Playing With Fire

This album is a good one for sleeping on the plane to. Wouldn’t really revisit.

Gear: SIMGOT SuperMix 4 Artwork: ⭕🎨⬜ Production: 🤏🥫🤷 Music: 👨‍🚒💦🔥 Rating: 👽(👽)/5

Don't have much to say - neither liked or disliked

Ein Hippie-E-Gitarren-Synth gewichse vom feinsten. Für Fans von unregelmäßiger, psychedelischer Radiowellenartigerbeschallung mit eingestreuselten drum Beats und pseudo poetischem Männergejaule, ist dieses Album zu empfehlen. Sehr repititiv im Sound. Dennoch Abwechslungsreich genug in den Songs, dass man es sich durchaus bei ner Hochschultrompeten Session geben kann.

Nothing wrong with this, but unlikely to come back anytime soon

Wanted to enjoy this more than I did being a fan of Spiritulised.

Nice and droney, slow and druggy. Suicide is the obvious high point. Uninteresting singing and no emotional content barrs it from four star territory.

Nakon što se konačno nešto desi podnošljivo je.

I don't have the patience for this.

Quelques très rares moments intéressants intercalés dans des instrumentaux pénibles de 12 minutes.

Very meh

it's ok, i definely understand why i never heard of it before

Ooooo I can see this one not being super popular around here. It’s too sparse, too bare, too repetitive. I mean- there are almost no drums in the first few tracks…… Such a strange record. Minimalist shoegaze. I don’t know if it works for me. I like a lot of the ideas it just comes off as half-baked a lot of the time. This is a solid THREE STARS

Some nice spacey and psychedelic atmospheres.

A couple of tracks are too long. Otherwise fine. Can't imagine why it's in the book though.

Not enough acid at my 9-5 to enjoy this while working through Excel and my email... Im sure theres a reason this is on the list but its a hard one for me to jive with on a deeper level after only one listen.

Entertaining. Could have this in the warehouse while working no problem.

Paso tío

Hadn't heard of this band. Probably won't listen to this again. Pretty average example of a certain strand of music from the time in a kind of stone roses vibe, but not enough concrete ideas really for me. It just feels quite directionless.

I have no issues with repetitive music, if anything. I actually enjoy it. I love Daft Punk, Air, The Prodigy, and other similar artists. But this one? I really tried to like this album. I even compared it to Daft Punk’s least-loved studio album, Human After All (‘Revolution’ kinda reminds me of ‘The Prime Time of Your Life’). But no matter how many times I listen, it just feels flat and boring to me. I admit, some are interesting, like Revolution (minus the vocals) and Suicide. Other than that, I will toss them in the fire pit.

C'mon. You're just taking the piss now. This is mind numbingly repetitive and without any redeeming quality.

It seems like this is turning out to be a very shoegazey week. I had My Bloody Valentine a couple of days ago and now Spacemen 3. I've heard of this band for many years but never really got into them. As shoegaze goes, this probably isn't the most impressive example if I'm being honest. It lacks the intensity of My Bloody Valentine and it's not as unique as bands like Slowdive, Seefeel or the Jesus and Mary Chain. Unfortunately, it's a genre that's kind of easy to replicate and can produce some ok albums like this one. But I just didn't hear anything that helps it stand out among the crowd.

2 - TERRIBLE

Strange and very psychedelic. Has its ups and downs…

For a psychedelic album this is incredibly boring

Repetitive

Not very good.

eh

Some of it incredible, suicide was just annoying

Better than I expected - but falling short of worthwhile listening!

Acid? 2

I kinda liked this. Didn't love it, nothing really grabbed me, but it was enjoyable in the background. A lot of it gave me Velvet Underground vibes. Also, I only listened to the original 9 or so songs. I think if I listened to the full double album it would have drug this down at least one star.

There is nothing redeeming here to me. I find this so boring. Same sound droning on and on and on.

I would need more time than I'm willing to spend to get to a place where I like this album.

Started off pretty strong, spacey but there was some variety, and then it got too drawn out. Probably a 2.5, but I'll give it a bump since this wasn't on my radar at all.

Honestly....I know this is kind of boring and not very complicated, but I didn't hate it. It's not annoying. It flows nicely. It's like psychedelic elevator music.

I thought it sounded like Spiritualised but then I realised. It's fine in most cases but doesn't quite enthral like their next iteration.

If I was smoking the reefer or taking a lil mushroom while listening to this, I’d probably say this is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard. But at this moment in time? It’s meh.

Good for ambience, studying, or drugs.

Hadn’t heard of this group. I really wanted to like this offering but just had a hard time. Would go somewhere and then stop.

Can be a bit noisy, but it's a pretty nice experience.

Uf, ok. Prvič po kar nekaj tednih dobim totalno neznanko. Do zdaj (prve dva, " Honey" in "Come Down Softly to My Soul"') zelo dreamy, sploh vokali so taki, mal odmevajoči, Tretji ("How Does It Feel") je insane, ker je isti ritem/isti del k se non stop ponavlja tko 8 minut. A how does it feel? K da me bo glihkar zmanjkal. Po pa kr naenkrat konc, brez nekega pravega konca? Ok, "Revolution" mi wiki obljublja, da bo shoegaze in zaenkrat je obetavno, da bo mal več se dogajal (wiki tud prav, da je band na splošno bil znan po tem, da ma minimal 'chord or tempo changes'). Yay za kitaro in bobne in dejansko stopnjevanje ritma na konc. Po pravic povedan, sm po tem hitrem prvem pogledu, k si zacahnam album in ošvrknem wiki, mislila, da mi bo album verjetn všeč. It's a bit boring. Hm, z veseljem ugotovim, da je "Suicide" predzadnji komad in sekundo kasneje z grozo, da je dolg 11 minut. Fakin repetitive droning. Fajn za razvoj glavobola. I guess ma naslov neko poanto. Zadnji komad ma tud vokale. In saksofon? Yay, konec albuma & konec mojega streaka of goodness.

There are multiple ways to reduce substance abuse. There is the "scare the shit out of 'em" method, think Requiem for a Dream. You could also try creating an environment where there's more to live for, like the Icelandic prevention model. Another option to consider is to have people listen to the drivel these English drug-hound dorks made. I wanted to like the album, my inner contrarian and all, and honestly I was wondering why the album was so loathed at the beginning. The first two tracks weren't that bad! But it did get worse. "How does it feel" was the tipping point into an endless cascade of uninspiring droning music. Remember: don't do drugs, lest you become an embarrassing "dude drugs lmao" band. Be like anti-drug artist Frank Zappa and consume five cartons of cigarettes and a gallon of coffee every day instead.

