Reviews (page 2 of 8)
I really oughta check out the first two Spacemen, because this was very mellow and pretty for what's nominally a psych/kraut/space rock album
I wish I'd read the reviews before beginning this album. I think the 'musicians' got their muse from the OMM song from Red Dwarf.
some very cool shoegaze sounds here
Hits that perfect midpoint between yacht rock and baby techno and meth loving indie rock. Those three things make a very large triangle and “Playing with Fire” is not close to any of them really, but it is nevertheless the midpoint.
Musical scribble, no talent just drugs and a distort box. Must be friends of the organiser to get on the list.
(2.75)
so this is the reason you're not supposed to play with fire
On va mettre les choses au clair d'entrée de jeu, Playing With Fire est un putain de chef-d'œuvre cosmique, une cathédrale de bruit et d'extase qui a redéfini à elle seule les contours du space rock, du shoegazing, du rock psychédélique et de l'art rock de la fin des années 1980. Et avec ce disque, le duo infernal de Rugby — Jason Pierce (alias J. Spaceman) et Peter Kember (Sonic Boom) — ont ouvert une brèche monumentale dans l'histoire de la musique indépendante. Une brèche où allaient s'engouffrer, les yeux fermés et les amplis à fond, des centaines de groupes au cours des trois décennies suivantes. Sans cet album, une immense partie du paysage shoegaze, de Spiritualized à Spectrum en passant par les expérimentations de la scène néo-psychédélique moderne, n’aurait tout simplement jamais existé sous cette forme. Le génie absolu de Playing With Fire, c’est son sens du minimalisme radical érigé en dogme mystique. Pas besoin de faire des acrobaties techniques sur le manche ou d'étaler des solos de virtuose prétentieux : le précepte ici est limpide, tranchant et sans concession. Un accord, parfois deux, répétés jusqu'à l'hypnose la plus totale, un bourdonnement d'orgue saturé qui s'immisce sous le crâne, et des couches de guitares fuzz empilées comme des strates géologiques. Le groupe pousse la répétition jusqu'à la transe chamanique, créant une tension permanente entre la montée d'acide la plus sauvage et la descente cotonneuse la plus pure. On passe sans crier gare de déferlantes soniques abrasives, de véritables larsens vicieux qui vous nettoient les tympans au papier de verre, à des balades vaporeuses et spectrales où la voix semble flotter au-dessus du sol. L’écriture évite le piège du bavardage stérile pour aller droit à l’essentiel émotionnel. Tout l'album fonctionne comme une messe païenne, un grand trip continu où le gospel primitif rencontre le bruitisme le plus sourd, annonçant déjà les envolées symphoniques grandioses que Jason Pierce déploiera plus tard avec Spiritualized, ainsi que les boucles synthétiques obsédantes et le drone analogique que Sonic Boom explorera de son côté. Il y a dans cette musique une ferveur presque religieuse mais totalement déviante, une ferveur incandescente, lourde, planante, dangereuse mais d'une pureté absolue. Il n'y a rien à jeter, aucun temps mort, aucune compromission mercantile : chaque note et chaque vibration d'ampli ont un sens précis dans cette odyssée sonique. Playing With Fire mérite son statut de disque culte au panthéon du rock mondial et justifie amplement sa note parfaite de 5 sur 5. Un classique indéboulonnable, indispensable, et une leçon magistrale de ce que la distorsion et la foi musicale peuvent engendrer de plus grand.
Just a regular music experience with some notes of psychedelic and even ambient maybe...
Like if This is Spinal Tap were about the Beatles and it's bad
I skip the song because it never ends and it's the same song again.
3 spacemen surely ? otherwise where are the first two.. anywho. must listen is generous. didn't HATE it tho.
*Sniff sniff* Whats that? Smells like doodoo feces. I have great sympathy for anyone who listened to all 1 hour and 59 minutes of bonus tracks on this album. Ain’t no way I was going to listen to any more of this.
A little too much white noise and repetition
Part psych rock, part ambient, part electronica, part hypnotic, and a whole lot of stuff that didn't quite click for me. Once I realized what kind of experience this was going to be the album did grow on me a bit but not enough to get a high rating. Maybe if I was on some sort of drug I would have enjoyed this much more. 2/5
There are some interesting stuff, but the longer song tend to cross the line to annoying territory, and the pay off is not always there.
Never heard of them. Never before listened to. I've been missing out. 4 "vibrating" stars.
This was pretty mediocre. I remember next to nothing.
Quite horrible. 12 minute repetitive songs that made my cat stressed.
Pure unabashed psychadelia in the 80s I guess. I kept double checking it wasn't from the late 60s. I'm not crazy for psychadelia without another hook to draw me in unfortunately. Most of this record passes me by a little bit. The track 'suicide' is really beautiful though
This is a tough one to rate, because I liked all the sounds here... but there are very few actual songs. It sounds like an album full of core ideas for songs that weren't actually developed. "Suicide" is the worst offender... a nice riff/bassline that should provide the backbone for something else, but instead goes on unchanging for 11+ minutes. I think I've heard single songs that have more ideas than this entire album. I do like a bit of minimalism. There were moments that made me think of Kraftwerk or Neu!... but those bands take me on a journey and Playing With Fire feels stuck at the front door. All that said, there's nothing here that I actively disliked. Perhaps it'd improve if treated as background music.
Never been a fan of shoe gaze.
I even tried to stare at my shoes while listening. It didn't sound any better.
Review - a nice chill psychedelic rock album. It was a nice Sunday morning listen but if I'm honest it did fade into the background a bit. Can't give it too high a score as I didn't listen to it closely enough. Feels it's a hard album to listen closely to. But enjoyed what I remember hearing. Score - 6/10 Need to listen? YES
I think any drugs pair well with this, even coffee
This was not my type of music but was not too bad. Listening with headphones in the dark and maybe I could see the appeal.
4/8
Falta sal
Taking drugs to make music to take drugs to. I’ve tried to get into Spacemen 3 before but the only album I’ve ever really listened to more is the aforementioned bootleg-turned-into-an-official-demo-collection-I-guess. Some great moments on this album, some far less interesting ones. It's okay.
