#EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL

[funtimespringscare101]

So just finished Dawko's gamethrough of Poppy Playtime Chapter 3's ending and...

Potential Spoilers for Poppy Playtime Chapter 3: Deep Sleep. Newcomers beware!

... *Inhale* WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK-

#Poppy Playtime #Poppy Playtime Chapter 3 #Poppy Playtime my Beloved #EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL #BUT WTF?!? #FUCK YOU PROTOTYPE!!!1!!111 #Me: “Oh Cool! It's not like I didn't need fucking sleep anyway! Thanks CatNap!” #But WTF DID THE PLAYER DO?! ARE WE FUCKING ONE OF THE BIGGER BODIES PEOPLE OR SOMETHING?! ARE WE FUCKING LUDWIG?! IDFK! #Kissy you beautiful bbg i love you!1

[thebowerypresents]

Spiritualized – Webster Hall – November 12, 2023

Jason Pierce’s psychedelic space-rock project Spiritualized has been going strong for more than 30 years, and with the band traveling across America for the past week in support of last year’s “glorious” Everything Was Beautiful, they arrived at Webster Hall on Sunday night to close out their tour in triumphant style.

Photos courtesy of Ellen Qbertplaya | @Qbertplaya

#Bowery Presents #Doggen Foster #East Village #Ellen Qbertplaya #Everything Was Beautiful #Greg Coulson #J Spaceman #James Stelfox #Jason Pierce #John Coxon #Kevin Bales #Live Music #Music #New York City #Photos #Spiritualized #Webster Hall

[dustedmagazine]

Spiritualized — Everything Was Beautiful (Fat Possum)

Photo by Sarah Piantadosi

If the movies have you thinking about multiverses these days, it’s worth sparing a thought for the fact that in plenty of slightly different realities Jason Pierce might not be around making music in 2022. Not just the more recent and dramatic events (respiratory failure! chemo!) but at least going back as far as the hedonistic, druggy blankness of Spacemen 3, the erstwhile J. Spaceman is from a rock and roll lineage that frequently burns out. However touch and go it may have been, though, we share a reality where Pierce just keeps on trucking, and on the evidence of Everything Is Beautiful he appears to have mastered the trick of sticking around without fading out either. Maybe that’s what makes these 44 minutes, noted on an album cover that returns Spiritualized to the aesthetic territory of pharmaceutical packaging, feel like a bit of a victory lap.

Pierce has long abandoned just taking drugs to make music to take drugs to and no longer writes as if salvation through heroin, sound, God or love are interchangeable (not to mention equally seductive and impossible), but he’s still sneakily, intensely introspective in a way you might not expect from a guy who can compose walls of sound that always sound somehow like there are church bells ringing somewhere in the mix. Even the druggier years were often less about the chemicals themselves and more about the kind of self who would take them and why, and unlike many of his peers Pierce would just as soon present himself as abject and even dying in their grip. Even as his focus expanded and deepened in Spiritualized he’s still kind of made a career of perfectly balancing the two kinds of nihilism. 

So where does Everything Was Beautiful find him? It feels connected to 2018’s And Nothing Hurt by more than titles taken from the same Vonnegut line and proximity in the discography. And Nothing Hurt came after the biggest gap in Pierce’s career and if at first the ominous semaphore and a few of the tracks felt faintly valedictory, in current context it seems more like the most relaxed and lived in of Pierce’s albums, concerned with quotidian things like going for a nice drive or out dancing for the night, with the relative ragers bemused at the vicissitudes of life. It began and ended with songs that, either sarcastically or heart-wrenchingly, admitted that “I just don’t need to be with you.” Everything Was Beautiful is less removed but also darker, with many of the songs grappling with mortality (not even always just Pierce’s personal lifespan), and the opener swearing eternal fidelity through a list of increasingly interstellar things the narrator would be if ‘you’ want it. 

