First, it must be said that a live album of a band like Spiritualized is no substitute for the in- person experience. Not even oversized headphones, which will make you feel like Spiritualized are playing just for you can consume you like amplifiers buzzing and acoustic sound reverberating. Spiritualized in concert lives up to the band's celestial namesake.

That said, Royal Albert Hall is about as good as live albums get (but for a taste of an even better live album, try Spiritualized's rare Fucked Up Inside disc from several years ago). Enough rough edges have been left rough in post- production that there's a sense that this incredible set of music is neither the best nor the worst Spiritualized can do: it's, quite simply, a live set. It just so happens that a live set for Spiritualized is transcendental, with both religion and drugs supporting in good measure.

Jason Pierce (aka Jason Spaceman), whose morose voice and damaged lyrics make him seem perennially like he's in the eye of Spiritualized's hurricane of sound, fades in with a longing rendition of Edwin Hawkins' gospel classic "Oh Happy Day," which, appropriately, the album closes with 90 minutes later. In between, the tracks bleed together seamlessly and effortlessly. Even songs that don't match, like the tragically uplifting "Broken Heart" (whose orchestra and choir builds Pierce's loss to epic proportions) and the self- destructively chaotic "Come Together" are melded together with a simple organ drone.

That drone is Spiritualized's unifying secret weapon: rather than changing tempos, Spiritualized merely build on or take away from existing tempos, which means a song like "Medication" can sound blissful while "Walking With Jesus" (from Pierce's Spacemen 3 days) can be a Velvet Underground-ish rave-up while "Take Your Time" can have the bottom dropped out of it, and yet all three still have that defining pure phase tone backing them. The construction and delivery is pure baroque beauty.

Yet, like any good gospel, there's hardship through all the beauty. When Pierce repeats "You know I been thinkin' 'bout not coming down" on "Take Your Time" it's almost like a suicide note from someone who knows he's on his way to heaven. The music makes you feel the bliss, and Pierce's vocals make you feel the drugs that get you there. If that's not what music is supposed to do, then I should go deaf tomorrow.

-Shan Fowler