In 1987, Jason Pierce's then-band, Spacemen 3, released the album The Perfect Prescription, featuring the song "Ode to Street Hassle." If that homage to Lou Reed wasn't overt enough, Pierce (AKA J Spaceman) in his current incarnation, Spiritualized, reminds you of his affinity with the first single from their seventh studio album, Sweet Heart Sweet Light: "Hey Jane."

By now, you're probably familiar with the psychedelic gospel J Spaceman has been preaching, and if that's the case, "Hey Jane" won't be any sort of transformational experience. But for some it may be an interesting use of the life/death dichotomy in song. The press release even regarded it as Spiritualized "at their most vibrant; full voiced and utterly sublime" (read: a return to their soaring Rock -n- Roll after an album of acoustic-tinged downers followed Pierce's well-publicized brush with death).

Frankly, it wouldn't take much persuasion for me to agree that J Spaceman's work has been on the decline since Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, but, to be fair, I haven't heard this entire album. Either way, one must admit that in the music world Pierce has become an institution, and institutions, musical or otherwise, remain as a result of their inertia and crumble only long after their time has passed. So, "don't just do something, sit around instead." It's a much more comfortable position from which to anticipate the inevitable. ... And as you're lounging, listen to this song. Everything is relative, right? So what's eight minutes wasted on one song you may not consider Spiritualized's best when you could have spent the even more time listening to that Lou Reed/Metallica album. Hell, you might even like the jam enough to pick up Sweet Heart Sweet Light when it's released April 16th.