By the time the hypnotic, gospel-flecked pulses of “I’m Coming Home Again” sees the album out over the course of ten minutes, the titles of this album and its predecessor seem even more fitting — the songs here leave bigger bruises but also offer glimpses of something darkly breathtaking the excellent And Nothing Hurt wasn’t as interested in approaching. Neither record is monomaniacal (after all the last had, in “Damaged,” one of the most bereft songs Pierce has ever done, and on this one “The A Song (Laid in Your Arms)” features him ripping gleefully into the line “idiot, bastard, son of a gun”), but they do feel like a pair. Jason Pierce is long past the point of proving himself or needing the justify the basic fact of Spiritualized’s current existence, which brings us back into that victory lap territory. Everything Was Beautiful isn’t some showy highlight reel, though; it’s an example of how keenly Pierce has honed his inner space rock and how much room it still has left to soar. 

Ian Mathers

#spiritualized #everything was beautiful #fat possum #ian mathers #albumreview #dusted magazine #psychedelia #jason pierce #space rock #gospel

[bublinko]

Cruel Youth - Everything was beautiful, +30mg / Natalia Kills / Teddy Sinclair drawing on paper Size: A4 #nataliakills #teddysinclair #cruelyouth #powderroom #diamonddays

#cruel youth #teddy sinclair #natalia kills #the powder room #+30mg #everything was beautiful #paris #eiffel tower

[luuurien]

Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful

(Space Rock, Blues Rock, Symphonic Rock)

Jason Pierce's latest album under the Spiritualized name sounds dated from the jump.Carrying on with the same blues-infused space rock he's been playing with since the start, Everything Was Beautiful does little to expand on it and the songs themselves rarely have enough brio behind them to make up for it. It aims for transcendence and a less casual feel than 2018's And Nothing Hurt, but feels just as inconsequential in the end.

☆☆

Everything Was Beautiful is looking for something big. In terms of scope, it's likely the most ambitious and lofty goal Jason Pierce has set for himself since his debut album as Spiritualized Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, and that alone has got to mean something. His ninth album with the band, Everything Was Beautiful takes on the most mature and wise mindstate that Spiritualized has ever had, now more than thirty years since their debut album, and taking all sorts of different paths throughout has led them to a point of reflection they haven't had to deal with until now. This is all perfectly fine, but it seems like Pierce isn't quite sure how to go about it all, Everything Was Beautiful an inoffensive but ineffective attempt at something more self-referential and glorious after putting out the most relaxed set of songs he's made yet with 2018's And Nothing Hurt. Everything Was Beautiful has big choruses, huge symphonic orchestration and enough bells and whistles to deafen an entire city, and yet rarely does it try to engage you in a way that feels anything more than a dramatic action film soundtrack. It's a weaker version of something he's virtually perfected years ago, and just because you're returning to those sounds more uniformly doesn't mean they'll have the same effect. With seven songs and a 44 minute runtime, the first and most pressing issue with Everything Was Beautiful is that the songs don't use their extended lengths in a way that makes it feel worthwhile. Save for the four minute country waltz Crazy, all the songs here are around or above five minutes, and the more revivalist approach Pierce takes to space rock here, the greater blues and punk influences all over, means these songs end up more repetitive than anything else. Calling back everything from The Stooges hard rock to gospel and jazz, Everything Was Beautiful throws in all the band's usual influences without making sure the resulting songs have something particular to say. Sure, Let It Bleed (For Iggy)'s got some nice string backings and some fun dynamic contrasts, but for nearly fine minutes it repeats the same dynamics and instrumentation to the point where it's just mind numbing, and the two exact same verses stitched around a lifeless bridge and chorus doesn't help things at all, either. Finale I'm Coming Home Again might be the biggest offender with its nine minutes of nothingness, getting louder and continuously building while noisy guitar and saxophone solos whip around like lightning strikes before fizzling out in a fit of church bell and strings, the dramatics feel more like the end goal rather than a feature of the music while achieving something else, and for anyone looking for something more in the music Everything Was Beautiful is not the album to go to for it. There's a krautrock thrum to The Mainline Song, but in its huge gospel harmonies and static growth, it's hard to call it very hard-hitting at all. The best moments of the album tend to be when Spiritualized tone things down and search for a more intimate, simple and hearty version of the music they've made for years. Centerpiece Crazy is a pedal steel kissed, acoustic and piano-heavy country waltz that makes up for its saccharinity by being a plain and potent love song that doesn't try to be anything but. The same kind of idea is delivered in a different fashion on opener Always Together With You, falling victim to the huge crescendos and uncomfortably twee mood the rest of Everything Was Beautiful possesses but staying on its feet by using that chance to be a little looser and more playful in the songwriting department. "If you want a radio, I would be a radio for you" isn't the most exciting way to write about love, but it's so genuinely felt and taken in stride by the band that you can't help but let the imagery take you away at least a little bit. These moments are few and far in between, though, like finding a few pretty looking sea shells on a beach full of broken crab shells: the cool parts are good and all, but at some point you can't help but ask yourself why you'd want to stay here in the first place. It's why Everything Was Beautiful goes from middling to bland, some alright songs sandwiched between some of the most personality-devoid rock songs this year that are almost hilariously unengaging as a full album listen. Everything Was Beautiful is too happy-go-lucky and sweet for anyone with a shred of empathy in their heart to hate, it's clear Pierce and company enjoyed themselves while making these songs, but as an isolated piece of art it lacks stability and when put into the context of the band's previous space rock innovations, the album can often feel like a shell of the things that made Spiritualized so exciting back then. It's uplifting without trying to find something deeper in that optimism, and while feel-good music like this is rarely distasteful, it's rare you can call it tasteful either. Spiritualized's fire is one that has been going on so long that the flames have rooted themselves in the soil, forever there and impossible to stamp out to the point where you might wonder if it's gotten too comfortable being around this long. Everything Was Beautiful is an ironically fitting name for this album, trying to harness the cosmic sounds and lovely instrumentation that made Spiritualized so adored back then while doing nothing else in the process, any sort of individual character the music has utterly drowned in the nostalgia and yearning for the past that doesn't benefit Spiritualized in any way whatsoever.