One really good song (lord can you help me) and a bunch of good-to-meh songs. Not really my thang. But moody, atmospheric, and interesting. Because of the lord, 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

I didn’t utterly hate it. A couple of the tracks have overly repetitious lyrics (and then the final track on disc 2 ends abruptly because they’re edgy) but it was fine background music. I just wouldn’t have it as an album you listen to expecting to get anything more tangible out of it.

Kinda cool. Kinda sleepy.

Weird and boring album here. I don't really know what to say or how to feel after this experience. Like, we all have guilty pleasure bands; bands we love and have nostalgia for that we can acknowledge why they may not have made the list. But then there are albums like this, and I wonder why it's here, or why not those other bands. I'm not particularly offended by the album but I'm left wondering what qualities qualified it to be one of the 1001 I should listen to before I died. It feels like a complete mirage of substance at times, where there's a lot of sound but like not a lot going on??? and then there are songs like How Does It Feel, where nothing seems to be going on at all. Really I challenge you to skip around the first 6 mins-6.5mins of that song and find a spot that sounds any different than the other. The only difference of the last min is the drums come in Idk. Not sure why this one had me typing a paragraph but I can't really recommend it and I don't see myself revisiting this. 1.5/5 for being tolerable? rounding down

when i was ten i got my first digital keyboard in my bedroom and played with a lot of the presaved sounds. i'm fairly certain i recorded "How Does It Feel" on my tape recorder in 2005. like several of the albums we've gotten, this one is not horrible but suffers from a lack of impression. it's almost completely forgettable. aside from a wacky album cover (purity/ love/ suicide/ accuracy/ revolution, wtf) that is at least fun to look at, there's nothing meaningful here. i'm a big big fan of the hymn "Will the Circle be Unbroken?" from 1907, so it's a shame that their "May the Circle be Unbroken" sucks so goddamn much. maybe if i was on acid i'd appreciate this more, but i kind of doubt it.

This one was an absolute struggle to get through. Every song was another mountain for my ears to overcome. I'd love to give highlights, but I genuinely think my brain actively tried to block out the sound coming from my speakers. I thought Revolution might've been the saving grace, but after like a minute I was already done with it. Good thing there's another 5 of them in the song.

This was honestly a baffling inclusion on this list. Looking into this group’s background, they gained some notoriety as a “drug band” and later released an album called “Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To.” This did get a chuckle out of me, but by that metric Playing With Fire is the music that you have made when you no longer have a grasp on how many drugs you've taken. Weirdly enough, it was one of their first releases. 1.5

I wish I had not wasted part of my morning listening to this. The only reason I know about Spacemen 3 is thanks to Vinyl Me, Please’s (RIP) record of the month version of a Spiritualized album. That release featured some liner notes bragging about how the frontman of Spiritualized was in a group called Spacemen three, then spent the majority of those liner notes talking about Spacemen 3 instead of the boring album I had just bought and was listening to. I remember thinking “maybe Spacemen 3 is better than Spiritualized,” and the answer is “no, it’s equally boring.” I’m already upset because I’m sure that will be on this list, too. I honestly couldn’t tell music was playing at some points, this album was just such a quiet, unimportant drone in the background. My review ends here, because enough of my day was wasted thinking about this album. I want me time back, Mr 1001 Albums To Listen To Before You Die Man.

Trash. So many great albums lost their spot to this.

The short version: I don't like this album at all. The long version: What I’ve learned today is that I would much rather listen to music in a genre I hate that is done well than music in a genre I like that is done poorly. I went into this with pretty high hopes (the genres and the influences ticked the boxes for me AND it's a band I've never heard of) and in return received an album that goes for “deep and mysterious” and sticks the landing hard on “teenager in a Che Guevara shirt who always talks about “neoliberalism” and does his damnedest to pivot every conversation to ‘yeah I do weed now.’” Listening to this, in between bouts of wincing at the lyrics, I was transported back in time to a particularly dreadful night in college that I spent in the company of a poor misshapen soul I dubbed “The Revolutionary.” I’ll bet that guy loves this album, wherever he is now. Based on these lyrics, whoever wrote this shit (apparently his name is Sonic Boom) seems to think he’s the first person to ever conflate drugs and religion. So profound. Oh wow a song about starting a “revolution” because… he’s mad that drugs are illegal. I said surely there’s more to this. So I went to Genius and saw the following explanation, written by some neckbeard who thinks this album is in any way intelligent: "Sonic Boom is upset and disapproves of having those in power determine if specific drugs are acceptable in today’s society, leaving those who use illegal substances feeling like outsiders, and being looked down upon by others. Even in a society where drugs like alcohol is socially accepted with similar if not worse effects to other popular illegal drugs." Fuuuuuuuuuuuck off. Knowing nothing else about this group aside from what's on this record, I’m comfortable with saying I hate them irredeemably. I always try to listen to these albums at least 2-3 times (hence my disdain for the longer ones), and way more if we count the times I let them play in the background while I’m doing other stuff, but I gave this one spin and got what I needed to get out of it. When coming up with ratings, I always try to consider “what does this do better than other albums?” and the answer in this case is “irritate me.” I almost rated this as “did not listen” in a desperate and vain attempt to try and manifest a world in which I did not.

Every song takes way too long to make a point, and any glimmer of enjoyment gets choked out by the drones. Gods, the drones. I don't have the patience for this shit, not today. I'm sorry spacemen, I just need some space, man.

Enjoyable. Psychedelic in a very drone-y way.

I liked this. Thought it was really good. But none of the songs seemed to go anywhere. 3.5

I want to know who thinks this album is necessary to hear before you die. Why?

No idea what to expect here. Honey - 6/10. Interesting intro. Not a bad song. Experimental Euro-pop isn't my usual taste, but I can appreciate the work of it. Come Down Softly To My Soul - 6/10. Solid work here. Mix is a little light on vocals, but interesting music. Good composition. How Does It Feel - 4/10. Good, if a bit repetitive, music with poetry spoken over it. Has a little bit of pretentious, coffeehouse feel (but with better music). I Believe It - 5/10. Weird, not bad, just weird. Revolution - 5/10. A very different feel from what has come before on this album right from the top. Again, not bad, but definitely different. Let Me Down Gently - 5/10. Weird. Not bad, just weird. So Hot (Wash Away All of My Tears) - 6/10. Something of an old-school, simple feel. I like it. Suicide - 5/10. Disconcerting at the beginning, but that fits with the track title. Strange jam, but not bad. Lord Can You Hear Me? - 7/10. A moment of peace which is definitely needed after that last song. Che - 7/10. Reminiscent of the better psychadelic rock of the last 60's and early 70's. May The Circle Be Unbroken - 6/10. An interesting take on the Gospel classic. Flying Burrito Brothers, THIS is how you do Hippie Gospel music. Overall Rating - 2.82/5. This whole album sounds like music I'd hear in Earthbound.

not really my thing but good background music and kind of good for what it was?

