Spiritualized ‎– Everything Was Beautiful

Spiritualized’s Everything Was Beautiful (2022) is a lush, maximalist rejoinder to the quiet introspection of its predecessor, And Nothing Hurt. Together, the two titles form a Vonnegut quote—“Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt”—and Jason Pierce (aka J. Spaceman) seems intent on embodying both halves of that sentiment. Where And Nothing Hurt was weary and subdued, Everything Was Beautiful bursts with orchestral grandeur, gospel flourishes, and cosmic yearning.

Pierce reportedly played 16 instruments across the record, and the arrangements reflect that obsessive layering: strings swell, horns blare, choirs rise, and the production teeters on the edge of chaos without ever losing its melodic core. The opener “Always Together With You” sets the tone—romantic, devotional, and galactic in scope—with Pierce’s daughter Poppy announcing the album title, a nod to Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space’s medicine-themed packaging.

Tracks like “Let It Bleed (For Iggy)” and “The Mainline Song” are ecstatic, almost hymnal in their propulsion, while “Crazy,” a country-leaning duet with Nikki Lane, offers a moment of grounded intimacy without breaking the album’s spell. Critics praised the album’s craftsmanship and emotional resonance, calling it a return to form that rivals the band’s late-’90s peak.

It’s a record that feels both nostalgic and newly alive—less a retread than a reawakening. Pierce doesn’t just revisit old tricks; he reanimates them with fresh urgency, creating a sonic universe where beauty and pain orbit each other in perfect dissonance.