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Spiritual Machines Review
Spiritual Machines Front Cover
Spiritual Machines
(SSL: 5/5)

Overview
The Our Lady Peace album Spiritual Machines was released in Canada on December 14, 2000, to very little media hype (for Our Lady Peace).  The first single, In Repair, was just starting to get some substantial airtime.  Since it's release it has been doing decently well since it's release, but it's no Happiness.  But sales is the only point it is weaker than Happiness on.  Not to say that it is a thousand times better, but it is in many ways superior, and in some ways, different.  Considering the new approach to the writing style and usage of a theme, I felt that this album deserved a full review to cover all the reasons why I have given this album the highest rating that SSL can give: 5/5 -a perfect score.

The Concept
The album is based on a story by R. Kawlings with the same name as this album.  It deals with a time in the future, 2029, when computer/machine AI has advanced to the point that the line between humans and machines are becoming indistinguishable.  Humans have begun to question exactly what defines "humanity", and the legal rights of computers are increasing.  Every song deals with this concept in some way or another. Some are obvious, like "In Repair" (which I feel is about modern medicine), and some are very obscure, like "Right Behind You (Mafia)".  Especially with the placing of the sound byte "10 to 15 billion years ago, the Universe was born" before the latter track, one can only speculate the significance of the track.  A couple of the sound bytes are meaningless, a waste of 6 or so seconds, (RK 2029, pts 1&2) which have no impact on the following songs, with the only possible exception being RK 2029 pt 2 and "Life" which has the lyrics "Oh, Life is waiting for you/ So messed up, but we're alive / Oh, Life is waiting for you / So messed up, but we'll survive " which could possible indicate that the machines/computers have been defined as "alive".  The last two sound bytes by RK are interesting and one downright creepy:  they add a nice touch.  This does not happen often enough.  As a concept album, this cd is a weaker one because of it's inconsistency and vagueness. Concept Score : 3/5

The Songs
Everything I just said was very technical, and let's face it, who really cares if the concept isn't strong when the songs kick ass?  And my friends, the songs do kick ass.  Most of the songs could be released as a single and do very well.  At least in Canada...this album will make hardcore fans more hardcore, but will not likely recruit any more.  They sound like a cross between the darker songs off Clumsy (big dumb rocket) and mixes then with the brighter songs from Happiness (potato girl, lying awake) to make a sound that takes a bit to get used to...I admit it took me a month to purchase this album, simply because I thought "In Repair" sucked.  Listening to it a few more times, and then reading about the concept, made my finally realize it is worth buying this cd.  I realized, I had made a horrible mistake: I could have had this 15 track (10 songs, 5 messages from RK) cd sooner.  If you like the polished sound of Happiness and the originality of Clumsy, you will love Spiritual Machines.  The highlights on this cd are Life, Right Behind You, In Repair, Made to Heal, If You Believe and The Wonderful Future.  Yes, that's six out of the ten songs, but they all deserve that status.
Song Score: 5/5

Concept Score: 3/5 (songs in context of the concept)
Song Score : 5/5 (songs not in context of the concept)

Bottom Line, The
The concept may be weak, but who cares?  For the purposes of buying and rating this cd, only the songs matter.  Therefore, I choose to rate the cd out of context of the concept, and give it a 5/5.
Total Score :5/5

--StarSeed

Shh! I have mp3s! download them!
you will need winzip to extract these

Song
Size
Filename
Length
Download Now!
Right Behind You (Mafia) 2 984 KB olp-sm-rightbehindyou.zip
3:14
In Repair 3 667 KB olp-sm-inrepair.zip
3:58
Life 4 062 KB olp-sm-life.zip
4:23