Late Late Late Adopter Club: Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

Yesterday I was reading this 10 year retrospective piece (can't link just now for some reason, but it's called "It Was 10 Years Ago Today") in the Onion AV Club about how 1997 was a remarkable year for music. I instantly thought of OK Computer, of course, but was really taken aback by the sheer quantity of amazing albums that came out that year. Portishead’s eponymous album only garnered an honorable mention, for pete’s sake (though I’d have had it a lot higher).

I constantly view my past through the lens of music, and I have to say, 1997 was a pretty crappy year for me, musically speaking. I had stupidly abandoned Radiohead following the gross overplaying of “High and Dry” by MTV, and thus wouldn’t really discover OK Computer for another two years (thank you Matt). In fact, as I think back, it’s tough to remember what the hell I was listening to. A lot of Miles Davis and Elvis Costello, I think. Which isn’t a knock, those two are immortals, but since my eye was trained on the past, I missed out on all kinds of great shit that was happening in the NOW.

OK Computer aside, #2 on the list, Lonesome Crowded West also stayed off my radar until post-2000, and in fact I only really got into it about six months ago. I think the more accessible stuff on Modest Mouse’s new album, which I LOVE, trained my ear for the more-challenging LCW. And I definitely know that Doin’ the Cockroach is my favorite Modest Mouse song ever.

Then there’s #5 – I can hear the heart beating as one, Yo La Tengo. Another of my top five, desert island albums (along w/ OK Computer), and possibly my favorite album of all time. And another I didn’t get into until at least a year post-release. God I was a dork. I guess I just didn’t know what to do with myself (rimshot).

So what was the end result of this whole experience? A lot of self-reflection, and shame. But that’s not all – because while I was already very familiar with most of the albums on the Onion’s list, #6, Spriritualized, was a complete mystery. Quite simply, I had never heard, nor heard of this band, let alone this album. So I gave it a shot. And I can’t fucking get it out of my head. This is a GREAT album. And I am a BAD music snob for never having heard it.

I wonder if, in 2014, when global warming has us all living on mountaintops and commuting via solar-powered flying cars, whether 2004 will be looked at similarly?