#spiritualized #everything was beautiful #fat possum #art rock #blues rock #dream pop #neo-psychedelia #psychedelic rock #rock #shoegaze #space rock #space rock revival #symphonic rock #2022 #4/10

[gaybichon]

this is cute but also i like to think the pope has to preface every single statement with "this isn't dogma but" like he has to break character for a sec and clarify that he's not speaking ex cathedra

#hell is empty everything is beautiful and nothing hurt ♥️

[rl800]

Has anyone just started randomly singing a sad song out of nowhere?

I was just reading and only a few words triggered me "just you and I together"

😭

#toy story 2 #sad thoughts #random songs #out of nowhere #randomly singing #sad songs #When somebody loved me #Everything was beautiful #Every hour we spent together #Lives within my heart #When she loved me #Spotify

[sunshineandlyrics]

The most adorable duet (27 October 2023) x

#a beautiful duet #what a sweet talented and polite little girl #everything about her is cute from her voice and accent to her face #both are talented #his tiktok is full of cool piano performances #River flows in you #duet #violin #piano #mine

[maleficea]

#flowers #peonies #everything was beautiful

[lastoneout]

when florence and the machine said "I find that happiness is an extremely uneventful subject" and when romeo x juliet said "a simple life with you would be paradise" and johnathan coulton said "it's okay, I like you in glasses" and everything everywhere all at once said "in another life I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you"

(edit: I made a longer thing with more examples here)

#eeaao #florence + the machine #f+tm #johnathan coulton #romeo x juliet #everything everywhere all at once #THE INHERENT BEAUTY IN THE MUNDANE #THE JOY OF SHARING YOUR LIFE WITH SOMEONE #IT DOESNT HAVE TO BE BIG OR GRAND AND IN FACT HAPPINESS ISNT USUALLY #IT JUST HAS TO BE

[charlottan]

a mass market paperback book should always and forever cost ten dollars. it should be like arizona tea, or perhaps the costco hotdog

[inkskinned]

i love when words fit right. seize was always supposed to be that word, and so was jester. tuesday isn't quite right but thursday should be thursday, that's a good word for it. daisy has the perfect shape to it, almost like you're laughing when you say it; and tulip is correct most of the time. while keynote is fun to say, it's super wrong - i think they have to change the label for that one. but fox is spot-on.

most words are just, like, good enough, even if what they are describing is lovely. the night sky is a fine term for it but it isn't perfect the way november is the correct term for that month.

