Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
| Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space | ||||
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| Studio album by Spiritualized | ||||
| Released | 16 June 1997 | |||
| Recorded | 1995–1997 at Moles Studio, Bath; The Church, Rooster and The Strongroom Studios, London; House of Blues, Memphis; The Hit Factory, New York City and A&M Studios, Los Angeles. | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 69:41 | |||
| Label | Dedicated | |||
| Producer | Jason Pierce, John Coxon ("Stay With Me", "The Individual") | |||
| Spiritualized chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+ |
| The Guardian | |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| NME | 9/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 10/10 |
| Rolling Stone |  |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Select | 4/5 |
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space is the third studio album by English space rock band Spiritualized, released on 16 June 1997. The album features guest appearances from the Balanescu Quartet, The London Community Gospel Choir and Dr. John.
The title of the album is taken from the philosophical novel Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, the context being:
The album itself was recorded shortly after the break-up of Spiritualized's Jason Pierce and Kate Radley, the band's keyboard player. Radley had secretly married Richard Ashcroft of The Verve in 1995. Pierce, however, has maintained that much of the album, including songs such as "Broken Heart" and "Cool Waves", had actually been written before the break-up.
Original pressings had an alternative version of the title track, incorporating the lyrics and melody of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love." The Presley estate initially objected to this, and a remixed version of the track was included on the commercial release, with new lyrics. However, Spiritualized continue to use both sets of lyrics in live performances. By 2009, they were allowed to use the version of the song with the Presley lyrics on the reissued edition of the album, with the proviso that the song is now titled "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (I Can't Help Falling in Love)."
Album closer "Cop Shoot Cop..." references lyrics from the John Prine song "Sam Stone", incorporating variations on a key line from that song's chorus.
In the summer of 1995 Jason Pierce and Sean Cook entered Moles Studio in Bath, to start work on demo recordings with resident engineer Trevor Curwen. Pierce would develop his ideas into complete songs during this period.
A few weeks later, recording of the album proper began in earnest, with all of the band members present. Working on 24 track tape synchronised to an Atari sequencer allowed Pierce to build up sequenced tracks from samples of live playing, coupled with some parts gleaned from the demo sessions. The full band line-up, including John Coxon on guitar, performed live over this sequenced backbone.
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