SPACEMEN 3 I LOVE SPACEMEN 3 One of my favourite bands of alllll time. Their stuff is top tier
2.5
Some cool VU and shoegaze vibes, but a bit too repetetive. 3.5 stars
Jason Pierce would go on to do greater things, but this is still a pretty cool album that bridges the gap between the Velvet Underground and Suicide to 90s shoegaze. It doesn't sound like it was made in 1989. "Revolution" and "Lord Can You Hear Me?" were my favorites. 3.5 stars.
The evil that Spacemen do. It sort of has some ingredients for one classic psychedelic wig out but those constituent ingredients all drone or dawdle on ultra tediously one after the other as if it was not even at the stage of psychedelic primordial soup. Wish these Spacemen came travelling right off this list. If the band were actually badgers and it was called Space Badgers 3 - Playing With Foxes and Weasels then obviously it would be a bit more impressive although still extremely rough.
A real mysterious one. I liked it but I don’t think I’ll remember it. One of those times where I liked every song but not enough to save any.
Not any better than others I’ve heard
Very meh. 2.5
Not familiar with this, but it is right up my alley, drone-y noisy basic rock 'n' roll twisted up into an unfamiliar shape. Definitely appreciated it, but I just couldn't really get excited about it. Maybe one day I'll come back to it...?
Absolute dogshit. Get this out of my face
4 sterne
Long, droning, boring. Suicide was the most ear-splitting annoying 11 minutes. 2/5
Nope. When they say playing with fire they mean what stoners do around a campfire- they run their hands through the flames, say “Dude” and then forget that their hand is burning. This music is anesthesia- soul numbing and at points, induces boredom. Several tracks test the patience of saints with their endless drone wall of sound punctuated by infrequent vocal musings. None of the tracks are that indistinguishable from any other track on the record varying only in length and sometimes in tempo. As experimental music goes, it certainly is experimental but it suffers primarily from the fact that you have to be stoned to enjoy it. At a certain point in life you don’t need artificial aids to enjoy things but in my opinion if you truly want to get this record you should double down on the drugs. Not wildly entertaining as albums go, but someone bought it. 3/5
Not the worst thing ever but definitely repetitive, boring, and not something that I needed to hear before dying - didn't finish whole thing 3.2/10 Liked: So Hot (Wash Away all of my Tears)
I enjoyed this more than I expected to as atmospheric music isn’t my thing and adding acid/psychadelia to the mix felt like a recipe for a nap. I was pleasantly surprised and even enjoyed the ambient remixes on the second disc. Everything just hit different in the (almost) 90s.
wow. no.
After listening to this album possibly 5 times now since the list gave me it I thought I best review it finally. I could do without the spoken word intro in ‘how does it feel’ and the rather boring repetitive sound of the track. And ‘suicide’ the worst track on the album can just do one, i just don’t get it. However the rest of the album is a mix of feelings that invoke genuine happiness inside me. ‘Let me down gently’ for example just lets your mind wander to somewhere anywhere in the world that you want. The vocals in ‘so hot’ just hypnotic. The album is a bit all over the place but those feelings it create are its biggest strength. Worst track- ‘suicide’ Best track- ‘I believe it’ that build, wow! 8.5/10
Spaceman 3 Hypnotic and spellbinding, the way each track can build and expand over their duration can be truly captivating but so, at times, can slide towards monotony. (I'm looking at you here, Suicide). Every now and then the texture of simple repeating motifs on an organ bring little senses of warmth. Just wish it didn't feel quite so 'thin'. There is so much top end it is almost abrasive at times. And the drum sound (for what little there is) is as weedy as hell. Best Tracks - the opener Honey, the intense How Does it Feel, the 'hit' SINGLE Revolution, the soul of Lord Can you Hear Me. The pick, I think, was How Does it Feel. Worst Track - Suicide 7.5/10
I'm just never going to like this Shoegaze sub-genre. This one, at least had some songs with coherent lyrics, but the whole thing was a dreary vibe with senseless noise, and one very questionable track. Favorite Track: "Let Me Down Gently".
Mostly poo poo garbage
I've always liked Spiritualized and knew the connection but never really given them a try before - Glad I did, that was a classic shoegaze album.
2.5
Just another run of the mill album that I didn’t need to hear before I died
A bit underdeveloped
This is boring. I kept thinking it would pick up, but it never did.
Сомнительно
1.4 meh
Another forgetful band from the UK.
08/04 Boring
I lokery like it
Not bad
not for me but not horrible
I really, really wish I could love rather than just like this album. At its best, the hazy and floaty atmospheres are impeccable; it's like a more spacey version of Suicide. Then again, half of the time the songs forget they're supposed to *actually* do something. I wish the climax in How Does It Feel was morw solid, I wish Revolution was a bit less noisy and more melodic, I wish Let Me Down Gently was a bit more eventful, etc. I still love the sound though, and I will definitely check out the rest of their discography.
Hazy like a bad dream, but I liked it. Sounded like it could have been made today - I was surprised it was a product of the late 80s.
Don’t waste your time- this is very reminiscent of another album I had maybe a month ago: Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space by Spiritualized, which was also a colossal waste of time. It’s spacey and sparse and not very musical. Background radiation at best, just noise (and not good noise) at worst. ⭐️
not for me
With no previous knowledge of Spacemen 3, we fired this album up for a road trip. A couple tracks in, I noted to my partner that they remind me of Spiritualized. My partner had pulled up the band and laughed when she noted that Jason Pierce went on to form Spiritualized following Spacemen 3's breakup. Turns out sometimes I've got a good ear. Spacemen seems to incorporate more Shoegaze into their work than Spritualized did. They manage to masterfully blend the skuzzy sounds with the slow forming psychedelia. There always seems to be something going on throughout this record and I'm a fan of what they were doing. 4 stars
Long. 1 good song. Would not willingly put this on. Wouldn’t turn off. Ended early on disk 2
Come Down Softly To My Soul ja So Hot oli ihan tunnelmallisia. Vähän tuli Baba O'Riley mieleen ton ekan biisin viulusta. Muuten en kauheasti keskittynyt, kun ei ollut mitään kiinnostavaakaan.
