December 12, 2000 - Spiritual Machines

It's a double release day! On the same day as my last release and just 15 months since "Happiness...Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch", Our Lady Peace released their fourth album "Spiritual Machines" on December 12, 2000. This album is a concept album inspired by the book "The Age of Spiritual Machines" by Ray Kurzweil. Kurzweil actually speaks on several songs throughout the album and guitarist Mike Turner and singer Raine Maida were both really into this book obviously. Guitarist Jamie Edwards, who helped out on a couple songs on "Happiness...", became an unofficial fifth member and plays a lot of rhythm guitar on this album. Also, drummer Jeremy Taggart broke his ankle towards the end of recording and two of the songs actually have Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, which is pretty cool! Let's check out OLP's concept album!

The album begins with a six second track called "R.K. Intro" and every R.K. song has Kurzweil speaking. This short intro offers nothing at all, just "ten to fifteen billion years ago, the universe was born". The first real song and first of three singles is "Right Behind You (Mafia)" and Turner plays a light guitar riff while Maida sings a nice verse in his one-of-a-kind voice. Things start to ramp up as they move to the chorus and the chorus hits nice and loud with Maida delivering the lyrics nicely and this is actually one of the songs Cameron is on as he plays some cool drums in the chorus as well. Things sound very smooth and catchy and it's easy to see why this was a single. After the next round Maida sings a short but solid new part and then he sings a chorus with no music behind him, which sounds quietly epic, and when the music kicks back in it sounds great as well. A good first song for sure! Track 3 is "R.K. 2029" and Kurzweil talks about how in 2029 machines will be so advanced that they will be able to convince us that they are human. This leads right into another succesful single titled "In Repair" and they dive right into the first verse with some catchy acoustic guitar and Maida singing another nice verse. The chorus is pretty simple and quiet, but it's pretty catchy and Maida continues to lead the way with his great vocals and I love the high notes he hits. After another round it seems like there might be a solo of some kind, but they just jam out the chorus riff some more while we hear some quiet talking overtop in a very anticlimactic part. They predictably wrap things up and this one was decent, but not amazing. Track 5 is the third and final single "Life" and Maida gets right into a soft but really beautiful verse and Taggart comes in with a super catchy drum beat while Turner plays some light guitar that fits the mood perfectly. The chorus is in the same vein, but a little louder with more guitars and everything sounds really good and really smooth; a no-brainer for a single. After another solid round Maida sets the stage nicely for a tame guitar solo, but it's still a solo! They bring it back to the main riff nicely and how could you not like this song? They really nailed the vibe on this one. Up next is "Middle Of Yesterday" and Maida sounds interesting right from the get-go before they slam into a nice riff led by some cool guitar by Turner. Maiden's voice is all over the place on this one and I love all his little highs and lows that he does. The verse is mostly quiet but solid and they do another nice segue as they ramp into the louder chorus and Maida sounds great holding lots of long notes. After another crazy and cool round Turner plays some super distorted and cool guitar in a nice little break, then it's right back to the chorus to jam out the end of the song. Maida sounds great the whole way through (as usual) and everything has been pretty good so far! Track 7 is the other song with Cameron on drums and it's called "Are You Sad?" Duncan Coutts plays a nice bass riff to start and Maida plays acoustic guitar while singing a slow verse to match this slow riff. The chorus music follows in the same vein with some nice light guitar and Maida sings the whole chorus in his high falsetto voice and he sounds so good! Cameron joins in for the second verse with a simple drum beat to complete this soft riff as Maida is in the spotlight with his wonderful singing. The problem with this song is that it's over five minutes long and they just jam it out for way, way too long at the end. The next track is "R.K. 2029 (Pt.2)" and Kurzweil tells us that robots are now fighting for rights and arguing for what makes something human. Track 9 is "Made To Heal" and Turner leads the way with some simple but solid guitar, Coutts backs him with some similar bass and Maida sings another great high verse. They continue to build up the chorus really well on this album with another nice ramp-up and I absolutely love hownMaida turns the word heal into a twelve syllable word with all of his unique and cool ups and downs. Another solid round later everything quiets down and Maida almost whispers the ramp-up part, then the music comes slamming back in as they jam out a couple choruses to end it. There are certainly no real weak points so far! Up next is "R.K. 1949-97" and Kurzweil gives us a brief technology history lesson: George Orwell wrote his book 1984, the first print-to-speech machine for the blind is made, and in 1997 how a computer was able to defeat world chess champion Garry Kasparov. Track 11 is "Everyone's A Junkie" and it's got a unique and interesting main riff with some cool bass by Coutts and lots of interesting noises on guitar and drums. Maida sings a great verse as usual and when Turner's guitar picks up towards the end of the verse things sound pretty good. Maida holds some nice long notes in the chorus and the music is smooth and solid with Coutts continuing to play some cool bass in the background. After the next go round they once again like to quiet things down as Maida sings softly overtop. They do a nice job of slowly ramping up and by the end they're ready to slam back into the chorus to nicely finish things off. Just another pretty cool tune! The next track is "R.K. On Death" and Kurzweil explains how even though we avoid death like the plague, without it life would be meaningless. Track 13 is "All My Friends" and Turner plays some cool lead guitar while Maida sings a wonderful verse in his one-of-a-kind voice. His high falsetto sounds so good and the music sounds smooth and entrancing. Maida goes full falsetto for the whole chorus and I love it, things sound quietly so epic! After another epic verse the next chorus is louder with some solid guitar and bass this time and Turner smoothly goes from here into a guitar solo! There aren't many solos on this album, but Turner does a great job of fitting the mood with this long and cool solo that takes us all the way to end of the song. Keep 'em coming boys! Up next is "If You Believe" and it's got a cool offbeat main riff with some nice bass by Coutts keeping the pace with Turner playing some cool guitar overtop. Maida sings a predictably cool verse that fits the mood perfectly and of course has some more great high falsetto parts. The chorus is led by a quiet piano riff and no other music as Maida sings a really high and pretty cool chorus. Another loud verse, another quiet chorus, and then the two riffs become one as they play a loud version of the chorus with some cool guitars leading the way. They finish with one final quiet chorus and Maida just sounds so good! The final song on the album is "The Wonderful Future" and it's listed at exactly 20 minutes long! Coutts plays some simple bass, Taggart adds a catchy drum beat, and Turner plays a cool lead guitar riff in this interesting main riff. Maida sings nicely overtop and he hits some more great high notes in the soft and pop-y chorus. This pretty much sums up this one, but it's a nice and breezy vibe and I don't think it drags. This song really ends at the 4:30 mark, then after twelve minutes of silence we hear a bonus conversation between R.K. and a girl named Molly. There's some space-y piano in the background and R.K. keeps asking questions to this android-like being. It's pretty interesting and pretty crazy, a fitting way to end the album though.

That is the end of "Spiritual Machines" and I thought it was a pretty sweet album! Our Lady Peace set a high bar on this album as every full-length song is pretty good! There's a ton of catchy and cool riffs and what haven't I already said about Raine Maida, he's just such a great lead singer. I like this album even more than their last album "Happiness...", but then we come to "Naveed" and I don't think it's quite good enough to surpass that great debut, so third place it will have to be! It's a very strong third though!