I thought I'd hate it. I didn't, but it also didn't leave any lasting mark. The same drum beat and keyboard droning would go on for what seemed like hours at a time. Occasionally there'd be a cool line or melody, but for the most part it was an uneventful, forgetful listen.

Revolution

Even though I’m only giving this album a 2, there is something intriguing about it. Especially for 1989. Probably definitely better enjoyed while high.

I made it 9 out 22 songs into this album before calling it quits. This guy sings with his inside voice on every song and it’s honestly mind numbing. I started to actually loose touch with reality and couldn’t tell if I was inside or outside. I was ripped back to my elementary school days when I was told by my teachers that my voice was too loud and I needed to use my INSIDE VOICE. Maybe if his school teachers didn’t hold him back this album wouldn’t have been such dog shit. 1/10

it was chill or w/e

If this was given to me back in my weed/jam band/psychedelic rock days, it would have been my jam. Good stuff, just not a style I listen to nowadays.

I'd rather eat a shit sandwich

This is largely self indulgent noise created by someone who probably calls himself an “artist” (pronounced arr-teest) who repeats the same two chords over and over then says some awful poetry overtop and says that you just don’t get it. You can’t see his vision! Revolution started with promise, but ended up going nowhere, with just more of the talking (not singing). I had some hope when this came on, but was disappointed. The remainder of the album was more garbage.

It wasn’t anything crazy. Very instrumentally driven. Sounded a bit electronic, and it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t really like it, so I wouldn’t listen to it again. That being said, it was an interesting experience

Perfect Prescription is better but parts of this are wonderful too.

3.5

Get stoooooned

Some cool Kraftwerk-y sounding stuff, but other than that it was kind of forgettable.

Really enjoyed "revolution", "suicide" and "Lord Can you Hear Me" -- the rest is kind of just... noise?

Never heard of this band before but I really really like this. I will definitely be checking out more as well as the successor projects.

Warmed over new age bullcrap backed by droning synthesizer notes. Sounds like they a middle schooler that got a Casio keyboard for Christmas and this was their first recording trying out the sound effects. I cannot fathom a single reason for this album to be included on the list. 1⭐️

Too dragged out, monotonous and repetitive for my taste, atleast from my so far superficial listening.

Sleepy whisper electronica? Nah I’m good

Psychedelic yet soothing. Somewhere between an acid trip and the ambien walrus

Weird. Boring. Uninteresting.

Wow! This was awesome! Droney drug music. There’s something to be said about getting lost in a chord repeated over and over. New favorite band.

This shouldn’t be here. That’s what I thought until I heard the guitars on “Revolution” then I started paying attention. .. by “Suicide” i’m thinking this is cool, but boring. 1 or 2 stars

Not into it. The Spotify link took me to an expanded edition that is 2-disc 2-hour. I only listened to the first 9 tracks, which is what the original included. And even that was a little hard to get through, in particular the 11-minute highly-repetitive track called "Suicide".

(Just reviewing the original 9 songs, and not the extended version, because I don't have the time to listening to 30+ minutes of different versions of "Suicide".) You know how, on some albums, the first song isn't like a full song, it's sort of a tone-setting amuse bouche that comes before the real songs start on track 2? Well, as near as I can tell, today's album is a double album of just those songs. Suicide is the notable exception, but it overstays its welcome by about 5 minutes. There are bits that are interesting on this album, but not enough.

Mostly space-y background music with the occasional dissonant rock track, all ...grounded isn't the right word. Maybe - all tracks inadequately layered with breath-y vocals. Sometimes repetitive. Mostly forgettable.

Never heard anything like this.

468/1001

Not for me. Maybe I just don't like shoegaze. Maybe I just don't do drugs. Maybe I can't stand the music droning on and on and on. Maybe this album was far too long. I don't know, but I didn't like it really one bit. But it wasn't repulsive, so that's a plus.

Yeah, I hated this. Pretentious and boring.

I’m not making it through a double album of this

Interesting, weird album

3.5 (Genre birth - Shoegaze) 43:45 in it's original release. Trance really. Shoegaze. Good album - must be listened to in headphones (hard to appreciate otherwise). This is meditation music. A hike or a sauna session. Usually I do not like albums in the "psychedelic rock" genre but those were the years 68-72, the reboot of psych rock I'd actually describe as Trance and/or Shoegaze. There are times Trance is quite a mood enhancer and I feel like this may be one of those albums although I somehow missed the band entirely in the 80's

The good is mid but the bad is bad

Some might say “who wants to listen to the same riff with minimal variation for 11 minutes?” Me. I do. And it was great. Album as a whole was good but not great. Highlights were Revolution, Suicide, and Lord Can You Hear Me.

Meh, the use of melodic sustain, synths, and a theramin is cool I just dont think I vibe with this however, was hard to hear the lyrics and out of the 2 cd deal I only enjoyed like 2 songs. Probably goes hard if you trippin out on psychedelics

Synthy elevator music

Noisy psychedelic stuff - boring and goes nowhere, and I like noisy psychedelic ambient nonsense! As it got to the end of the original album (no way I'd sit through another hour+ of extra...) I was actually kind of offended by how every single repetitive song stuck to only one dynamic/tempo/mood and there was no tension and release - then they had the gall to call for "revolution" and haughtily chat to god as if they've got something to say. Hawkwind, it ain't....

spacemen 3/5

Repetitive

not great

girl whatever

I really liked this. Not sure its one of the greatest albums ever. Context matters a lot though. I listened to this while working from home. Good album for that. Roadtrip? Not so much.

Couldn’t really get into any of the songs. Weird vibes. The only one I would probably listen to again is Come Down Softly To My Soul, and I also didn’t hate Lord Can You Hear Me. Suicide was 10 minutes of the same riff over and over again.

This album is neither inspirational nor aspirational. It is "respirational," meaning at times it sucks and at other times it blows.

Too boring to even sleep to

Beyond the time space continuum

Album 31/1001 Not in the mood for 2hrs of space rock right now so will return at a later... ⚠️No score yet ⚠️

2.9/5 english druggie music far out

Good for being drunk on a house party and wanting to chill

Unless your name is Frank Zappa don’t try to give me 3 versions of the same 11 minute song on one album

Pretty ordinary - like Brian Jonestown Massacre - but nowhere near as good

To be used only as very distant background music if you can’t find anything else and silence bothers you.

This was fine, not the most offensive 80s production used.

Sleepy

Lots of space and atmosphere. You gotta be in the right mood for this. It’s sounds nice but it’s background music at best.

