Review - Amazing Grace

Among shoe-gazing's stalwarts, Spiritualized strips down its cloak of cosmic orchestrations on "Amazing Grace." Sans the reverb-drenched ambience and endless layers of auditory hallucinogens that permeated previous efforts, "Amazing Grace" offers more acoustic- and rock-driven songwriting. Still, don't expect any singer/songwriter simplicity from Spiritualized mastermind Jason Pierce. Sure, "Grace" isn't as lush, as Pierce's plan was to maintain an organic feel to this effort, but that doesn't make it any less fluent. While tracks like "This Little Life of Mine" are harder, distortion-driven garage rockers, offerings similar to "Lord Let it Rain on Me" bestow grandiose choir vocals and folksy instrumentation. "Rated X" radiates an atmospheric affluence, although not to stratospheric levels, yet lingering high enough to induce a state of light-headedness. It's the typical feeling a Spiritualized album induces.