Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

Untitled

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space is the third studio album by Spiritualized, released in June 1997, and features guest appearances from the Balanescu Quartet, The London Community Gospel Choir and Dr. John.

Background

The title of the album is taken from the philosophical novel Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, the context being: "Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence. Some of them fall off, but others cling on desperately and yell at the people nestling deep in the snug softness, stuffing themselves with delicious food and drink. 'Ladies and Gentlemen,' they yell, 'we are floating in space!' But none of the people down there care."

The album itself was written shortly after the breakup of Spiritualized's Jason Pierce and Kate Radley, the band's keyboard player. Radley had secretly married Richard Ashcroft of The Verve in 1995.

Original pressings had an alternative version of the title track, incorporating the lyrics and melody of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love." The Presley estate initially objected to this, and a remixed version of the track was included on the commercial release, with new lyrics. However, Spiritualized continue to use both sets of lyrics in live performances. By 2009, they were allowed to use the version of the song with the Presley lyrics on the reissued edition of the album, with the proviso that the song is now titled "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (I Can't Help Falling in Love)." Album closer "Cop Shoot Cop..." references lyrics from the John Prine song "Sam Stone," incorporating variations on a key line from that song's chorus.

Special editions

The artwork was designed by Pierce in collaboration with Mark Farrow. A special edition of the album was packaged in a box designed to resemble prescription medicine, complete with "dosage advice" and a foil blister pack containing the CD. A limited edition was also released, featuring each of the 12 songs in its own individually-wrapped 3-inch CD, inside a large blister pack and box.

Critical reception

The album reached number four on the UK charts, during the height of the Britpop period. It attracted favourable reviews from the music press, including Allmusic, who hailed the album as "a masterpiece" and awarded the album 4.5 out of 5 stars. Ladies and Gentlemen went on to win the NME album of the year award at the end of 1997, beating Radiohead's critically acclaimed OK Computer and The Verve's Urban Hymns.

Accolades

Publication	Country	Accolade	Year	Rank
Spin	United States	125 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years	2010	110
Melody Maker	United Kingdom	Best 50 Albums of the Year	1997	5
NME	United Kingdom	Best 50 Albums of the Year	1997	1
Q	United Kingdom	Best 50 Albums of the Year	1997	*
Select	United Kingdom	Best 30 Albums of the Year	1997	2
The Face	United Kingdom	Best 20 Albums of the Year	1997	5
The Village Voice	United States	Best 40 Albums of the Year	1997	17
Uncut	United Kingdom	Best 25 Albums of the Year	1997	13
Vox	United Kingdom	Best 50 Albums of the Year	1997	2

* denotes an unranked list.

Legacy

A majority of the songs on the album were recorded live for the band's following release Royal Albert Hall October 10, 1997. Three singles were released from the album: "Electricity" in July 1997, "I Think I'm in Love" in January 1998, and "Come Together" in July 1998. Spiritualized re-recorded the songs "Come Together" and "Broken Heart" (the former with a cleaner radio mix and the latter with an Ennio Morricone-styled string and horn section) at Abbey Road Studios in early 1998; these tracks comprised the band's Abbey Road EP released in August 1998. The title track of the album appeared in the 2001 Cameron Crowe film Vanilla Sky.

In late 2009, Spiritualized performed the album live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series, in London and Manchester. Another performance of this production will feature as part of the ATP festival in May 2010 curated by Matt Groening. A remastered and expanded legacy edition of the album was released on November 30, 2009 to coincide with the show. The remastered edition was released on three formats:

• The Collector's Edition: twelve 3" mini CDs of the complete album track-by-track, plus two bonus discs of unreleased material. This edition was limited to only 1,000 copies.

• The Special Edition: a limited edition of the original album in the original pill-pack style packaging, alongside the two bonus discs.

• The standard one CD version of the original album with new artwork.

All three editions will include a revised version of the opening track "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (now including "Can't Help Falling in Love" as originally intended for the album).

Track listing

Album tracklisting credits all songs as written by Jason Pierce, except "Can't Help Falling in Love" written by George David Weiss, Hugo Peretti, and Luigi Creatore.