I had never heard of them, but this was great.
Lots of great snippets, I enjoy the shoegazing vibe from the album. But, the snippets are too long, very repetitive, and when I realised this was a double album I just didn't have the ability to listen to disc 2 there and then. This could have been so much better
Burn it
I like much of this album; at least there is potential for me to REALLY like this album. It has the shoegaze-y melodies and guitars I would hope for in an album like that. At the same time, I am not always in the mood to really listen or absorb and album like this. This happens to be a case where its a right place, wrong time album. Knowing Spacemen 3 would eventually split and Jason Pierce would turn it into Spiritualized, its good to visit where those sounds originated. It's a good history lesson if nothing else. Biggest Hit - Lord Can You Hear Me Biggest Miss (if I had to choose) - Suicide Hidden Gem - Revolution
Idk what they were going for, but they missed it
3/10
Two hours of misery
Nada, lo he quitado a las 3 canciones.
You can always tell if it’s a good album by how much you are looking forward to not just listening to it again, but also diving into all of the influences and associated artists involved. In this case I was immediately intrigued by the fuzzy, shimmery guitars on the opening track and then drawn in by the proto-shoegaze atmosphere, and the callbacks to 1960s psychedelia and 70s krautrock and minimalism. The standouts for me were Revolution which immediately brought to mind the Stooges and MC5 with a relentless paean to better living through chemistry, and the ten minute track Suicide which is a tribute to the band of the same name and another direct influence on this album. The special edition includes some excellent live tracks including a cover of Che by Suicide as well. Excellent stuff.
Aspires to the turbulent, ecstatic and sublime, arrives at the sleepy, comfy and pastoral. Some prefer Constable to Turner, some are into Jack Vettriano, it’s ok.
Key elements of their later bands are in place (repeated phase and delay effects, vaguely liturgical phrases, overlong droning), but on its own this sounds a bit inconsequential.
This reminded me of Spiritualized, but not as good. Liked a lot of it, though. 3.5 rounded down for the 11 minutes of noise in the next to last song.
Sometimes I do wish we listened to artists chronologically, to trace their evolution. Because this is not great. But I see the Spiritualized seeds.
Not sure why this is on this list. It is not real music.
Another boring album this list sucks
46 minutes of nothing happening. It’s just repetitive loops of noise. Even the lyrics are just the same phrases repeated over and over again.
Started kinda interesting, then just kinda drug….a bit like Smashing Pumpkins “lite”
Parece musica de secta.... Aburrido
I don't know if it's all the metal I've been assigned here lately, but this hit me like a breath of fresh air. Really, really weird and repetitive fresh air, but fresh air nonetheless.
Groovy spaced out fuzz.
That was a strange one. It was very trippy, not at all what I was expecting based on the wiki page for the artist. It was listenable but not something I'd choose to hear again.
Spiritualized 1.0 - too samey and drags on a bit at times.
Unspectacular, spacey psychedelia
Nice enough while it's on, but ultimately forgettable. Too drugged out to leave an impact. The distortion sounds quite bad too.
Yet another record that was an absolute chore to get through. Just such a slog.
Interesting but not engaging
Appeler une chanson suicide, la faire durer 12min et la mettre 3 fois c'est vraiment une idée de nul. Les premières chansons sont cool. Le reste est vraiment pas dingue ou se ressemble trop
First time hearing of Spacemen 3. Having heard Kraftwek yesterday it was kinda cool to hear the progression of electronic music from the 70s to the 80s. Comparatively this seemed even less tuneful than Kraftwerk, and even more repetitive. Despite the cool innovations in sound, this ultimately wasn’t all that interesting to listen to.
A solid record with interesting neo-psychedelia and drone elements. Not something I was overly taken with or opinionated on. I was surprised that Any Way That You Want Me was left as a demo I thought it had serious promise. The way these discs were structured and sequenced on spotify was odd and I skipped through much of what followed Lord Can You Hear Me because I believe that’s the original closer. I didn’t really enjoy the album overall. 1 listen Favorite Tracks: Come Down Softly to My Soul
No, I did not harm my speaker in the rating of this album.
blah, REALLY not my cup of tea here.
toegegeven was ik flink aan de shrooms maar dit is een heerlijk album
There's enough songs here that are kinda nice but this is definitely really boring
On paper, I should hate this album. The genre, their stated influences, description of the album/band all tell me "RUN!" I'm not sure what about this album is compelling and interesting, but I'm very happy to be experiencing it right now. I honestly couldn't ask for much more at this moment. Never heard of this band before, but I'll be adding the album to my library and exploring their other works ⭐⭐⭐⭐.49
3.5★/5 [07.16.2026] 07.17.2026
Oscillated between too challenging and too boring and only rarely found a middle ground
nope!
This is an okay album. The reviews on it are a bit harsh, but it's true that's it's not great. Some tracks were great vibes though.
# Album Name: Playing with Fire # Artist: Spacemen 3 # Rating: 1/5 # Comments: Absolutely awful # Top Tunes: # Would I listen to it again? No
Definitely some drug-induced garage rock. Neo-Psychedelia. Hints of Velvet Underground, The Rolling Stones, The Stooges mixed with Oasis/Beatlesque vocal harmonies and Pink Floydian effects. Some influence from trance & electronica as well. Intrigued on the first pass..... Going in for second run now, this time my mind is slightly "altered"😜
Don't know what this is. Slow, ambient-ish. Shoegaze? Revolution is more rocky/punky. But still a bit limp. Don't know what to say? There's not much to it. Best track - Revolution 3 stars - instantly forgettable but not offensive at all
the thing here, i see many negative reviews from listeners, I wouldn't say that I like it myself. But it's more just because I am not a big fan of psychedelic rock. but what i see in critics reviews in ratings in wiki, they all are exceptional. so, just interesting why listeners' and crtics' reviews are so different
I one of at least a few that discovered Spiritualized through Ladies and Gentlemen We’re Floating Through Space, an album that topped OK Computer on NME’s album of the year rankings when it came out. I prefer OKC personally but loved Jason Pierce’s record a lot too and his recent albums from Spiritualized have been amazing. And so I’ve visited Spaceman 3 in reverse. It slaps. You can hear a lot of Spiritualized in Playing With Fire, though it’s a heavy step closer to early post-Syd Pink Floyd. It may be aimless in its druggy sonic exploration, but that’s part of the fun.
