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I didn't approach it in a sense of right I want to make a small record

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I didn't approach it in a sense of, right, I want to make a small record. But internet chat boards, the music press and a few online downloads gave it a head of publicity steam anyway. It gained notoriety for being Pierce's "garage" album: a post-bombast, back-to-basics thing, all sweat and guitars, each track recorded in a few takes. It's no surprise that another label, Sanctuary Records, snapped up Spiritualized before too long.Again, though, Pierce refutes any suggestion of a post-Let It Come Down retraction. I think we tried to fit Spiritualized into someone else's idea of how to market records, but it doesn't fit with what we do."That said, Amazing Grace looked set to become one of rock's great "lost" albums as a result, having been recorded in 2002.

Asked if the split was mutual, he gives a sly answer: "A bit more mutual on our side than their's - I'd gotten their Elvis back catalogue. People talk about how records are received, but 'received' changes. I don't have records at home where I think, 'Oh, this is the one the critics liked.'"As for whether its reception had anything to do with Spiritualized losing their major-label deal with Arista in January, Pierce puts another spin on it. It was majestically orchestrated, with songs that were among Pierce's finest; but for some, it was simply top-heavy Was Pierce worried? "I don't care I don't see 'critically acclaimed' as a goal.

Then, in 2001, Spiritualized's symphonic fourth album, Let It Come Down, was released to an equal dose of critical pounding and praise. For starters, he sacked his band, annoying them and befuddling those fans who - on the basis of L&G's opiated songs of loss - mistook him for some weak-willed, lovesick pup. Indeed, it only takes one listen to Spiritualized's recent The Complete Works Volume One, a collection of early material, to hear how clearly he had their transcendent trance-rock nailed from the off.From a distance, though, the years post-Ladies and Gentlemen seemed like dicey ones for Pierce. After all, between 1990 and 1997 - when Ladies and Gentlemen towered over the year's other releases, including Radiohead's comparatively insular OK Computer - Pierce didn't put a foot wrong. It wouldn't be released if I wasn't."No change there, then, and in many ways, it's a relief. They'll say, 'Oh, this album is amazing, we've finally got it right', as if they didn't with their other ones But I am pleased with it. well, it's not my quote." It's not? "No," Pierce says, without a hint of rancour, over a beer in east London.

"Why would I say that? It kind of negates everything we've done before it. It'd be part of that thing in music, where people never seem to be in control of what they do. Contrary? Yes, and wrong, but noble, too: no shameless sales pitching there. Now, though, according to some press stories, he's touting Spiritualized's fifth album, Amazing Grace, as "garage rock" and his greatest record.

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