10 Songs You Didn't Know Were About Heroin
2. "Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (Can’t Help Falling In Love)" (Spiritualized)
By the time the English band Spiritualized released their third album, the space-rock/neo-psychedelic/shoegaze group had already shown a penchant for producing cool/narco/drifty tunes. But this LP clearly arrived heavier and druggier — and earned NME’s 1997 Album of the Year.
The band’s frontman and primary lyricist Jason Pierce (aka J. Spaceman) crafted the title track as a wildly ambitious, hypnotic mashup that samples Pachelbel's Canon, interspersed with elements of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” And did we mention the hypnotic beeping satellite?
Adding to its emotional heft, the song was recorded around the time Pierce’s girlfriend (and the band’s keyboardist, Kate Radley) dumped him and skipped off to marry The Verve’s Richard Ashcroft. Ouch. And hence the droning verse: "All I want in life's a little bit of love to take the pain away.” Although the Presley estate initially blocked the use of the King’s drippy love song, the re-release contains the full effect. Enjoy.