Maybe the start of Noise Bands IMO

De neo-psychedelica van Jason Pierce en consorten zou ik beter moeten kunnen waarderen dan dat ik dat eigenlijk doe. De gospel-achtige insteek is best interessant en uniek, maar het lijkt ook nergens heen te gaan. Het heeft het monotone van shoegaze, maar dan zonder de extatische 'wall of sound', waardoor het eigenlijk best vaak saai is om aan te horen. In deze sectie van muziek heeft eigenlijk alleen dat ene album van Spritualized me weten te pakken tot de dag van vandaag. 5/10

Best oke. Op een gegeven moment wordt je er wel een beetje tureluurs van. Vooral tijdens het ellenlange Suicide. Maar tegelijkertijd voelt dit wel als een grensverleggende voorloper van de Shoegaze en Dreampop. En uiteindelijk is natuurlijk ook één van dit duo verder gegaan als Spiritualized, ook zo'n cultgroep in dit genre. Dus ik kon dit wel waarderen. Het heeft het één en ander in gang gezet wat heeft gezorgd voor één van mijn favoriete genres. 6,5/10 Het was teveel één roes om losse nummers te beoordelen als highlight.

Yeah, psychedelic rock isn't really my genre. This isn't bad but it's clearly for an audience I'm not in. The songs either sound weird for my tastes, or they start off good and then drag on too long. For psych rock and space rock fans, this is a pretty good one. For anyone else, it won't change your mind.

Trick question. This is obviously a test of how high you were getting in the late 80s and early 90s. Anyway, I'd have picked The Perfect Prescription over this, but it's still one of the rare occasions I've been glad of the extended edition (man, those versions of Suicide). Sound quality a bit ropey at times, but to be honest I'm not sure I'd want it any other way. Recommended reading: Playing the Bass with Three Left hands by Will Carruthers. "I can confirm that should you ever find yourself playing the bass with three left hands, it is usually the one in the middle that is the real one. The other two are probably phantoms."

Of the time but not of my taste

Hard to listen to, I'd rather listen to silence. Overdid the alternating two notes a few songs in the album but they kept going with it. The longer songs are the repetition of a few-second-long segment a hundred times over. Waste of time. 2/10

One that requires you to be in the right frame of mind (zonked out on heroin) but is a mighty piece of work, reminds me a lot of Jason Pierce's later work as Spiritualized

I didn't expect the album to be that good. I enjoyed it while listening, but kind of forgot what it sounded like.

A bit droney but I didn't mind it. I wish there was more drums on here but this kind of grew on me the deeper I got into the album. Decent.

Listening to this like “This sounds like that Spiritualized album but a tiny bit less corny and a tiny bit more dumb.” Imagine my face when I looked up Spaceman 3. I think the listening experience was 1.5, but I’ll round it up because of the lil laugh I got from making the connection.

Straight psych-shoegaze fire. God, I love this band.

Ehhh . . . I don't know. I only had the time to listen to this once. Definitely not enough time to really get into something like this, though it's hard to imagine it making it into my library on a permanent basis.

Not their best, but still very good.

The 9 song original album is pretty good. I definitely didn’t need the 2 disc set version, or two versions of Suicide. I like the idea of the homage to Suicide more than I like the results. I have listened to and like a couple of Spiritualized albums but it was fun to hear this and how that band grew out of the shoegaze scene. I like a fair amount of the genre, so this was an easy sell to me, but not sure how much I’m ever going back. Really liked Lord Can You Hear Me.

Maybe a 2.5. I didn't totally hate it, but there wasn't much interesting either.

1/5 - A scrapbook of noise in many formats. I can imagine some have drug-induced nostalgia for this and think back to college days of pondering the universe to the background din of what sounds like a broken piece of machinery. This could only be worse if Rufus Wainwright sang on top of it.

All these "songs" just repeat the same thing for 3 to 11 (!!!) minutes without leading up to anything interesting. What a waste of my time.

It’s not a bad album, but personally, I’ve always felt that Spacemen 3 might be a bit overrated. My biggest issue is that half or more of their tracks tend to just idle without really going anywhere. They set a mood, but don’t always build on it or evolve. This is one of those bands I really want to enjoy more than I actually do. The aesthetics are there, and I get the appeal, but it doesn’t fully land for me.

Wow. Exceeds expectations. Love the covers.

Low to mid 3, some cool sounds, but man is it bloated

I didn't hate it as much as I expected to.

Nothing music

Despite its daring moves and unique sound, I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. I just really didn’t like the album.

very weird album

8/10

Much too long. If it was only the originals and didn’t include all the remixes and other versions it might get more stars.

Towed the line between hypnotic and boring. I guess hypnotic won out.

I stand corrected. I made it clear that I don't like long, double album style works, such as a 22 song two hour album by any band. Just too much after a while. And then this. It is 22 songs and some are 11 minutes long! But... I really liked it! Why?... Ah! Because if one asked "what is the genre?" I would say ... well, post-punk, alt. Rock, Techno, new age, club... and I would not be wrong. Spaceman 3 IS all this, and more really. It doesn't get old because everything they do is so different. And, truth be told, ALL the genres they encompass I happen to like! I actually totally liked this whole album and never got bored!

A steady drone of boredom. You must be way stoned to perceive any satisfaction from this album. A song starts, you expect it to build over the next 3-10 minutes, but it doesn't. Then you keep listening to see if it could get any better, but it doesn't. Then you fully expect some sonic release by the end of the song, but you finally realize you've been duped, you're left unfulfilled, and disappointed in yourself for wasting an hour of your life. Can't get it back BTW. 1 star for the fact they actually get this stuff recorded and 1 star for a few riff ideas that could be made into real songs.

Good background noise when working. If I listened to it actively I might have gone bananas.

Rating: 4.6/5 Short Review: Hypnotic music for the chemically altered and spiritually curious.It’s psychedelic, drugged-out minimalism that barely cares if you’re listening. Favorite Track: “Revolution” – loud, grimy, hypnotic—like a biker gang doing transcendental meditation in a chapel full of smoke.

“Taking drugs to make music to take drugs to.” This was a new discovery for me. Absolutely love it… everything about it. 5/5 Highlights: - Honey - How Does It Feel - Revolution - Lord Can You Hear Me

It’s cool sounding

Garage

1/5

If they were playing with fire, they didn't do it properly otherwise they'd have burnt the recording studio down so that we wouldn't have to listen to this monotonous, boring and over-long offering.

Not really my thing. Too psychedelic, all the songs merged together and full album is 2 hours long

At first I was enjoying the chill and spacey vibe but it quickly got boring. The songs have very few changes in chords or dynamics.

