Spiritual Machines
Spiritual Machines | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | December 12, 2000 | |||
Recorded | August–October 2000 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 57:10 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | Arnold Lanni, Raine Maida, Brendan O'Brien | |||
Our Lady Peace chronology | ||||
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Singles from Spiritual Machines | ||||
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Spiritual Machines is the fourth studio album by the Canadian
The album was written and recorded in two months while the band was still on tour in support of their previous record, Happiness... Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch, which had only been released 14 months prior. A combination of lead singer-songwriter Raine Maida's prolific songwriting at the time and lead-guitarist Mike Turner's discovery of The Age of Spiritual Machines in a bookstore hurried the completion of the album. The band only took a break from recording to organize and perform at Summersault in 2000. Unlike their previous releases, this one features a more organic, acoustic sound, and less obvious layering and electronic texturing.
Spiritual Machines has been noted as being the end of an era for Our Lady Peace, as it was the last album produced by the band's longtime producer Arnold Lanni, the last to feature original guitarist Mike Turner in full, and the last studio album to feature art model Saul Fox (until 2021) on its cover. It was also the last album to feature Maida's high-falsetto singing voice prominently. The album peaked at number five in Canada, where it is certified double platinum.
In August 2020, the band announced that they would be releasing a direct sequel to the album, titled Spiritual Machines 2,[1][2][3] which was released in 2022.
Background
While touring rigorously in support of Happiness... in mid-2000, Mike Turner came across The Age of Spiritual Machines, a 1999 book by inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil. "I happened to be lucky enough to discover a really shiny book cover in a book store." Turner stated, "I wish I could say it was like, 'Well, I've been on this intellectual quest.' I picked it up, read it and went mental."[4] Becoming fascinated by the futuristic ideology of the book, he proceeded to share it with the other band members, reading them passages on their tour bus over the next several months.[5][6]
Lead singer Raine Maida first brought up the idea of a concept album after excerpts from the book began influencing his songwriting. Passing time on the road, he had amassed a backlog of songs and had begun to record demos. He jokingly suggested an album title of Kurzweil.[7] "That was not the most graceful sounding name in the world, so we went with Spiritual Machines instead," Turner said.[8] While the other band-members were less enthusiastic about the idea due to its weighty subject matter, Maida and Turner decided to pursue it and Turner contacted Ray Kurzweil via email to ask for permission to use the title of his book for their project. Kurzweil's excitement at the prospect prompted them to invite him to record spoken excerpts from his book for the album and a correspondence developed.[6][9] “I think it’s amazing that Ray Kurzweil sent us a bunch of pieces, and for whatever reason, they really tie in with what we were trying to say on this record,” said Maida.[10]
Recording and production
Unlike the band's three previous albums, most of the songs on Spiritual Machines were written solely by Maida. “I think that because this record happened quickly, we just ended up using a lot more of my songs this time,” stated Maida. “Whatever happens, happens, and if there are good ideas lying around, we use them.”
Jamie Edwards, who had helped record and tour for Happiness... was heavily utilized during the recording process and was becoming a big part of the band, considered by some to be the unofficial fifth member of the band at that time. Taggart recounted in 2010, "He’s an amazing guitar player, and he played on the record. People don’t know that he had a lot to do with that stuff. He was very influential. We had him in all our writing sessions. It was a very creative time that was cool because we were all in a room, kind of working together.”[11]
By the time the band was set to perform at
He’s worked with all these huge artists we respect, so we just let him do his thing. The only thing we tried to do in the studio, was to keep it live and not overdo parts, and I think he exemplified it even more. For him, it wasn't about trying to hear every little part, it’s just about putting it all together and making it feel like there is a live band and it has an energy, and he’s really fucking good at that.
Towards the end of recording Spiritual Machines, percussionist
Music and lyrics
The songs for Spiritual Machines were written and partially recorded during a year in which the band was doing extensive touring of Canada, the United States, and Europe. According to lead singer Maida, the live stage-context inspired the band to "keep it really basic and not try to add too many textures... to not overdo it."[9] and giving the technically inclined record an acoustic feel at times. According to Maida, half of the record was completed before the book and its ideas even entered the equation. During an interview in late 2001, he stated, "... even though it seems quite intrinsic to the record, really, it only represents about four or five songs."[7] While the lyrics of several songs were inspired by the futuristic theories of Kurzweil, they were also written as a response to them, saying that the human spirit would always prevail. "Lyrically, this album is about finding the spirituality within ourselves."[18] This is the case with the opening song, "Right Behind You (Mafia)", which Raine said, "..[is] not an 'f-you' to Kurzweil. It's like 'I believe [much of] what you're saying, but we're going to fight it as well because there is a soul and there is a spirit.'"[19] Following "Mafia" is the song "In Repair", which muses on how the human body can be "repaired," whether through heart surgery or after an accident. This song is countered by the following track, "Life" which, explained Maida, "recognizes the pain our minds can experience."[20]
During a 2001 interview with
Spiritual Machines concludes with the track "The Wonderful Future", which is one of the songs on the album that features minimal instrumentation. Raine explained that the song embraces the outcome of Kurzweil's future and accepts it as something new and exciting.[23] It is about a woman who builds her "own satellite from an old rusted chair" who will one day realize that a man of flesh and tears can satisfy her future. "That's one of my favourite songs, for that reason," said Maida. "That song's about building the perfect human – this cyber-human – and realizing that you can't really compete."[19] Following several minutes of silence after "The Wonderful Future", there is a hidden track with Ray Kurzweil communicating with 'Molly'. Molly is a robot from 2099, who at the beginning of the book was a 23-year-old woman who knew nothing about what Kurzweil was trying to explain, and then started to evolve in the way Kurzweil predicted.[24]
In a March 2010 interview with
Release
Promotion
Following a virtual listening party on the band's website where the full ten songs from the record were made available to listen to, Spiritual Machines was released in Canada on December 12, 2000.