it's not just in english because in spanish the phrase eso si que es is correct, it should be that. sometimes other languages are also better than the english words, like how blue is sloped too far downwards but azul is perfect and hangs in the air like glitter. while butterfly is sweet, i think probably papillion is more correct, although for some butterflies féileacán is much better. year is fine but bliain is better. sometimes multiple languages got it right though, like how jueves and Πέμπτη are also the right names for thursday. maybe we as a species are just really good at naming thursdays.

and if we were really bored and had a moment and a picnic to split we could all sit down for a moment and sort out all the words that exist and find all the perfect words in every language. i would show you that while i like the word tree (it makes you smile to say it), i think arbor is correct. you could teach me from your language what words fit the right way, and that would be very exciting (exciting is not correct, it's just fine).

i think probably this is what was happening at the tower of babel, before the languages all got shifted across the world and smudged by the hand of god. by the way, hand isn't quite right, but i do like that the word god is only 3 letters, and that it is shaped like it is reflecting into itself, and that it kind of makes your mouth move into an echoing chapel when you cluck it. but the word god could also fit really well with a coathanger, and i can't explain that. i think donut has (weirdly) the same shape as a toothbrush, but we really got bagel right and i am really grateful for that.

grateful is close, but not like thunder. hopefully one day i am going to figure out how to shape the way i love my friends into a little ceramic (ceramic is very good, almost perfect) pot and when they hold it they can feel the weight of my care for them. they can put a plant in there. maybe a daisy.

#warm up #writeblr. #i am not going to personally comment on the pineapple debate #some things are too big for me. #maybe we could have everything on earth choose their own names. #wouldn't that be fun #it is a creative writing exercise. okay. ily #''why only these languages?'' ..... bc i dont know every language #sorry :( #PLEASE leave me comments about what words u think are correct. i love learning them #btw! this isn't saying these are the most BEAUTIFUL words for it... just the words that are the most CORRECT #like i quite like the word ''keynote'' as mentioned. it's got a lot of fun sounds in it. #but it is not CORRECT. #''gloaming''' is interesting and fun and poetic but it is NOT correct . evening is MORE correct #but less beautiful. #does that make sense?

[suiheisen]

"You can tell that there was a wealth of love that went into making this film so I hope people can take just a little bit of that love out with them." - Eugene Lee Yang | Go Behind The Animation for Nimona

#to the people who keep going: aw they made ballister look like pedro pascal..... have you never seen the beautiful riz ahmed................ #anyway here he is <3 #also eugene drop your makeup line i would buy everything #i’ve been obsessesing over this movie the past few days. beautiful representation 🥹 #anyway. i need to see eugene and riz be boyfriends in a non animated movie now #nimona #nimonaedit #nimona spoilers #riz ahmed #chloe grace moretz #eugene lee yang #lgbtq #lgbt #long post

[inmyperfectworld]

Black women are so beautiful to me. I LOVE everything about US! 🥰🤎

#black tumblr #aesthetic #aesthetics #black aesthetic #source: pinterest #black women #pinterest #black women aesthetic #brown women #black women are everything #black women beauty #black women are beautiful #black woman beauty

[bublinko]

Cruel Youth / Teddy Sinclair +30mg doodles sketch Size: 21cm x 22.6cm #TeddySinclair #CruelYouth #NataliaKills #trouble #perfectionist

#cruel youth #teddy sinclair #natalia kills #the powder room #+30mg #trouble #perfectionist #diamond days #mr watson #hatefuck #everything was beautiful #alexis texas #doodle #sketch #france #eiffel tower

[mugentakeda]

couldnt stop thinking about this idea i had of lu tens spirit being tethered to his medal that zuko gave iroh at his funeral so hes now cursed to have a front row seat to all their life-threatening shenanigans without actually being able to do anything about it so hes the most stressed guardian spirit of all time

#not even being able to finally chill in the afterlife after dying brutally would definitely happen to an eldest sibling i feel like #i always find ways to insert my beautiful lovely oc lu ten (joke) into everything. but this time i dont really have to try hard thank god #ALSO I THINK IM GETTING THE HAND OF DRAWING NATLA IROH... AMEN #iroh #zuko #lu ten #netflix avatar #natla #avatar the last airbender #atla #alicias art