This was an interesting listen. I’d never listened to Spacemen 3 or this album before. I found some of the songs to be repetitive and carry on for too long but I enjoyed the psychedelic and space rock vibes of this album. I only listened to Side A because I didn’t feel like listening to demos and alternative mixes of these songs. I’m not sure if I would listen to this again in the future.

i don't think this sound is quite for me, unfortunately. i wouldn't mind if this happened to play in the background of whatever i was doing, it's not "bad" music by any means. it's just not an album i would personally seek out again for the fun of it i will admit, the droning notes throughout have a very calming effect on me. maybe i could play some tracks in the background at night to help me fall asleep on occasion since i can at least find something good in listening to this overall, i think this album is at least deserving of a 3

Ok so first thing, don't listen to the 2 hour version of this on Spotify. The original album clocks in at like 45 min and that's way better. It seems like it's unfair to just listen to this one once, I didn't appreciate it enough the first time through. It's not great by any means but I judged it too harshly at first. I don't think I would really ever go back to it, maybe if I was in a certain mood. I don't think everyone really needs to hear this, and it doesn't seem like a staple in any sense, but I was glad to have heard it today. Some cool things going on but there is a lot of trash there too. 2.75/5

Boring. For the best of the songs I simply just don't remember them, for the worst they actively started to annoy me. It's like it's too complicated for all the band members to actually play music at the same time so there's usually one member who just gets the same 4 beats and have to repeat them over and over for 11 minutes. Sometimes it even feels like one of the other band members get bored and try to do something more interesting but get shushed or something (they stop immediately) like on 'Suicide' the few times when the drummer tries to jump in Standouts Suicide Lord Can You Hear Me 2/5

Long segments of repeated chords and tones. Very poetry jam feeling album.

A great discovery. The post rock vibes on this are strong, with lots of patience to let the sound build and build and then crash. A hidden gem

Tolerable, not good though.

Mellodramatic, but not easy to listen to for long.

Fine

n gostei ..

Das dritte Album der englischen Band Spacemen 3 wurde 1989 in den VHF Studios in Rugby aufgenommen. Hinter dem Projekt standen die beiden Briten Peter Kember (Sonic Boom) und Jason Pierce (J Spaceman), deren unterschiedliche musikalische Ansätze die Platte prägen. Stilistisch bewegt sich das Werk zwischen Neo-Psychedelia, Drone, Gospel-Einflüssen und minimalistischer Rock-Ästhetik. Bekannte Stücke wie „Revolution“, „How Does It Feel?“, „Suicide“ oder „Lord Can You Hear Me?“ zeigen die Bandbreite: von rauer, fast aggressiver Energie bis zu introspektiven, beinahe spirituellen Momenten. Die kontrastreiche Struktur macht das Album zu einem Wendepunkt in der Entwicklung von Spacemen 3 und einem Vorboten für Pierce’ späteres Projekt Spiritualized. Insgesamt ist „Playing With Fire“ ein vielschichtiges Werk, das bis heute als markanter Höhepunkt ihres Schaffens gilt – kompromisslos, experimentell und zugleich überraschend zugänglich.

cool ambiance

3.5/5

I thought this was an album of Kraftwerk out-takes. Pleasant, but not attention-grabbing.

Choir practice for junkies. Revolution is bloody magnificent.

Not for me.

I did not listen for 2 hours

Why? This was so boring I couldn’t get thru a single song without skipping to the next one. This might appeal as background music but I can sit around and pay attention to these songs.

The beginning of the record felt like it had something going with some cool synth sounds and guitar ambience. The ball got lost completely after a few songs, though, as it became much too uninteresting and eventless. Strong 2.

Was bored at the start and then it just got worse. It felt meandering and I was glad when it was finished honestly. Strong 1 star.

"This is a good record... is it great? no... but is it music? yes... is it pleasant? for the most part... the thing about "shoe gaze" music is the droning... it is groove music... but not in a booty shaking way... more cerebral... "Revolution" is the one track that veers off into hard rock... the album ends with "Lord Can You Hear Me" which is a soft song that reminds me of something George Harrison might have done... to my ear, this album is good background music... it doesn't grate... it is soothing... and it is good... Three stars..."

Wish I had these guys patience. Couldn’t get through it all

Bit of a yawn-fest, the kind of live music I just want to end, snippets of interesting guitar distortion here & there, looking like a 3 ⭐⭐⭐

This was poor. Never really got going. At times hinting at a low-rent poor Hawkwind and at others invoking Sonic Youth For Beginners, this has no conviction or substance at all. I was thinking “why?” more than anything, but not in a good way. Maybe I’m completely missing the point, as I’ve heard the name previously but never their music. Completely baffled why this album would be ranked here. Student gig night, £1 for a pint of watered down lager. Use of strobe light essential.

Ok

nice

Mmm, that was good. Perhaps the only bad thing I can say about it is that I've heard it done better, but it sounds a bit unfair...

May the circle be unbroken was the only song I cared for

Really liked Lord can you hear me…otherwise, I thought this was a complete dud.

Not bad

Too ambient for me right now, kinda background music GY!BE does it better

woof this kind of thing is not for active listening. some of it was pretty aight. may the circle be unbroken cover kinda crazy ngl.

Dreamy and kinda grippy. But it seemed a little aimless at points.

Pish

Unique mix of relaxing and heavy, distortion and effects create a strange atmosphere in songs like "How does it feel". Will listen to it again.

Impressive 60s psychedelic pastiche.

I did not like this. It was slow. Boring. Suicide was especially egregious. Im more accustomed to the psychedelic sort of vibe working better in a rock styling and I think it does work better in that genre. This was a chore to get through.

Boring computer atmospheric

Very disappointing. Just ambient noise in places

Revolution is a solid track, but overall it seems like the type of album that I would be told how great it is from someone living in a collective. Then they would get mad at me when I said it was boring.

kinda boring at points

An album that on the surface I thought I would enjoy more because of the genres and I also like Spiritualized. Not to say I didn't enjoy it at all this album is good but it's not something I think I would come back to often 7/10 Favourite: Revolution Least Favourite: How Does it Feel

This is like the opposite of reggae music but I think u need drugs to appreciate this album as much as the artist wanted you to. Me on a tiring bad Friday morning - not at all in the right mood for this. It was “cool” but not interesting

Just such a boring and uninspired album. Even the book doesn't give a good reason why it should be on the list...

Time consuming and tiresome. And annoying at times. Several times.

way better than i would have ever anticipated

Pretty, but it honestly put me to sleep. 2/5.

Sometimes I listen to music and think that I cannot imagine how anyone goes to a concert and listens to this for 2-3 hours straight and then I remember drugs.

