| · Is it wrong to be more excited to hear The Complete Works Volume Two than the next new Spiritualized album?
B-sides and rarities compilations are typically scattered and uneven affairs, with occasional hidden gems buried within miles of studio experiments, wank live routines and material better left forgotten on the flipside of an excessively rare seven-inch single. Thankfully, Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce has surpassed all expectations with The Complete Works Volume One.
Granted, Spiritualized has never been a name to take lightly – not only did 2001’s Let It Come Down feature the performances of more than 100 musicians (although each and every note was straight out of Pierce’s perfectionist brain), it was preceded by the unceremonious firing of the group’s longtime membership through curt letters of termination. So it’s not altogether surprising that a double-disk set of cast-offs and debris would be worth close examination.
The thing is, The Complete Works Volume One is Pierce’s crowning achievement – a collection of songs as powerful, epic and earth-shatteringly good as anything on any of Spiritualized’s consistently brilliant full-length records.
Very few artists can stitch together a half-decent stop-gap rarities "album" worth more than a few listens (see R.E.M.’s Dead Letter Office as one particularly striking example). Fewer still could give such a collection a place among the most necessary items in their catalogue.
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