#3. Spiritualized -- Pure Phase. The twelfth track, "Pure Phase" is the embodiment of this album. A whirring, humming, single note (G) fades back and forth, from speaker to speaker, for six and a half minutes. Jason Pierce likened it to the sound of a violin section tuning up -- a single, pure, sustained note to relax and lose yourself in. If indeed you find yourself lost in such a listening experience, then "Pure Phase" may be for you.

Otherwise, this album can try your patience like no other. "Pure Phase", that everlasting G, never really goes away, as it is featured at various levels of the mix throughout most of the album. Thus, the entire album is in a single key, casting a blanket of sameness over all of the material. The usual concept of "songs", with verses, bridges and choruses, is flippantly tossed aside. With a few exceptions ("These Blues", "Lay Back in the Sun" are two of them) everything is a sequence of instrumental one note mantras (e.g. "Electric Mainline), and semi-stoned warbling over wibbly guitar feedback (e.g. "Slide Song") is a tracks . Jason seems to disappear over long, vocal-less sections of the album, vanishing into a swath of droning, purring notes, while the listener is left behind wondering and waiting if the droning will ever stop and if something will actually happen on this album. "Spread Your Wings" is a fine example of the kind of orchestral arrangements that would be further perfected on the next two Spiritualized albums, but it is the sole example of it's kind here, in the presence of "balladry" such as "Take Good Care of It", which contains one sustained chord, Jason's voice buried beneath a mile of gauze, and very little else.

It's not difficult to understand why Spiritualized had to wait until "Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating In Space" to make their critical and commercial breakthrough.