Track 2 'Come Down Softly To My Soul' is very soft and gentle. I like this one a lot. Track 3 'How Does it Feel' is very slow, with the first two minutes being strange/psychedelic repetitive noises, perhaps reminiscent of something extra-terrestrial. The song continues to be very repetitive and have few lyrics until most of the way through. A lot of the songs on the album seem to follow a similar pattern. This album took me a really long time to get through.

This is a like a big nothing burger. Xanax in music form. I was annoyed from track 1 and continued to be until the end.

Kinda like an antagonistic sound bath. Not necessarily in a bad way.

Spacemen 3 stars

I will just say this is very much not my cup of tea

Languid, narcotic grooves swirl in reverb-soaked haze. Less about climax, more about drift. Feels like floating in slow motion. Easily a 4/5 trip.

3.5

There is an ode to Suicide (the band, if you haven't received that album yet in the list) on this album. I recommend listening to that album over this, the inspiration is much better.

Interesting does get a little monotonous

no disrespect to spacemen 3 but there’s being experimental and then there’s just chucking a bunch of sounds together and saying “hey, fuck it that’ll do”, lead singer is nothing special and the record is mixed pretty terribly even for 1989. wouldn’t recommend at all.

Ehh

The kind of psychadelic space rock I like. I had heard Lord Can You Hear Me before and liked it a lot. I like the rest of this album less, but I still like it. Long instrumental tracks, a bit psych, a bit Krautrock, a bit space rock. Good stuff, and amazing it's from 1989 and not 2000-something. A band for me to listen to more.

Good album quite enjoyed it not listened to anything of theirs before

Spaceman 1

4/5

Not my kind of music, but some nice ideas

I know this one’s divisive and I really hoped I’d like it because I do like what I’ve heard of Spiritualized but god this is so shit it’s actually making me feel angry?? It’s just a load of noodling, like why am I listening to this? It feels like it should be from the 60s, but like all the shittiest most rambling NOTHING-y stuff from that decade. The ONLY good thing I’ll say is that there are slivers and bits of songs that feel like they could have turned into something interesting. But they just don’t. Also the last song feels like a sort of lullaby/reward for getting through everything that came before it. I’m not listening past the original 9 songs. Honestly fuck this.

helvíti fínt. svipar mjög til spiritu, er hrifinn af flestu sem j. geimfari tekur sér fyrir hendur. aðra umferð. 3,5.

Good tunes but overall pretty boring

Monotonously repetitive. Did not enjoy

Wasn't for me. Too chaotic. Sounded a bit white noisy

It was such a cosmic, psychedelic and meditative experience for me! Everything was full of sounds..so I guess I was in a something like a drugs trip without any drugs. 5/5

Very obviously a predecessor to Spiritualized. I really enjoyed Revolution and Suicide on here; repetitive and hypnotic in a way that worked for me. I liked the rest too, but not to the same extent.

Not my typical Jam. But I didn't hate it. I think in the right headspace this can be a real trip. However, listening to it while at work was not the right space. What I really want to know is what happened to Spacemens 1 and 2? These questions MUST be answered! Revolution was a pretty good track, like a friend said in his review, a very "Monster Magnet" style track. Anyways I'll bump it up from the 2 I think it is now because I know I'd like it better at home.

This was a good listen. I'm a Monster Magnet fan, and I can hear how they were influenced by this album. It's got a cool vibe. It's described as shoegaze, but it definitely covers stoner rock territory. Revolution sounds like it could be a Monster Magnet song. It's a rather long album though.. Kinda just drags on.

3.6 That was pretty good, very similar vibes to the Spiritualised project, so was surprised to see that most of the hlmusic was actually written by the other band member. Nice precursor to Spiritualised. Must say, the list owner does tend to favour Shoegaze. Luckily it's my cup of tea but if I wasn't a fan of that genre it would be getting tedious. I guess I'm bearing the brunt of that with 60s pop, Clapton/Springsteen et al.

It reminded me of the time I was very stoned and 17, and playing my guitar, except these guys are way more talented than me.

I listened to the album and thought it sounded interesting, but this review is mostly to prompt a deeper exploration later. An album like this requires conentrated listening and probably copious amounts of ganja. I just don't have the time to give it the attention it needs currently.

I enjoyed this quite a bit, good plane music. 3 verging on 4.

what if the doors were lazy as shit

it's like all of the boring parts of Revolver without the fun ones

Didn't get anything out of this one. They've got some great influences but having a tough time hearing it in their music Rating: 1.7

enjoyed! felt the songs often went too long but very fascinating.

I listened to one song from this album before. I did not know this album came out in 1988. It sounds newer than that. I can also see how other psychedelic rock artists were inspired by this album. My favorites from this album are Revolution and So hot (Wash away all of my tears).

I don't know if I would actually call this music. It's very monotonous. Maybe if I had been on LSD or some psychedelic mushrooms I would have had a different experience. However, I wasn't high, so I want my 46 minutes back.

This attempt at music is just bad. There is nothing enjoyable about this unless you're really into a bass player hitting one low, droning note endlessly. I hope I never stumble across this again. EVER.

This was really good. I had listened to this band before, but forgot how much I like this style of music.

kykedeelistä housuihin. homg pliis älä katso älä katso mulla on housuissa kykedeelistä.. omg pulllottaa niin kovaa mun housut ihan kykedeeliä täynnä eiiii eiiiiii >_< miks painaa niin paljon kalsariit miks miks painaa kalsarit. koska kykdeneelinen. semmonen totasnoin fiilis tuli tästä albumista .. jooh.. pari kuukautta vielä vellotaan näiden läpi mutta vois kyllä jo ohi ohi tuotasnoin mennä tämä osa tämä elämän rojekti ihan ihan kiva oli mutt a nyt ois varmaan sen lopun aaton aika että annetaas näille taikonauteille se kolmen kolmen tähdistön arvostelu tähän paikkaan ja näin voimme siirtyä seuraavan albumin pariing how does it feel

Not a bad listen. Never heard of them becore

Not all of it works for me, but some good stuff on here.

Pretty forgettable. Nothing really interesting going on. 2/5 Won't listen again

The first thing I do when I see that an album is two hours long, or has more than one disc, is tho check Wikipedia to see if I've inadvertently gotten some stupid reissue version and, hallelujah, that was the case with this album. Because while I really liked it, I'm not going to listen to two hours of it. So this review is based on the first 9 songs, because that was the original release - and the first 9 songs were pretty damned good. It's kind of dreamy, shoegazey, and I would have never guessed it was released in the 80s. I can hear the shades of music to come, which lets me know it was probably super influential to bands like Mogwai, Godspeed You, and the like. It's a 3.5, but I'll give it a half star because it surprised me

Meh, has a couple of decent tracks (Revolution, Suicide, not really for me though.

Nudne i długie. 1/5

Fine but a lot of other stuff of this genre out there.