I’ll admit I didn’t listen to the whole album. But it’s two hours of mostly instrumental kinda pulsating guitar riffs. There’s a song on here called Suicide (appropriate) that’s 11 minutes long, just the same sound throughout the whole song, and on the album THREE separate times as alternate versions. I’ve heard one song on my halfway through listen that I didn’t hate. It doesn’t fix the other issues
Me gustó. tiene cositas de radiohead, cositas de cocteau twins... me emcanta este tipo de sonido medio alternativo a veces shoegaze...
Never heard of this band before. The YTM link doesn't work. The only version on YTM is a 2 hour version but the original is a mere 9 songs. First two songs are dull as dishwater. How does it Feel barely qualifies as music. Barely even qualifies as background noise. Album is awful. There is little artistic merit here.
Okay music. Sappy as hell lyrics and singing.
Not bad, but having to listen to "Suicide" on my long commute home after my first day of my new job was not fun. Favorite track: Come Down Softly To My Soul
Boring
2 One of my least favourites so far. So many times where he's just playing the same bloody chord over and over and it goes on and on and...
Uninspired, lazy and not interesting. I’m sure they go for a certain vibe but it’s not my vibe.
You can definitely tell the the guy from "Spiritualized" was in this band.
I've broadly known about Spacemen 3 and even own an album by Spiritualized, but I had never really listened to the band that closely. Listening to this, you can definitely hear the elements that would carry over to Spirtualized, particularly that thread of soul/gospel buried in the mix. That is intertwined with a lot of the kinds of fascination with texture and also transcendence found in contemporary shoegaze material and there are some commonalities with the Jesus and Mary Chain. The other influence is definitely Suicide, which brings in an electro element, albeit without the retro rock and roll element of that band. Overall, a good record.
Not my bag, sorry
I'll keep us consistent with the reviews. It's not like it deserved any better that a 2 anyways
Like a less interesting version of all its influences. Liked this in some stretches and wavered on what to rate it but i got burned by it
Ok. Prefer the spiritualized stuff to be honest. Lots of tracks very similar loops and just end. Love the genre, but honestly don't think this is the best example of it.
Psykedeelistä ja kokeellista musiikkia, joka ei kuitenkaan tarjoa oikein mitään mielenkiintoista.
I listen to a lot of repetitive (industrial) music, and a healthy chunk of psychedelia, and I couldn't get into this. The lyrics are fine, a lot of feelings-toward-another-bordering-on-romance, insecurity, and some vulnerable turns at being lost or sad. And Revolution. Stuff we can all identify with. I can appreciate the meditative, trance-like aesthetic of the music, but it doesn't go far musically, so some songs feel like monotonic intros to songs that never start. If I found this as a teen I'd dig it more.
surprisingly OK but not really my thing, a bit samey
There is such a thing as too spacey and I think this album is there. Too much empty space and not enough melody or compelling elements.
*1989. *Hard to describe what this is. Psychedelic with a lot of drugs involved for sure.. Sometimes chill and ambient, sometimes it sounds like the Beatles weirder stuff, sometimes there's late 80s electronica/synth throw in... *There are parts I feel like I would like, but it's also an odd combination of repetitive and all over the place. RATING - 6/10
Woozy, uncertain, human - rooted in the Stooges, in Suicide, and in their own humanity - some splendid din, and some moving psychedelia 4 stars
no me gustó mucho, no me gustan los sonidos en loop, me estresó y este álbum tiene mucho de eso. Y las canciones que me gustaron fueron por la letra. le doy un 4/10.
TWO HOURS OF THIS. No!
👍🏾❤️
Good balanced start. Loses its way towards the end.
Why was this made
it was just noises.
Meh, boring. It exists.
Too weird for my liking.
Spacemen 3's Playing with Fire is an evocative, atmosphere-driven record that leans heavily into hypnotic minimalism and hazy, drone-fueled textures. While tracks like "Come Down Softly on My Soul" and "I Believe It" effectively utilize delicate instrumentation and organ swells to create an immersive, almost religious sonic space, other moments like the chaotic "Revolution" struggle with a muddy production that threatens to derail the album's meditative flow. Ultimately, the record succeeds best when it embraces its own quiet intensity, offering a dreamy, albeit inconsistent, journey that balances standout, mood-setting gems against occasional filler that feels somewhat lethargic.
Surprisingly good album, vintage sounds combined with electronica, minimalistic and very work-friendly. Quality of the album is noticeably higher at the beginning, generally trends downward as the album plays on.
Completely forgettable.
Has its moments but goes on a bit
This has so many of the common tropes I hate the most about all the pointless slop on this list; random noise, awful production, songs that just keep on meandering without ever doing anything remotely interesting. I'll save us all some time and leave my complaining there, I can't be bothered to go into any more details, I've done that for plenty of albums already.
not great
Dull, boring, and agonizingly repetitive with scant ideas of melody throughout. The mixing is also terrible in that the vocals can’t be heard over the instruments. There’s nothing talented or interesting about this band that can’t also be created by listening to the average pitches of a city soundscape. It’s just droning noises.
Definitely not for me. I don't know whether they were taking too many drugs or if I need to, but it didn't work for me at all. I was going to give a 2 initially, but with the realisation that it's 2 discs and 2 hours long I decided a 1 is more appropriate. Turned it off after about 6 songs.
A little long and samey but also meditative.
