Trust Me #55
I Think I'm In Love by Spiritualized (and the Chemical Brothers vocal remix)
On Sunday 18th June I fulfilled a long held ambition when I got to DJ at McChuills, my very favourite pub in Glasgow. It was an honour to play alongside one of the bars resident DJ's - Stevie Elements. I had almost as much fun raking through his cases of 7-inch singles as I did playing.
And I also enjoyed looking through my own records while preparing my DJ bag for the night. I was determined to play an eclectic set, in keeping with my Anything Goes & Everything Flows monthly mixes.
My mission when DJing is to get people dancing/singing/nodding their heads and showing signs of appreciation and I particularly love when people take the time to come up and ask what song I played if they didn't know it. Thankfully I achieved all of the above, including words of acknowledgement from another McChuills resident, the legendary JP who came up to chat a couple of times and I also shared a beer at the bar with him while Stevie was taking one of his turns on the decks.
I played Chemical Brothers remix of Spiritualized's I Think I'm In Love and a couple of people came up to ask who it was. It is an incredible song and sounded out of this world on the big speakers; psychedelic sonic perfection that takes off for the sun and urges you to hold on for the ride.
The original version is on Spiritualized's 1997 classic album Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating In Space. It's an absolute masterpiece, from the elaborate prescription pill style packaging to the melting pot of music and the sound of Jason Pierce's heart breaking spread over 70-minutes. NME's Paul Moody hailed the album as a seismic tour de force, while the Melody Maker praised it as one mind blowing perspective-fusing supernova of an album .. that redefines notions of bittersweet and love-hate to the point where everyday emotions seem very small indeed. I'll save a blog on that for another time.
I Think I'm In Love burns beautifully slow to begin. A continuous note drones for almost a full minute, squelchy guitar sounds are played over the top before a gentle piano is introduced, some mouth organ and then Pierce begins to sing.
Sun so bright that I'm nearly blind
Cool cause I'm wired and I'm out of my mind
Warms the dope running down my spine
But I don't care about you and I've got nothing to do
Pierce's voice sounds blissfully damaged as the Spiritualized sound is layered delicately and delightfully around him. After he sings I don't care about you for the second time the layers drop out leaving Pierce to sing I've got nothing over a few piano notes.
Everything stops and then the next stage of the song begins, beats are introduced and there is more of a groove, allowed to flow and develop for almost 2-minutes and then Pierce is back with call and response vocals that are catchy and funny. Very probably self depreciating.
I think I'm in love
Probably just hungry
There are times when Pierce sounds lost in the groove his Spiritualized orchestra has conjured, letting out little come on yelps in the background, as if he is urging them to keep going.
I think I want to tell the world
Probably ain't listening
Horns, guitar, synth, piano, guitars, drones, beats and bass. The way everything is layered together is sublime. Ending with a gospel choir singing I think I'm in love repeatedly, the song is faded out. I imagine Pierce would never have wanted it to end.
And then The Chemical Brothers get their hands on it!
Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons really do work their magic on their remix, producing something super trippy and dazzling. Spiritualized stop everything to go from part 1 to part 2 of the song, while The Chemical Brothers build and tease, almost sounding as if they are getting all their equipment read to blast off for space.
After the beats have kicked in they bring everything back to allow Pierce to sing;
I think I can fly
Probably just falling
Chemical by name, chemical by nature. This remix is a match made in heaven. Rowland and Simons seem to have dipped Pierce's vocals into pot of LSD and MDMA, thrown in some synths for good measure to see what happens and then dived in after them. Their remix is spacey, trippy, cool and euphoric. The brothers really do work it out.
Chemical Brothers instrumental remix
I've also collated all the songs in my Trust Me series into a playlist on Spotify that you can find by searching for Everything Flows - Trust Me , or you can CLICK HERE
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