The lead off single for Spiritual Machines was "
Packaging
The band contacted local Toronto artist
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [16] |
Entertainment Weekly | B−[44] |
The Hamilton Spectator | (favorable)[45] |
Jam! | (favorable)[46] |
Kerrang! | [47] |
The Michigan Daily | (B)[48] |
PopMatters | (favorable)[49] |
Pulse! | [50] |
Rolling Stone | [51] |
Winnipeg Free Press | [52] |
Critical reception
Although Spiritual Machines was not as successful as Our Lady Peace's previous three albums,
Eddie Fournier of The New Hampshire reviewed Spiritual Machines positively but said that "The spoken word sections are intriguing, but in a way, they detract from the overall strength of the album, breaking up the momentum created by the powerful 10 songs." He concluded by saying "Overall, Spiritual Machines is a lovely album from start to finish, and even better, it is an album that will make you wonder."[59] Cheryl Hunter of the Hartford Courant said that "It may sound formulaic, yet Maida's intelligent songwriting and nasally, but forthright vocals make Our Lady Peace more than just another faceless modern rock band."[60] Bartley Kives of Winnipeg Free Press gave the album 31⁄2 stars out of 5, saying that Our Lady Peace had finally gotten control of their sound and calling it "easily the finest thing they've ever created."[52]
Touring
Original tours (2000–2001)
Our Lady Peace toured in support of Spiritual Machines from November 2000 until September 2001. The first leg of the tour began with a university warm-up tour in Ontario, then a cross-Canadian fan club appreciation tour from
Several shows during the Summer leg had to be rescheduled or canceled after Maida contracted a throat infection. A cancer scare which turned out to be harmless caused bassist Duncan Coutts to miss six weeks of touring following the shoot for the "Life" video in February.
Recreation tour (2010)
In December 2009, after a poll on Facebook, the band announced that they would be "recreating"[67] both Spiritual Machines and their 1997 record Clumsy by performing them live in their entireties[67][68] throughout a new tour that began in March 2010; nine months before the 10-year anniversary of the release of Spiritual Machines.[67] Prior to this tour, the song "All My Friends" had never been played live and many more songs had never been played by present guitarist Steve Mazur, having joined the band in 2002.[25][69]
Track listing
All tracks are written by
- "The Wonderful Future" ends at 4:30, and is followed by roughly 12 minutes of silence, after which a hidden conversation between R.K. and Molly is heard.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
16. | " 4am" | 4:17 |
17. | "Clumsy" | 4:29 |
18. | "Car Crash" | 5:07 |
Studio outtakes
Several known outtakes from the Spiritual Machines sessions were demos carried over from the Happiness... sessions, such as "Ordinary Day" and "Sleeping In". "Ordinary" is seen being played during demo sessions for Happiness... on the band's 1998 holiday fan club video. The lyrics were published in the Pied Piper's Union Christmas 1998 newsletter.
In an August 18, 2000 article, it was revealed at that point that 8 songs were complete with four more being recorded in the past five weeks. This was before heading to New York to record "In Repair" and "Are You Sad", among others. Turner even noted "We've got so much music, we could even put another (album) out."[73]
Personnel
As listed in liner notes.[24]
Musicians
|
Production
Design
|
Year-end charts
Chart (2000) | Position |
---|---|
Canadian Albums ( Nielsen SoundScan)[74]
|
94 |
Chart (2001) | Position |
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Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)[75] | 82 |
Release history
Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
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Canada | December 12, 2000 | Columbia | CD/CS | CK/T 63707 |
United States | March 13, 2001 | CD | CK 63707 | |
2CD | CK 63899 | |||
United Kingdom | May 9, 2001 | Epic | CD | EPC 502340 2 |
Japan | ESCA 8312 | |||
Europe | ||||
Canada | October 4, 2017 | Columbia | LP | 88985478401 |
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External links
- Spiritual Machines lyrics at Rhapsody
- Spiritual Machines artwork at Oli Goldsmith's Flickr