I've really liked Sound of Confusion in the past, but this one doesn't work for me. Maybe I just like hypnotic garage rock, instead of hypnotic music in general? Or maybe Spacemen 3 just lost their fuzz pedal here.
I understand why the reviews look the way they do. You either get it or you don’t. This sound is way ahead of its time. I listened on a rainy day driving around Houston and the vibes were immaculate.
Like listening to 2 hours of diggeridoo.
I find this album to be very boring. 2 stars or D-.
yes. im happy i got to listen to music made by dudes doing drugs. buzzy and experimental. interesting and pop adjacent. good stuff.
Today marks my 900th album in this challenge, so I was hoping for something special from Spacemen 3. I went into Playing with Fire expecting a memorable listen. Unfortunately, this album did absolutely nothing for me. I found Playing with Fire to be a tough listen — slow, repetitive and, ultimately, quite boring. I kept waiting for something to click or for a track to grab my attention, but that moment never really came. I can appreciate the hypnotic, droning sound they were going for and understand why some people might find it immersive, but for me it just felt flat and lifeless. I really struggled to find many positives in the experience, and it’s definitely not an album I can see myself ever returning to. Favourite tracks: None really stood out for me Least favourite tracks: Nothing specific, but the overall album left me bored to death Album artwork: I do really like the album cover
Garage i shoegazens tid med gospel sensibilitet funker som faen. Selvfølgelig best på de lengre sporene som låner progressjon og oppbygging fra kraut.
"Lord Can You Hear Me" en av tidenes fineste låter? Ellers herlig spaca plate, men til tider litt for syrete om man ikke gir seg helt hen og jeg tror ikke jeg er villig til det uansett hvor mye S3 fronter dråger.
I really couldn’t get into it.
Perhaps they should have titled the album “Playing with Gray Play-Doh”, which would have better captured the listening experience. This is just boring and inconsequential. Somewhat redeemed by the last track (“Lord Can You Hear Me”; I listened to the nine track version as it was originally put out in 1989), but by then it was a case of too little, too late.
Spacemen 3 were an important band they launched two careers (J Spaceman and Sonic Boom) that are always engaging. It’s cool, relaxed and elegant music.
This is actually pretty nice; dare I say it would be better without vocals?
Very noise and ambient but okay
Album #186 Spacemen 3: Playing With Fire Though I enjoy Spacemen 3’s other album, The Perfect Prescription, a good deal, and I do love some Spiritualized, I found this album to be a bit lacking. The band famously takes drugs to make music to take drugs to, so really the fault is on me as I sit here stone cold sober; however, I feel like most of these songs are a bit formless, with not much to grasp onto. It is enjoyable, yet also uneventful. Perhaps the drugs are meant to fill in the blanks, but based on my current state, this album is just decent. Best Songs: Lord Can You Hear Me, Revolution, Suicide Worst Song: I Believe It Score out of 10: 6
Not bad, liked suicide the best.
'Surely ain't nothin' that we can't do'; 'Feels, feels just like I'm in heaven.' I had to pinch myself to see if this really was as gloriously bright & promising as I heard it to be upon first impression. But yeah, what you have here is a gorgeous record on top of a sophisticated one, an album that's slow enuf to get into your heart & your head. I mean, this is straight up gospel music + Simon & Garfunkel + The Velvet Underground + Big Star. If you require a project that'll convince you to occasionally take a look outside the window - to see that there's more to it than you could imagine - this is that project. It's a miracle of noise & apprehension, of peace & distortion. The talking is a bit of a drag, as it is on Spirderland. No matter tho, a dimensional album.
One should not play with fire. Although the results in this case were more dull than dangerous.
I won’t give this much oxygen, but it succeeded as well as lighting a match in space. The final song was enjoyable.
Have I listened to this album before? No How familiar am I with this album? Completely unfamiliar How do I feel about this artist? I have never heard of them Pre-Listen Thoughts: Always fun to discover something completely new Favorite track(s): Revolution Post-Listen Thoughts: Yeah this is a no from me. The one I like had a real Stooges sound to it, but overall none of this really hit for me.
***An ok album
Not for me. 1/5
Drone electronica? Space rock? Feels both ahead of its time and rooted in the psych rock and prog of the 70s. Reminded me of the band Earth sometimes. Maybe a precursor to shoegaze? I liked this more than I thought I would. I was worried it’d be too much sprawl and no dynamism, but the sounds and unfolding arrangements were enough to keep me engaged. It didn’t rock my world or anything, and it is pretty damn indulgent, but I came out on the other side of my listen respecting the vision.
I actually think this is pretty fun
Parts of this were really hard to listen to.
Not bad, there's some good variety in the sounds of the songs within the album. They vary from kind of cool to like boring Christian vibed whateverness. I liked How Does it Feel, I thought the guitar plucking and the reverbrations were really cool. Suicide was also cool if you like guitars. 2/5 stars.
bs
Really like it. Psychedelic shoelace. Hardly any drums! Spiritualised became much better but this is a great start
This is awesome! Like the Velvet Underground if they didn't split up and mixed up the drugs a bit.
Playing With Fire by Spacemen 3 is an odd album. I didn’t really any of the songs. Top songs: Come Down Softly to My Soul
This was new to me and was as brilliant as I expected. Suicide was my highlight on first listen.
Second listen this year and it’s a belter.
Not my favourite J Spaceman album by any stretch but still an enjoyable listen, and Lord Can You Hear Me? is an excellent album closer.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ - Five of the brightest stars, listening to “Revolution” with my friends in my childhood/teenage house remains one of my most formative and fond musical memories. Tom.
Thoughts before listening: I know I've heard of these guys before. I feel like its some sort of spacey, shoegazey type of indie rock. Review: Maybe its possible to be too spacey. I mean it was 20 minutes in on track 5 before I heard a song that actually felt fully realized. Now that track is "Revolution" which is a complete banger, but I had to sit through a bunch of droney, slow, sing-speak to get to that point. From there, the album again slows to a crawl with minimalist tracks until "Suicide" turns the distortion back up creating a wall of sound that was captivating throughout. All in all I found that this album has 2 very good, compelling tracks, surrounded by others that just don't hold my attention. I'll give it 3-stars.
