Complaining about British food is like re-enacting a sitcom for your co-workers. You're better than that, aren't you? I suppose everyone thinks they're better than they actually are-- check out Let It Come Down-- but as you float those fatuous one-liners, don't you hear the voice in the back of your head going, "What have I become?"

It's not the food per se, it's the lack of vegetables. National furor over Frankenfood resulted in the healthiest, yet most sickly produce you can imagine: tomatoes the size of grapes, spotty Granny Smiths you can down in two bites, and you don't even want to know from the greens. Forgiving the soggy, unidentifiable lumps of border-compost filling their Organic Produce aisles, the British do just fine with cuisine. The one aspect of UK culture that merits condemnation? Record companies releasing multiple versions of CD singles. Apart from New Order and Björk, no artist-- at least none with such artistic integrity-- has milked this cash cow for more and longer than Spiritualized. The Complete Works, Vol. 1 is their redemption.

1991's Spacemen 3 obituary Recurring less-than-seamlessly fused two 1990 EPs from Pete Kember and Jason Pierce in a contractual money-grab from Dedicated, the shady Arista subsidiary whose early catalog has languished in legal limbo for going on five years. Complete Works, Vol. 1 begins in the midst of the band's dissolution, with Pierce's 6½-minute Troggs cover "Any Way That You Want Me", recorded at the same time as the tracks the ended up on Recurring.

The track is the perfect lead-in for this set, which compiles long out-of-print material from what might be the best psychedelic rock band since the 60s. Outstripping Galaxie 500 with violins, distorted wah-wah solos and an aching reverb that pines rather than mopes, Spiritualized invite you into their extended instrumental passages, reducing you to the carefree hippies we now view as stock footage. But the 60s really did happen, and Jason Pierce celebrates them with an honesty and directness that has revealed beauty beneath Spacemen 3's detached abandon.

That first single featured two notable pieces of information on the cover: a sticker that boldly read "Spacemen 3"-- infuriating Kember and nailing the coffin closed on that short-lived, legendary band-- and a dedication: "For Kate." Kate Radley was Pierce's muse throughout the first half of his now twelve-year career leading Spiritualized. She can be heard counting to one hundred on this compilation, during disc two's opener "100 Bars". She joined the band soon after "Any Way That You Want Me" came out, playing all manner of instruments and adding to the vocal wash through 1995's Pure Phase. But sometime in 1996, things turned for the worse, and Radley ended up marrying The Verve's Richard Ashcroft. In doing so, she earned a place second only to Patti Boyd in rock and roll's history of Helens: both The Verve's multi-platinum Urban Hymns and Spiritualized's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space are for the most part about her.

The Complete Works, Vol. 1 happily stops short of that turbulent era of excess and confusion, which in this writer's opinion is less inspiring than the pastoral psychedelia of earlier Spiritualized. Most of these impossible-to-find tracks (recorded between 1990 and 1995) rank with the album cuts they supported, though some early material has faded after a dozen years in the sun.

The first version of "Run"-- Pierce's tribute to both J.J. Cale's "They Call Me the Breeze" and The Velvet Underground's "Run Run Run"-- isn't tempered by the same crystal-clear studio magic that made the Lazer Guided Melodies rendition work, suffering from weak percussion and a general lack of effects-finesse that leaves the impression of a demo. Which is really all it was: Lazer Guided Melodies took over a year to produce to Pierce's satisfaction, and while hanging on the line, Dedicated released early mixes of "Run" and "I Want You" on a 12-inch, coupled with two Spacemen 3 hangovers, "Luminescence" and "Effervescent". But this version of "I Want You" is far more energetic and loose than the plodding early demo from the "Feel So Sad" single or the stiff, clipped Lazer Guided recording; Kate Radley sings falsetto rather than drugged-out baritone, and at its apex the tune swells to a shoegaze tidal wave that approaches The Beach Boys. It's a coup for collectors, and an offsetting bright spot on the otherwise languid "Run"/"I Want You" 12-inch tracks.

"Feel So Sad" appears three times in a row on disc one, and later as part of the included Medication EP, compiling all but one of the drastically different versions of this staple (the original three-minute mix from Recurring-- more Spacemen phase than Spiritualized haze-- is understandably left off). Using the operatic 13-minute version from the original "Feel So Sad" 12-inch as a centerpiece, the more ephemeral 7-inch and B-side versions on disc one make perfect bookends, resulting in almost thirty minutes of meditation on its various melodies.

The instrumental version of Lazer Guided's first track "You Know It's True" underscores just how identical a twin Yo La Tengo's "Nowhere Near" (from 1993's Painful) was, and as a sedative leads perfectly into the roaring, elated "Medication", where Pierce shatters the bottle he'd been carrying for his Spaceman past. It's also a defining moment for his band, which deserves recognition as one of rock and roll's very best: the last four minutes of "Medication" shamed every revival act in England, from Primal Scream to Oasis. Only The Stone Roses ever came close to this level of hypnotic rock chaos, a bliss that never strays from discernable roots yet transcends tribute in its infinitely grand wall of psychedelic sound. Without question, the Medication EP is the cornerstone of this set, but it also serves as a reminder that Fucked Up Inside-- a stupendous, limited edition live disc recorded on the Medication tour in 1992 and featuring the vastly superior concert arrangement of "Take Good Care of It"-- is still out of print.

By the mid 90s, Spiritualized had evolved into an assured space-rock ensemble, pulling back the rhythm and blues influence and exploring psychedelia in ways never before imagined-- and before you throw Pink Floyd at me, listen to both versions of "Electric Mainline" and tell me Pierce can't carry their bag. The impossibly patient, glistening Pure Phase was perfectly titled: Spiritualized would never again give in to jarring bursts of distortion or cacophonous noise a la Mercury Rev, and as if to evidence this, they did a split single with the Rev just before moving on ("Good Dope, Good Fun" appears alongside its more polished version from Pure Phase, retitled "Lay Back in the Sun").

The Electric Mainline EP is a perfect end to this first volume of Spiritualized rarities, setting up the definitively ornate works that would follow on Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. Vol. 2 is expected out late this year, but will likely rob us of yet another great live performance, the six tracks from their 1993 Glastonbury set spread across three-- three-- different versions of the "Let It Flow" single, including stratospheric renditions of "Clear Rush" and "Medication".

As a concise document of Jason Pierce's transition from Spaceman to blissed-out preacher, Complete Works, Vol. 1 is an invaluable addition to your Spiritualized collection, but it works as an excellent survey for the uninitiated as well, who might not realize how much and how many Britpop acts (and... Radiohead) are to this day indebted to one of Britain's best-ever pure rock and roll bands.

-Chris Ott, May 14th, 2003