Spiritualized

The difference between your average ode to amore and a Spiritualized love song is the distinction between a quietly affectionate couple and a couple that's always getting it on in the stairwell, fighting in the elevator, and making up (and out) in the middle of crowded restaurants. In short, when Spiritualized Svengali Jason Pierce has a romantic yearning, he turns it into high drama.

Details

Sunday, November 11, at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $20

346-6000

The Fillmore, 1805 Geary (at Fillmore), S.F.

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More About

• Jason Pierce
• Spiritualized (Musical Group)

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On the title track to Spiritualized's last LP, 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, the former Spacemen 3 veteran took the simple line "All I want in life's a little bit of love to take the pain away" and made it into a grand statement. By orchestrating layers of heavy guitar, choir vocals, and electronic beeps, Pierce morphed a modest song about his hot and cold emotions into a complex, Cinemascope production. It helped that Pierce's lyrics weren't as straightforward or sweet as you'd expect from a typical love song: Throughout the album, his dual themes of lusting for drugs and lusting for women were interchangeable.

Spiritualized's new album, Let It Come Down, takes some of the same themes from Ladies and Gentlemen and tweaks them slightly, while keeping the music's grandiosity intact. (Pierce recorded the record with a 100-piece orchestra.) Instead of past brazen heroin endorsements, Pierce shifts to subtle, well-penned mockeries of sobriety on tracks such as "The Twelve Steps" and "Out of Sight." But his best songs are still the ones about love affairs. On "I Didn't Mean to Hurt You," he returns to his romantic tailspins, admitting, "I love you like I love the sunrise in the morning/ I miss you like I miss the water when I'm burning/ I didn't mean to hurt you dear the words just came out wrong/ Now I'm broken down and lonely and I can't get along." The words tell a tragic story, further heightened by Pierce's usual large-scale treatment. Likewise, on "Stop Your Crying," he tries to convince both his girl and himself to put the past behind them, while using a large symphony and gospel choir to back up the weighty sentiment.

According to his own lyrical admissions, Pierce may not make the most consistent lover (and since, prior to this album, Pierce fired the rest of his old bandmates, he may not be the most consistent band leader either), but with Let It Come Down Spiritualized offers the perfect soundtrack for a torrid romance.