It's alright. I think I'd like it better if I was listening to it high rather than at work!
Horrible
It’s not bad necessarily, but it made me quit this at least 4 times just because it is so fucking long and boring. Stand-outs - Honey - Revolution
I don't like how Spotify will force a rerelease of an album and not simply have the original. That annoyance aside, Suicide might be one of the worst songs I have ever forced myself to listen to.
Yep, that was hot garbage, I listened to the first one or two songs, and suicide. and decided I didn't want to ruin my day and turned off the album. I've said this plenty of times, but if 1001 has this album and none of Taylor Swift's... I'm going to riot.
Did I listen to disc 2… nope, I value my dignity and worth. I didn’t know music could be this bad. The middle school band that practices by the town square blows these guys out of the water.
I think they were going for something minimal with some punk influences? It wasn’t universally boring, but it was close. 3/10 Ho Hum
Got halfway through the self indulgent elementary guitar lesson “How Does it Feel” before wanting to rip the headphones out and crush them in a violent rage when I stopped myself, realizing it isn’t the headphones fault that this is awful. How does it feel? Feels pretty annoying man! That could have been 2 minutes. Then “Revolution!” Holy shit 💩 these childish lyrics! “I’m so sick of people trying to tell meI can or can’t do with my life!” Then he shouts “Revolution! “ and the CROWD GOES CRAZY! Gimme a break. Also stop with the talking. Mostly unlistenable derivative garbage. Make a song. One extra star for the instrumental “Suicide” which was still a two note space jam that no one asked for.
That was a real struggle to get through. I've never been more bored in my life. Half of that album was the same 5 seconds of music on loop, and the other half was a different 5 seconds on loop. Horrible album id rather stick my cock in a vice than listen again.
uhhh it was weird but not in a bad way. better for ambient listening imo, not that exciting but i did like the psychedelic vibes more than i thought i would
Whiny, anemic music that I find incredibly annoying.
Is never, ever a good idea.
What if instead of 1001 albums we did 1001 songs where we only had to listen to the songs above 400k streams on spotify? That would've saved me about 1 hour and 51 minutes of what the hell was that. 2/5 there was only one good song.
Nearly put me to sleep at work
I got this album the next day after listening to their offspring Spiritualized - too much space shit in a row, so 2 points and I'm out without any regrets and without even finishing this 2-hour record. My ears hurt. Pew pew.
This album makes me want to fight God and I don't even believe in God.
Never listened. Expectations: Mid - Verdict: Good - Honey is a cool spacey opener, while Come Down Softly To My Soul is more grounded. I like the slow build of How Does it Feel. Revolution is far more direct than anything else so far. Let Me Down Gently is a great hum of sound. Suicide is a great jam. Pretty good album.
One of the very best British bands of the late 1980s, laying it on nice and thick here. Thank you sir, may I have another?
I've never heard of Spacemen 3 before, and I'm pretty sure I've never heard anything from this album outside of "Revolution" (which in turn sounds nothing like the rest of the album), so I'm glad to have the exposure. And the opening minute of the opening track "Honey" got my hopes up for an interesting late 80s sound, only to be somewhat disappointed by the very generic-sounding and indistinguishable sounds of (early) shoegaze-y music that followed (and followed), with only a few tantalizing departures in the Repo-Man-esque "Revolution" and "Lord can you hear me" (I guess "Suicide" was also a departure, but not one I wish I'd experienced). Not really my thing, but it seems like a well-done album, and I'm impressed to read that this album's sound is nothing like their earlier albums, and you can definitely hear the genesis of Madchester-like/rave-like sounds in a variety of tracks.
enjoyed their trance-like sound but mostly as music to work by
I've wondered why several albums are on this list, but this one I think is meant to be a joke. Right? Next, please.
It's not even music really, is it? I gave up about halfway through, when it started to feel like some prolonged torture. Pretty polite torture, but agonising nonetheless.
lovely album I had forgotten just how good this is
It is catchy and influential but not a banger for me.
Always enjoy listening to these guys, even if this isn’t my favorite album. Cool mix of space, gospel, drone, and noise. Sui and Che are the standouts on this album for me.
psychydelic album, with a ton of distortion, repetition and overall weird sounds. on the other hand, it has interesting effects on psychique...
Light 3
ive never encountered "space rock" as a genre before and i guess my first impressions of it are a little mixed..? i think for the most part i enjoyed it. this is absolutely the correct sound for the weather we've been enduring, the shoegazey yet paradoxically minimal "how does it feel" sounds exactly how 32°c and 35% humidity feels. but, also befitting of the heatwave vibe, it also feels a bit unfocused with how from track to track it keeps flipping between styles that don't necessary always mesh well. i appreciate the variety but in the context of "being an album" it feels pretty disjointed. my favourite track this time is "suicide", 11 minutes of aggressive, droning shoegaze was needed so fucking badly. i just wish they'd managed to blend that side of the album together with the more minimal space music-y parts a bit more coherently. i guess maybe i should check out spiritualized and see if that's closer to what i'd hoped....
Nah
Boring imo but I can see how people could like it.
1. honey - 1 2. zoul - 1 3. feel - 2 4.believe - 0 5. revolution - 1 6. gently - 0 7.hot - 0 8. Suicide - 0 9. Lord - 1 10. Number two - 0 11. Repeater - 0 12. Che - 2 13. Circle - 2
Stressed me out to play this while I was at work. I don't know, but didn't enjoy it.
Man idk, didn’t love it, waaaay too long
Boring
That screeching guitar track is an immediate point reduction for me, otherwise this was a somewhat enjoyable atmospheric background album
I had high hopes for this when it started - I was anticipating a nice mixture of medium and low-tempo psychedelic rock, with a few softer songs and a few punchier toe-tappers. Sadly, instead I felt it descended largely into monotony. A lot of the songs felt repetitive, and I'm particularly irked that they indulged in not two, but three different versions of the longest and most repetitive track. Could have scraped a 3 if it wasn't for that, but as it's presented it can only be a 2.
