Playing With Fire - Better as an Instrumental?

[LUFC_SPACEMAN]

I dug out Playing with Fire yesterday for the first time in ages and have been thinking I'd much prefer this album if tracks 1-6 were instrumentals.

Maybe I'm more of Jason fan but Sonics spoken voice just starts to annoy me after a while and then So Hot is amazing.

hmm

[runcible]

Sorry but I completely disagree. Pete's vocals on Let Me Down Gently are absolutely superb. I think he has a fantastic voice, with more variety than many. From Honey's delicate approach to Come Together's bellow to Let Me Down Gently's soft spoken style he uses his voice really well. Compare the versions of Take Your Time from Highs, Lows to the new one on Indian Giver - with all due respect to Scott Reilly Pete gives that the vocal treatment missing from the original.

With the advent of CDs the magic of track order on vinyl is now absent (another thread beckons here), but I first got PWF on vinyl and the way Let Me Down Gently starts side 2 and then goes into So Hot and then Suicide and then Lord Can You Hear Me was an inspired decision and the sequence never fails to send shivers down my spine. I think that Pete can use a spoken vocal style really effectively - Ode To Street Hassle and How Does It Feel are other excellent examples. That's hard to get right but he can do it.

Lastly Come Down Softly To My Soul ofers the first glimpse of Spiritualized and Jason's slightly nervous vocal works brilliantly.

[nickh]

Absolutely not.

I have said on this board before that Pete’s songs on Playing with Fire are my among my favourite Spacemen 3 songs, I really dig the Lou Reedesque sing/speak style and the kind of beat poetry feel to them.

[niamhm]

Thats a pretty weird proposition ,I gotta say,

By coincidence I was listening to PWF yesterday at work,possibly 2years since I last listened to it,and I Beleive It and Come Down Gently are just amazing songs and Sonics vocals make it for me.

[Fuzzhead]

Pete's voice work's perfectly on PWF.

I like his voice - it's as simple as that.

I listened to the Sonic Boom song 'Angel' last week for the first time in ages - and I was hooked all over again. I can't imagine anyone else's voice except Pete's really working on that song.

[smellynobcheese]

I am very fond of the Spacemen - If I listen to "Playing with Fire" - I often just listen to Revolution or Suicide (live)....As far as background music is concerned - I have had the best sex having Revolution or Suicide(live) at full blast ...it just totally goes hand in hand with drugs and sex ...and as a culmination of that ..even my seven year old daughter loves the spacemen!!