Me parece interesante musicalmente, al principio viene medio monótono y rompe con Revolution (lindo detalle). Suicide al principio no me llegó, en vivo mejoró y el final alternativo me terminó de convencer. En general buen disco.

Some nice ideas. Starts well. Loses momentum. Too many loops. Singer Sometimes sound like a chilled version of The Strokes

I felt like I was gonna fall asleep then someone would take a power drill to my ears for like 10 min, then let me fall asleep again. I could count on 2 fingers the amount of stuff in this album I liked. Maybe this is what tinnitus feels like

Excellent this. Can definitely tell Spiritualised were born out of this. Some bands dont get that hole repetitive, hypnotic thing right but I feel these nail it. Stripped back and minimal, but in an interesting way, kinda like neu! at times, but more on the pysch side. Will definitely be back. Strong 4.5

From the name and album cover I was very much expecting a 90s dance act. Instead it was a sort of shoegazey album. Suicide was probably the most shoegaze of the lot and probably the only song that I was sort of onboard with. Mostly I found it a bit dull, it was trying to be all airy and spaced out a lot of the time and I wasn't keen.

Might have caught me in a mood - really dull. Got up to vacuum, forgot the music was still on. I prefer listening to my 10 minute rain noise loop I use to drown out the neighbours.

I'm sure there's a right time and place for this. But work ain't it. It's too repetitive and uneventful. It is kinda like spiritualised but more shoegazey. Think it just didn't do it well enough to be interesting 2

It's kinda in some weird area between Kraftwerk and Tortoise and noise. I could see this being great in the right mood, but it was not really my jam today. Still pretty interesting, and I could see coming back to it.

Revolution. Suicide. Un de mes regrets d'écoute de show c'est d'avoir vu sans les connaître Spiritualized en première partie de Radiohead. Mon attention pour le groupe n'était pas optimisée. Plus tard je suis devenu un grand fan de Spiritualized et donc de Spacemen 3.

J'ai aimé beaucoup certains trucs (Revolution, Suicide, Lordncan you hear me) qui ont un aspect transe très cool. D'autres tounes assez boring, comme Stereolab.

Du bon rock. Bien repetitif, parfait pour se perdre dans les chansons. Revolution une bonne rockeuse bien distortionnée. Shoegaze un peu?

There's definitely something to this album. A distinctness about it. The noisiness coupled with the soft, warm vocals made for a unique blend. There was a contrast of harsh heavy guitar songs with sad, understated melancholy ones. Slightly jarring, but I liked that. It started off quite weak to be honest. The first song Honey was poor quite frankly, and made me wonder whether might expectations about this album were wrong (I thought the album cover looked cool, and had vaguely heard Spacemen 3 were a shoegaze type band). Come Down Softly to my Soul was decent however. Revolution, the first heavy song of the album, got me excited and made me realise there's a bit more going on here than just sad songs. Perhaps in a gloom of foggy depression, the sad songs would really do something for me. Then we got to the B-sides, and I noticed a slight increase in quality. The best song of the album Lord Can you Hear me was a real highlight, and definitely helped improved my impression of the album by the end. Overall, I think the album is interesting; it demonstrates genuine creativity. I wasn't blown away by it, but I'd be interested in hearing it again.

Rambly guitar, morphing into a wall of distortion at times

I didn't hate it, but I did hate how long it was. What a stupid genre - Shoegaze. lol

If this challenge has taught me anything its that shoegaze fucking sucks. Its not music - ITS JUST NOISE!

No me gustó mucho este disco. Me pareció una experiencia disímil entre tema y tema. Siempre con una intención ambiental o de trance. Tiene momentos agradables (como los recursos de voz en off, o los momentos más ambientales/tranquilos). Sin embargo por mi experiencia de escucha, las diferencias entre duración de temas, efectos de distorsión inesperados y temas poco memorables, no puedo decir que haya sido de mi agrado.

pretty psych heavy, but i found a nice little groove listening to this while working. would go back to this on a busy work day for sure

Nahhhh

Could have been worse. I kind of enjoyed one or two songs, but the rest were kind of too long and forgettable.

A very good album. It checks a lot of boxes for me, but fails to deliver a real knockout song. I was not surprised to learn that one of Spaceman 3's founders went on to form Spiritualized, another band that I mostly enjoy but never feel blown away by. The sound feels ahead of its time for 1989. Clearly, Spacemen 3 have been super-influential on bands of the current Indie scene.

2/5

A little too mellow and out there / druggy

I can't actively hate this, but I also can't listen to it again or care to say even that much about it.

Det er space, pshycedelic, drone- rock som har inspireret mange shoegaze kunstnere i 90'erne. Det har jo sådan en atmosfærisk og drømmende lyd over sig, men er samtidig sådan lidt noisy. Jeg kunne rigtig godt lide spiritualized så jeg kan naturligvis også lide det her. Men det her virker lidt mere eksperimenterende så det er jo ikke sådan noget jeg ville spille med andre andet end med henblik på at diskutere det. Drone er noget med lange vedvarende toner.

It was ok

i WISH they were playing with fire. instead they were playing with sand and mud and other inert bland nothings. what da hell

this kind of dull, long, drone-y, electronic-y, shoegaze-y music is just not my thing. i don't want to yuck anyone's yum here but there is just nothing here that i'll ever want to come back to. sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ favorites: lord can you hear me, may the circle be unbroken

Snoozemen 3

Out on these guys. One star for the synths.

Numbered band names are dumb. You have to be really good to overcome that.

Started out strong but some of the songs were a little too loud

very long experimental piece. Not for me

Thoroughly dull and uninspired. No talent was involved in the making of this album.

I'd say they were playing more with wet stick than actual fire ...

2 hours of droning. That's what there is here. It's fucking bullshit.

world's worst psychedelic rock album

what is this?

i liked this a lot, added some songs to my reading/studying playlist

Inoffensive but not for me.