It was ok, that suicide song sure did drag on and on and on though. Sort of a blend of EDM and rock.
This is a quote from their Spotify description that I thought fit really well. “Often the band would jam on one chord or play a series of songs, all in the same tempo and key.” Yeah. And it’s boring. It reminds me of one time my brother and I had a video gig to stream some music performances from a venue to Twitch. When we got there, the organizer were laying out mats on the ground and I thought to myself, “that’s kinda weird”. But when the performances started, they were all trip out, super slow drawn out sounds, similar to this but believe it or not, worse. The audience would come in, presumably already high, and then lay on the mats and look at the roof where there was a projection of just rotating circles. Yeah this music would have killed at that venue.
Inoffensive and unremarkable
The stereo effect on track three was vertiginous and unpleasant, so much so that I ripped my headphones off to avoid it; this robbed the rest of the album of any opportunities to win me over. I dropped it after a couple more songs.
Disclaimer: These guys and their subsequent side projects (Pete's Sonic Boom, Spectrum, E.A.R. and Jason's Spiritualized) are some of my all-time favorite recordings. So, this will be extremely biased. Depending on the S3 album I'm listening to at the time, I can make an argument for it being my favorite. But as Playing with Fire is on deck, let's stick to that. This album they really lean into the "spacey" bit in their name. Just beautiful, simple yet somehow intricate ambient odes to something higher or maybe something missing (Lord, Can You Hear Me). And yes, the drug drone haze and daze (How Does It Feel) is there but lyrically it is disguised more, less overt. They do crank it up, notably on Revolution, a great chugging Stooges/MC5 fuzz fest. Another great contrast in the bands are the two main songwriters and their voices. Pete has the lower, less pitch aware of the two, but his sing-speak Rugby accent seems a great compliment to Jason's voice of fragile yearning. As for production, S3 really takes tremolo to new extremes! For the longest time, I didn't know how they were making these slow oscillating rhythms. Some songs really do seem like they are beamed in from space, with organ washes, synth phasing, and sputnik delay tones. Put this album on, turn it up, and get lost in the hypnotic noise and ethereal beauty of Spacemen 3.
long blegh
Never heard of Spaceman 3 before - but really enjoyed this - its right up my strasse. Moody organ / reverby guitars and pretty decent vocals that aren't burried deep in the mix. Listened to the extended version and there's some pretty goovy remixs in there. A slightly generous 5 (marked up for fact that had never heard of them).
Playing with Fire Honey is a great opener, especially with the spacey, synthy part, and I really like How Does it Feel - a bit MBV in its dreaminess, but with a great hypnotic hook and nagging rhythm part. The churchly organ on I Believe It is excellent too, as are the slightly country guitar twangs and the slightly Stoogey melody, as it builds, without it quite reaching a crescendo. It often feels like many of the songs do that, having that sense of build, but never quite getting there. I assume that is intentional, or it may be they are so slow it would take each song 45 minutes to actually get to a big climax. Revolution is also quite Stoogey, but I’m not that keen - I prefer the more hazy, dreamlike atmospherics of songs like Honey, How Does It Feel, I Believe It, Let Me Down Gently, the very lovely Lord Can You Hear Me, or the more terse hypnoticism of Suicide. This was a real grower, I liked it more and more with each listen, with the only weaker moments being Come Down Softly to my Soul, Revolution or Let Me Down Gently. Although it has an appendage in the Shoegaze box, its much more enjoyable than that, bringing in some Neu and Krautrock influences as well as Velvet Undeground on the Sister Ray adjacent Suicide and a bit of Stooges too. On the first few listens it was a 3, but after multiple listens it ascends to a spacey 4. 🧑🚀🧑🚀🧑🚀🧑🚀 Playlist submission: Suicide
Semi-ambient, band minimalism, combining the insistent drone of Suicide with late 80s shoegaze. 'Come Down Softly to My Soul' in particular feels very much like it may have influenced Ian Brown, and 'I Believe It' Bobby Gillespie. It probably feels less than the sum of all its heady parts, but it's an interesting album nevertheless, and there is so much of the 90s here - Stone Roses, Primal Scream, Death in Vegas, Mogwai. It feels quite ahead of its time. Without taking away from its innovation, there is not always sufficient atmospheric layering to make it a real classic.
Enjoyed this, made me think of Spiritualized.
Groupe inconnu. Et qui aurait dû le rester : l'album génère un ennui profond, et ne présente absolument aucun intérêt. Ah si, la dilatation du temps : les morceaux les plus courts paraissent durer des heures ... et je ne parle pas des plus longs : un véritable exploit. =>1/5
Cerramos la semana con una banda que descubrí por una remera de otra banda (Winona Riders, de Argentina), en la que los colocaban juntos a The Stooges y Velvets, y me quedó la inquietud sobre cómo sonarían. Efectivamente, los Winona (mi país, mi país) están en la misma línea que los Spacemen 3 en el sentido de la experimentación sonora: los argentinos suenan más podris, más en la línea de The Stooges combinados con los sonidos de esta banda. Favourite track: Revolution. Por lo sucio, lo colgado. Gracias por la casualidad: me quedó la inquietud por escuchar más de ellos. Hasta el lunes
The album’s hazy and repetitive atmosphere sometimes reminded me of the mood associated with Trainspotting and 1990s British indie culture. However, the long, drifting repetition often felt too drawn-out for my taste, and I struggled to fully connect with the album beyond its atmosphere.
an everage of 2.5 after 20k votes tells evrything. Something to forget.
Seems like this droning, repetitive BS from Spiritualized and Spacemen 3 has an audience, it's not me though. Done now!
Boring
Psychedelic
A mixed bag of an album, at points I could get into it but other times felt a bit over indulgent and borderline boring. Psychedelic rock is great n all but you need at least a hint of groove. 2.0/5.0 Best Song: Revolution
I enjoyed this, was psychy fun. At times the long tracks felt like they built to not much pay off but i think it was a good album, a bit different.
