So let's get this straight: Spiritualized is not a religious band?

Well, not exactly.

See, Spiritualized formed in the wake of trance-rockers Spacemen 3, a band whose mantra was "taking drugs to make music to take drugs to."

It was a belief so strong it even lent itself to one of their album titles.

And while this attitude clearly carried over to singer/guitarist Jason Pierce's new project, you can't ignore that its very name also points to an acknowledgement of some form of higher consciousness.

Grind that up with your mortar and pestle and you get Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, a moving, and ultimately hopeless, search for love and God that finds redemption only in unapologetic drug use.

And fittingly, it's packaged to resemble a prescription pill box, complete with recommended dosage information.

So Spiritualized is a drug band? Well, I don't know.

I mean I'm betting, and of course I don't know for sure, but I'm betting that a lot of people take drugs (a lot of them) to listen to a lot of different bands.

But you can definitely argue (and I am) that Spiritualized takes the drug experience and documents it in stunning Brian Wilson-esque fashion on Ladies and Gentlemen; and that in itself makes for a wholly satisfying listeniexperience, with or without chemical aids.

It begins with a whisper up your spine; the flat, disembodied voice of a British woman stating the obvious: "Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space."

The circular chant of "All I want in life's a little bit of love to take the pain away" gradually rises to the surface and builds, adding layers of effects and instruments and even more chants, all running together in incoherent bliss, not unlike The Flaming Lips.

And with one last outer space beep, the title track shifts gears on you and rushes into "Come Together," a Radiohead-style arena rock anthem with a harmonica just as mean as its guitar licks and horn section, vocals spat by Pierce in syncopated fury: "Little J's a f----- up boy/who doled the pain but killed the joy/and little J's a f------ mess/but when he's offered just says yes."

Then suddenly you've broken the stratosphere. "I Think I'm in Love," the most brilliant song on Ladies and Gentlemen, begins as nothing more than a few curious guitar and bass teases set against an ominous backdrop of deep space fuzz.

Pierce's voice drifts in across this sonic landscape with an ethereal quality that perfectly mimics David Gilmour on Pink Floyd's "A Pillow of Winds."

At first he's in a drug haze, marveling at the forces that surround him, and in total denial of the very title of the song; but as it kicks without warning into an extra-terrestrial groove, so too does his tune change to one of uncertainty:

"I think I'm in love. Probably just hungry/I think I'm your friend. Probably just lonely/I think you got me in a spin now. Probably just turning/I think I'm a fool for you babe. Probably just yearning."

The spirit doesn't die but it cools off a bit for "All of My Thoughts" and "Stay With Me," songs which both anticipate Mercury Rev's orchestral explorations on Deserter's Songs.

"Electricity" follows -- another huge standout on the album for the fact that it's about as straight-ahead a rocker you'll find here -- and absolutely crackles with ... well, you know, something.

"Home of the Brave" is another that sounds like the Rev until it disintegrates into "The Individual," a terrifying wall of experimental noise and distortion that would make Thurston Moore cry on the wrong kind of acid.

Luckily, "Broken Heart" pulls you out of that catatonic pit of despair; another subdued piece of dream pop, it builds into "No God, Only Religion."

Thom Yorke must have bought Ladies and Gentlemen the day it came out (July 1, 1997, the same day as OK Computer, incidentally), because this song appeared later on Kid A, only it was called "The National Anthem."

And "Cool Waves" probably gave Tim DeLaughter of the Polyphonic Spree the idea to form a big psychedelic gospel choir (the jury's still out on the merits of this one).

"Cop Shoot Cop" closes the album in epic fashion. The song is 17 minutes long and goes from piano groove to noise freak out and back, before the unexplained full minute of silence at the end.

Perhaps it's meant to be a time to reflect and realize that, whether or not you chose to accessorize Ladies and Gentlemen with drugs, you definitely just tripped.