Spiritualized, Portsmouth Pyramids, Sunday 7 October

SPIRITUALIZED have just released what could well be the album of the year - but Spiritualized main man Jason Pierce isn't letting the rave reviews faze him.

Let It Come Down is the band's fourth studio album and follows the critically-acclaimed Ladies And Gentleman.

You can see Spiritualized at Portsmouth Pyramid Centre on Sunday, with Radio One in attendance to record the entire show for their In Session programme.

Pierce, a former member of the legendary Spacemen 3, says modestly: "I don't need anyone else's opinion, it satisfies me what I'm doing. As long as I'm happy with the record and believe I've made the best of it, that's the success for me."

The album, which has already yielded the hit single Stop Your Crying, was more than two years in the making and features some epic orchestral arrangements.

"To do the arrangements took me a year, then the recording sessions were relatively quick, taking place over about three weeks. Then it was a question of mixing it.

"It was hard to make it sound as intimate as it ended up. Initially it sounded very like Wagner, full of huge orchestration."

Pierce is, by his own admission, something of a perfectionist. "I just believe if you are going to put a record out it's got to be the best record you can possibly do.

"I just think so many people put out records they are not happy with. They don't say it at the time of release because that's suicidal, but you hear it later when they make their next record and say 'Well, we got it right this time'."

Sitting down to write the new songs, Pierce decided the easiest way was to sing the vocals into a voice recorder and take it from there.

"I don't know enough guitar chords to play these songs, so I sang the melodies onto a tape," he says.

"I think a lot of orchestrations arrive at pop music as an afterthought - the song is finished and someone says, 'This would be great with strings or a gospel choir'.

"With this record I wanted orchestrations that were integral to the music. So I started with the French horn and worked around that, and then worked off some of the other melodies and that dictated where the songs went."

Tickets to see Spiritualised in concert cost £13. For more information, call the Pyramids box office on 023 9235 8608.