Y'know, it's like... I get what they were going for here. This is psychedelic music, but not in the way you'd naturally assume it's supposed to be. It's hardly Jimi Hendrix or, like, The Byrds or whatever. No, this is aiming for psychedelia more in... I suppose you'd call it "the spiritual sense." It's the kind of music you're not really supposed to listen closely to, but more just have on as you sit down cross-legged with your guru and chant "om." Y'know, it's New Age music — that sort of deal. Just with a little more guitar fuzz than... Whatever New Age music normally has. And lemme be clear — y'know, don't get it twisted — I am not the kind of person who'd criticize music for aiming to be wallpaper. It's a valid aim, and I've praised stuff like Brian Eno's MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS and my bloody valentine's LOVELESS for hitting their mark so well. So if Spacemen 3 here wanna do a slightly more rocked-out version of the New Age sound, who am I to judge them? But, mm, I don't know. There was something about the album that was bothering me while it played, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it... Like, what was this doing that I felt like it was actively boring me, versus, say, LOVELESS, where I could just let it fade into the background? I think for me, it was the fact that it too often stayed on one chord for too long. Now, I know a feature of ambient music is that it's not often supposed to be too complex; I don't really expect any of 'em to have complex chord changes or anything. But I think about the best ambient music, and in my head I can hear notes drifting in and out of each other. It moves, it flows... It'd probably be a melody for an actual song if you sped it up enough. I mean, you ever heard that one video that slows down a Justin Bieber song by 800%? That's ambient music. On this album, Spacemen 3 are content to just kinda... Play the same chord over and over again for minutes on end. There are parts where the album feels like it's spinning in place, and willingly at that. I mean, they **can** play something with an interesting line to it; there's a keyboard section in here in particular that I was really into. And, y'know, I also get it: it's supposed to be transcendental. You listen to these singular chords being played endlessly and you ascend into a higher plane of consciousness or whatever. And I'm not even knocking music that plays on a single chord, y'know? But at least those songs have the decency to do stuff **around** that one chord. It's like, jeez, even as wacked out and fuzzed to shit as LOVELESS is, there's still clear chords changes and stuff **happening**. I can jump to any random part of the album, tell what's going on, and get into it. This, though — I doubt I'd be able to, besides maybe some **very** obvious spots. I mean, I don't wanna act like this is all **that** bad. As far as wallpaper goes, there's no doubt uglier varieties out there, for certain. I'unno, this albums just feels like... Beige. Y'know? Plain beige wallpaper covering up white walls. I suppose it's more interesting than just leaving the walls barren, but... It's not exactly all that exciting, now is it? I'll grant this thing a benefit bump because it didn't **offend** me. It'll do the job fine. It's just... You could probably do so much better. Though, hey, this **is** the best album I've ever heard that's called "Playing With Fire." Though it's not like that's a high bar to clear, anyway...

Lovely psychedelic tunes, but not much else to say on my end. 4.5 bumped down to 4.

I’m at a slightly generous 3. It’s just a fascinating listen, really. How compelling can you make repetition sound, and how far can you push that luck with your listener until they give up on you? Further more, can you get them back if they ever do give up? I have answers to all of these questions, I think: Can you make repetition sound compelling? Yes, as long as your tracks aren’t too long. This album has a number of tracks that are a bit too long. However, when it’s not that long, some sort of hypnotic vibe washes over, where the brain is listening & engaged, but not actively comprehending, and that’s the sweet spot for making repetition sound compelling. When this album finds that sweet spot, no matter how awkward the soundscape might be (especially proven by “Suicide”), it’s a good spot to be in, as long as you can stay there. Eventually, these tracks do sort of push you away from that sweet spot, but when you’re in it, it’s just… nice. I can’t totally explain how. So, how far can you push that luck with your listener? I’d say about 5 minutes into “How Does It Feel”, honestly. “Honey” is a fine start with some weird vocal effects going that distract heavily from the instrumentation, “Come Down Softly to My Soul” is a solid (though non-evolving and sort of bland) “vibes” track, but it’s “How Does It Feel” that feels like the lowest point of the album, really. It is 8 minutes of our little band here trying really, really hard to find a sweet spot, with a slower drip feed of music than a modern Nintendo service. It is really hard to not feel utterly down on this album after that. “I Believe It” doesn’t help either; same sort of thing as Track 2 where the vibes are there, but just sort of bland. So… when did they get me back? Honestly, just a sonically interesting guitar sound on “Revolution” was the outstretched hand I needed to at least hear them out the rest of the way, and from that point onward, the album settled into something that’s not necessarily “better”, just executed in a far more compelling way. “Let Me Down Gently” gives big Eno vibes, “So Hot (Wash Away All of My Tears)” is just a more sonically compelling version of “I Believe It” & “Come Down Softly”, and… boy, let’s talk about “Suicide”. There is not a single world in which that track should have worked. Honestly, it loses its steam right before the end, so in a way, it didn’t really work. Yet, to my ears, it did find that weird, compelling sweet spot. I can’t describe it; it has all the aspects of a repetitive, endless droning mess that I might normally rip on a track for, but for whatever reason… it just clicked. The lead guitar melodies aren’t doing anything special, they’re just layered and slowly evolving in a way that feels like lo-fi white noise, anchored by my own real knock on the track, which is that damn repetitive backing guitar riff. It’s somehow both hypnotic and frustrating at the same time – I don’t know how it worked, and maybe if I weren’t listening with headphones in, I would’ve despised it. However, I liked it. “Lord Can You Hear Me” is nice. Feels sort of Nirvana-y, really. It feels like a nice, calmer endpoint after the 11 minutes of “Suicide”. Honestly, I wish it were a little longer just to let those horns near the end have a little more shine. As a whole package then, it’s a 3. A fascinating listen – it somehow kinda succeeds at what it’s trying to do as a sort of ambient psychedelic/shoegaze album, but the execution is all over the place for the first half of the album. Even once it finally settles into a more compelling spot for the second half, it’s still far from perfect. However, I think I admire it enough to give it a 3, though that’s the ceiling for me. Realistically, I’m probably closer to a 2.5, but I don’t think this is THAT bad to warrant a 2. If someone else does, I wouldn’t blame them though. It’s a strange one, but I think it has a place on the list in its own weird, niche-y way. Good job to Spacemen 3, I guess.

Kinda boring and repetitive.

It is a nice listen but there aren't enough strong songs to make it feel essential.

Was enjoying this until there were two 12 min almost identical songs with no words, and then I was waiting for it to end

trip de pcp

Smooth, relax. Je vais y revenir

Ok mouin.

Boring

Very ahead of its time. I can hear how it has influenced bands that I listen to today such as wooden shjips and animal collective. 3.7 stars

Feels like a much more mellow Spiritualized. It feels like psych rock but with that shoegaze/atmospheric sound. I liked this but I also felt like some of the songs went on a little too long without a good build up which is something I typically really enjoy in this genre.

This was sick. I loved the blended chords, minor sevenths, hushed vocals and progressive movements of this whole record. Very Radiohead like. Everything kind of builds and layers and crashes. Starts with very little and the progresses as the album flows. This was a pleasant surprise today!

The second listen wasn't as painful as the first (while driving, I had to shut it off ten minutes in for fear of falling asleep), but I still would never ever ever choose to play this. Maybe if I were tripping balls. But that's it.

HELL YEAH. Now we're talking. Had the privilege of seeing solo Sonic Boom once in little ol Auckland. Was a religious experience. Miss you Kings Arms.