God bless him, the plucky BBC DJ back-announcing the forthcoming Spiritualized single on this radio rip gives it his best shot, describing "Soul on Fire" as "fairly far-reaching and epic." Look, I like Spiritualized at least as much as the next guy, but that description hasn't been applicable to the output of J. Spaceman and company since their peak-reaching Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, which was...wait, let me check my watch...eleven bloody years ago!

Don't misunderstand--that said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with "Soul On Fire" in and of itself. In fact, it bears quite an attractive pop twinkle, replete with '60s-influenced baroque-pop orchestration and a singalong chorus that has undeniable earworm potential. It's better than at least half of what's churning around in BBC rotation at the moment, and it pretty much beats the hell out of most of the tunes on Floating's stillborn followup Let It Come Down. It's just that over the last decade, the good Mr. Spaceman has seemed to be more interested in becoming a Grand Old Man of Britpop, leaving the adventurous textures and experimental spirit of his early-to-mid-'90s excursions far behind. That's all well and good, the world can always use another sturdily crafted pop song, but anyone expecting the new Spiritualized to be (or desperately framing it as) something akin to the old spacemen's days of interstellar overdrive is likely to have their applecart soundly upturned. Whatever your outlook, you can judge for yourself when Songs in A&E comes out in the UK on May 19.