1. "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (I Can't Help Falling in Love)" – 3:40
2. "Come Together" – 4:40
3. "I Think I'm in Love" – 8:09
4. "All of My Thoughts" – 4:36
5. "Stay with Me" – 5:08
6. "Electricity" – 3:46
7. "Home of the Brave" – 2:22
8. "The Individual" – 4:15
9. "Broken Heart" – 6:38
10. "No God Only Religion" – 4:21
11. "Cool Waves" – 5:05
12. "Cop Shoot Cop…" – 17:13

Bonus disc #1

1. "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (A Cappella) – 2:33
2. "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (Demo) – 2:54
3. "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (Strings) – 1:40
4. "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (Kate Telephone Call) – 1:21
5. "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (Moles Studio Mix 7) – 4:48
6. "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (Original Oratone Ideas) – 0:42
7. "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (A Cappella with Lead Vocal) – 1:57
8. "Come Together" (Instrumental Demo) – 3:18
9. "Come Together" (Demo in Lower Key) – 4:02
10. "I Think I'm in Love" (Original Demo Idea) – 1:01
11. "I Think I'm in Love" (Demo) – 2:04
12. "I Think I'm in Love" (Drums/Wah) – 4:16
13. "I Think I'm in Love" (A Cappella) – 1:38
14. "I Think I'm in Love" (Vocal Demo January 1996) – 3:31
15. "I Think I'm in Love" (Gospel Choir Session) – 1:18
16. "All of My Thoughts" (Demo) – 3:52
17. "All of My Thoughts" (Strings) – 0:38
18. "Rocket Shaped Song" – 8:16

Bonus disc #2

1. "Electricity" (Demo) – 3:34
2. "Electricity" (January 1996) – 5:07
3. "Electricity" (June 1996) – 4:55
4. "Home of the Brave" (Demo) – 3:48
5. "Home of the Brave" (Panned Vocal) – 2:40
6. "Beautiful Happiness" – 5:14
7. "Broken Heart" (Demo) – 2:15
8. "Broken Heart" (Strings) – 1:52
9. "Broken Heart" (Vocal Harmony/Angel Corpus Christi) – 2:41
10. "Broken Heart" (Early Vocal) – 0:50
11. "No God Only Religion" (Demo) – 4:05
12. "No God Only Religion" (Horns) – 2:48
13. "Cool Waves" (Demo) – 1:00
14. "Cool Waves" (String Session Mix) – 6:10
15. "Cop Shoot Cop…" (Demo) – 2:47
16. "Cop Shoot Cop…" (Dr. John The National Anthem) – 6:22
17. "Cop Shoot Cop…" (String Session Mix) – 3:46

Personnel

Spiritualized

• Jason Pierce – vocals, guitar, hammered dulcimer, piano, autoharp, Fender Rhodes, horn arrangements, string arrangements, choir arrangement
• Kate Radley – piano, vocals, farfisa compact organ, roland synthesizer, vox continental
• Sean Cook – harmonica, fender rhodes, fender jazz bass
• Damon Reece – percussion, timbales, bells, tympani

Additional musicians Alexander Balanescu – violin Andrew Clark – horn arrangements Simon Clarke – flute, saxophone, horn arrangements B.J. Cole – pedal steel Clare Connors – violin, string arrangements Angel Corpus Christi – accordion Ed Coxon – violin, horn arrangements John Coxon – guitar, melodica, fender jaguar, multi instruments Andy Davis – organ Dr. John – piano, vocals Terry Edwards – tenor sax Sophie Harris – cello Tim Jones – French horn London Community Gospel Choir – choir Tim Sanders – tenor sax, horn arrangements J. Neil Sidwell – trombone

Technical personnel John Coxon – producer Darren Allison – engineer, mixing Chad Bamford – engineer, mixing Mads Bjerke – engineer, editing, post-production Trevor Curwen – engineer, mixing John Leckie – engineer, mixing Patrick McCarthy – engineer, mixing Patrick McGovern – engineer, mixing Carl Nappa – engineer Darren Nash – engineer, assistant engineer, mixing assistant Jason Pierce – arranger, producer, mixing Chris Scard – assistant engineer Ray Staff – mastering

Singles

• "Supplementary Dosage" (June 1997; US promo-only CD)

1. "Cop Shoot Cop" (Live)
2. "Shine a Light" (Live)
3. "Electric Mainline" (Live)
4. "Cool Waves" (Instrumental)
5. "The X-Files Theme"

• "Electricity" (July 28, 1997)

CD1

1. "Electricity" (Edit)
2. "Take Your Time" (Live)
3. "All of My Tears" (Live)
4. "Cool Waves" (Instrumental)

CD2

1. "Electricity"
2. "Cop Shoot Cop" (Live)
3. "Shine a Light" (Live)
4. "Electric Mainline" (Live)

• "I Think I'm in Love" (January 12, 1998)

1. "I Think I'm in Love" (Edit)
2. "I Think I'm in Love" (The Chemical Brothers Remix)
3. "I Think I'm in Love" (The Chemical Brothers Instrumental)

• "Come Together" (July 17, 1998)

1. "Come Together" (Richard Fearless Remix)
2. "Come Together" (Two Lone Swordsmen Remix)

• The Abbey Road EP (August 14, 1998)

1. "Come Together" (Abbey Road Version)
2. "Broken Heart" (Abbey Road Version)
3. "Broken Heart" (Instrumental; Abbey Road Version)

Charts

Year	Chart	Peak Position
1997	Heatseekers	#26