would be, but still deeply annoying. Why is so many people fan of this is a mystery...
"Hey, let's make an album where we play the same two chords over and over again and put some delay in it"
I had high hopes for this, but it turns out that it's just pointless guitar loops drowned in delay. I try to avoid that term when I talk about music but I think this one's massively overrated.
No not for me. Semi melodic noise with faint vocals, didn’t listen to the whole album so could of been more ‘singing’ I think you’d have to be proper stoned to enjoy it fully.
Parts are pretty, parts are engaging and heavy. But the songs never seem to have a structure, the loops last too long to engage, I get bored by the heavy parts somehow. The vocals are all over the place and mixed very strangely. Maybe a revisit
2.5 stars. Vocals more spoken than sung. Repetitive in build up, heavy distortion. First part of album slow and boring, takes a while to get going. Gets better with "Revolution" to end
Yeah. Peter frampton is like The Bee Gees an example of 70s excess. But damn it, they are wonderful. So well crafted. Stand outs are of course show me the way, baby I love your way, and do you feel like we do.
robert dimery be like including more than like 5 motown/blues/country albums: ❌ including 200 boring british alt-rock bands: ✅
I like listening to music. One of the reasons I like it is because musicans can do something I cannot. The exception is this album. I'm quite sure I could do this.
Dull, uninspired trash. Each song goes on for 8 mins too long. And the album outstays its welcome
I feel like at times this album is supposed to be ambient and peaceful. But honestly a lot of the droning and nothing, into the spikes of noise just gave me fucking anxiety. I ended up feeling weirdly anxious throughout this whole album. I don't feel like I should hate it, but I really hated listening to it.
If their intention was to make me feel physically ill for 1hr 59min then it's an easy five stars. Totally uninspired writing, taking themselves way too seriously and the fucking music itself is straight up headache inducing. Terrible album.
Sellainen taidepläjäys. Eipä kauheasti positiivista mieleen jäänyt. Ehkä Revolution-kappaleessa oli vähän edes yritystä? Onkohan Brian Enolla joku rooli tässä?
En tiedä minkälaisissa pöllyissä pitäisi olla, että tämä alkaisi kuulostaa hyvältä. Pitäisi varmaan nähdä musiikki väreinä tai jotain? Laiskaa maalailua ja ei mielestäni mitenkään erityisen teknistä tms. En saanut tästä mitään irti.
Pretty chill 3 Nevermind it's really boring 2 Sounds like they forgot to tune their instruments. Ok this sucks, they even fucked up "May The Circle Be Unbroken". How. 1
Dunno why but absolutely could not stand this. Didn't get through it. The audio equivalent of waiting for a drunk to get to the point, only for them to not have one.
honey is too static-y?? 1/5 started off solid tho not that great IMO maybe years of pop has ruined me lmao revolution is turning out to be good,,, again started off solid, the middle was shit, the ends v good so hot is good my fav from this album rn lord help me out has such amazing starting instrumentals,, okay now its too much production IMO, 2.1/5 che is good,,, okay its ruined now may the circle be unbroken is def my fav now. 4.3/5 any way that you want me (demo) is pretty good girl on fire (demo) is nice cool instruments
I really do not enjoy these long, repetitive, meandering tracks that don't build to anything.
The youtube link is all fucked. so I'm not going to get a clean run at this album. Though thats not a huge loss, three tracks in and its a big boring nothing burger so far. It lacks any apprechiable drive, or forward thrust. just sort of floating noodling. Then Revolution happens and the whole space thing is dissolved into something just as aimless but with rhythm. I don't think I have liked a single track thus far and its time for the 11 minute song Suicide. God, what a turd.