Lazer Guided Melodies


Lazer Guided Melodies is the debut studio album by English space rock band Spiritualized. The album was recorded by the inaugural line up of the band, consisting of Jason Pierce, Mark Refoy, Will Carruthers, Jonny Mattock and Kate Radley from 1990 to 1991, and mixed by Pierce in London in January 1992. The album was first released on Dedicated Records in March 1992, on cassette, Compact Disc and Vinyl.
Initially released on two 45rpm vinyl LPs, the album's twelve songs are segued together into four colour-coded, cross-faded suites. As such, the album was included in Pitchforks 2010 list of "ten unusual CD-era gimmicks".
By 1995, the album had sold 10,000 copies in the USA.

Background

Lazer Guided Melodies is unique in Jason Pierce's oeuvre as it simultaneously explores motorik, minimalist music, and space rock while subtly using "meticulously detailed, layered instrumentation, the sumptuous deployment of horns and strings" to create cinematic, textured, and deeply narcotic soundscapes.
As critic Simon Reynolds observed in his Melody Maker review of the album, entitled "The 'Ized of March":
"Spiritualized's music quivers with Apollonian attributes - airiness, fleetness, radiance, serenity ... at times, Spiritualized recall the Kraut version of freeway rock known as motorik, in particular Neu ..."Run" is all about the exhilaration of cutting loose, of goalless propulsion ... "If I Were With Her Now" is throbbing motorik too ... swathed by scintillating guitar chimes like the world whooshing by ... along with motion, Spiritualized's other consummate metaphor for release is ascension ...
"Step Into The Breeze" ... a Wiltshire water meadow ... pastoral bower of bliss ... "Symphony Space" an amorphous flux of orchestral resonances that hover and ache, swim and brim, for a small eternity. The sound of heaven ... at times, Spiritualized are making 21st Century gospel."

Legacy

Lazer Guided Melodies was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2018, Pitchfork ranked the album at number 11 on its list of "The 30 Best Dream Pop Albums".

Track listing

On the LP edition, tracks 1–3 are the "Red" section, tracks 4–7 are the "Green" section, tracks 8–9 are the "Blue" section, and tracks 10–12 are the "Black" section. Track 4, "Run", contains elements of "Call Me the Breeze" by J. J. Cale and "Run Run Run" by The Velvet Underground.

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.
;Spiritualized
;Additional musicians
;Technical personnel