And Nothing Hurt is not just the best album of the month. It's the best album of the year - because you'd have to record some fucking Abbey Road to beat this.
The album was not released last year, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Ladies and Gentlemen, We are Floating in Space, but one cursory listen to And Nothing Hurt should give you an idea why. To paraphrase the great T.S. Eliot, Jason Pierce wanted to go out with a bang, not a whimper. And so if this is to be Spiritualized's final record, and I hope to God it isn't, then this is the kind of bang the Spaceman deserved. He put that much care, and talent, and time, and health, into the proceedings.
"A Perfect Miracle" brings back the precious memories of the famed title song from 1997, and Pachelbel, and all those striking melodies that Jason Pierce has written over the years. "I'm Your Man" is a timeless anthem of awkward manhood. "Here It Comes (The Road) Let's Go" is one of those simple tunes you'd think anyone can compose yet only the Spaceman is capable of. "Let's Dance" is a heroin waltz, all charming and vulnerable. "On The Sunshine" is the first noisy rocker of the LP, and it closes the first side with a groovy horn-filled wall of sound, Spiritualized-style.
Side B opens with a sweet sweet thing called "Damaged" with its intense instrumental passages gorgeous to a fault. "The Morning After" is almost as good as "Hey Jane" off the previous album. Its lengthy coda is total madness that would be ugly if it were not so goddamn tasteful. "The Prize" is another mellow ballad, the kind you place at the end of your final statement. Having said that, it's not the last song on the record as we also have "Sail On Through". A bombastic closer, you could think, something to rival "So Long You Pretty Things"? In fact, more like "Goodnight Goodnight" - only better. A sleeper, and a beaut.
I know I keep mentioning these other songs from Spiritualized's career, but that's because And Nothing Hurt is so mindful of its past. And I know I keep harping on about this being Jason Pierce's last album, but then those were his words. It's been a long fight, from "Cop Shoot Cop" to "Medication", and it has left its bruises. That there is so much great music coming from these bruises I can only see as a miracle. I will of course be waiting for another one, patiently, but for now this will be played until the vinyl wears thin. The album is a masterpiece.