Was ein scheiss
fand ich langweilig
MegaGähn
amazing prelude to spaceman's spiritualized work
no lo escuché todo, está demasiado largo
Super fuzzy psych drone record from the 80s that seems ahead of its time. Not something I would put on a regular rotation but an interesting spin. I can hear their influence in bands today.
I'm flying.
Was alright. I like a nice chill, ambient, spacey album however a bit bold to say it’s in the top 1000 albums of all time.
I did in enjoy this! Does really go anywhere but for what it is its a good album
Bored Me, then got on my nerves. Not sure what is stand out about it. Other albums do whatever this is better. But il give it half a point for being early in on this typa thing. 1.5
Keep forgetting to rate nowadays Was alright
Some of the most beautiful noise I have ever heard. Some iggy Pop influences and a straight up experimental vibe that drives this music into your ears.
1.4 I never really grasped onto anything I would listen to again
zum zum bzz bzz
I do enjoy weird, brave, experimental music with something to say This ain't it
This sounds like stoned people look when you're sober.
Just so very boring.
No. 184 This really isn’t for me.
New Wave Trance Prog Rock (?) Some very long tracks (11-minute) with repetitive guitar strumming as the engine; to the point it almost became annoying at times with the heightened focus on it.
Just wonderful
Selvom det er skramlet, blev jeg faktisk ret optaget af det. Fed lyd.
Rant: Any time individual musicians in a band change their name to something like Sonic Boom (I'm looking at YOU U2!) and isn't a solo act or a collective project, I feel they need to be ridiculed by a pack of drunk Aussies... and no, there's no way these people are given these nicknames by reliable outside sources like friends or family, and yes I think there's plenty of dumb names from the punk scene that people gave themselves to sound "cool". Fucking U2, still trying to get that damn album off my computer to no avail! The album was pretty OK actually.
Pleasant enough listen however far too repetitive and boring. Serious editing required on some of the tracks
Malardo
Kind of repetitive electric guitar stuff. Too psychedelic and not enough novelty
Surprised myself that I liked this. Liked all the versions of the songs / playlist track: how does it feel
I was entering in this album with apprehension since the cover is horrendous and I never heard of Spacemen 3. And it was quite an astonishment that in fact I liked this album. Come Down Softly to my Soul has this kind of eerie vibe that sounds much more modern than 1989. But it also reminded me of Neu! or other krautrock songs. It might not be a great album, but it's worth a listen. Favorite Songs: Come Down Softly to my Sould ;
Trash
nice but a bit long
After the first four songs, I was ready to dismiss this album. Pretty dull electronica. Then came Revolution, and I realized that I was set up to have my mind blown. And blown it was. As lackadaisical and dull as the first four songs were, so the rest of the album was powerful and energetic. 4/5
Eh, nice to listen to in the background, guess you have to be on drugs to fully appreciate the sound
Holy boring Batman.
While I don’t dislike any of the sounds on this, it’s just boring. Nothing here to really grab me, this is just alright.
Fav- let me down gently 2/5
how did we go from the first three tracks to whatever the rrest of that was
ouch my ears
Was initially excited at the beginning but quickly became one of the few albums that hurt listening to it.
I just found Radiohead's favorite band. This is a Velvet Underground tribute band, the Greta Van Fleet of Velvet Underground. Even the lead singer sounds like he's imitating Lou Reed. That's not necessarily a knock on the quality of the album, but it doesn't feel that original. I kind of like the album though. Suicide is dragging a little bit.
Showing its age. Hasn’t really stood the test of time but still listenable
Some albums are made for drugs and this one is it. Why would any sober person want to listen to the same synth rhythm for 7 minutes straight? There are some moments on this album that sound interesting and peak my interest, but it never lasted that long. It's has its qualities but it's definitely not for me. 4/10.
At least give this one a listen, Honey. How Does It Feel?
Я решил, что я себе не враг, и ограничился оригинальной версией альбома без лайвов и демок. Было ужасно, местами отвратительно, кроме Lord You Can Hear Me.
Not the best Spacemen 3 album and everything that’s good here was done much better by Spiritualized.
I enjoyed this. It was easy to listen to - which is not intended to sound dismissive!
High 3 - v good background
They have a cool sound but Jason Pierce’s projects bore me a bit over the course of a full album
An album with grand intention that feels like it was created from pull-down menus.
Late 80s rock. Psych rock, pretty spacey. Loads of synths, floating guitars ans trippy vocals. Good for background while getting high.
Surprised I didn’t hate this but I didn’t like it
i'm a pretty big fan of psychedelic music in general so i was a little excited to hear this one, which i was unfamiliar with. the best i can say is this is a "sonic textures" album, which is to say, it has some interesting sounds, but not a lot of substance. quite frankly, there are sections of this album that are downright boring - long stretches of just noise with repetative rhythms. maybe it's more interesting if you are stoned, but i am sitting in my office completely sober, so this does almost nothing for me. and unfortunately, i can't help but think of several psychedelic revival bands and albums not on this list that did sonic textures in a similar manner that also had interesting songs, that i think deserve this slot more than this album.
weird noises and garage rock... of course I adore this!
Really interesting sound. Trance rock that sounds mostly performed rather than sampled. The grooves are deep, but nit forced. A provisional 4.
I hated this but then I gave it 4. Weird.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be (a low bar) but still boring af.
Puro ruido! Solo para iniciados y muy fans... y sus abuelas
Droning on and on and on....
Maxbe somebody needs to point out to me what elements to listen to here, but I found this pretty unremarkable.
Good album. Showgaze ish. Garage rock ish. Pretty sparse arrangements with a lot of distortion allows to roam. Enjoyed the listen.
rarísimo todo. No me gustó nada
Very enjoyable.
I really should pickup the book to see why some of these albums are on here. Suicide was definitely the best track, and a full album of that easily gets three stars, maybe four.
A couple of good songs, rest horrible.