Spritual Beggars Ranked
Hommage to a wonderful band, that paid so much attention to songs, details (especially the guitars!!) AND the overall feeling. To achieve being awesomeon all these levels is what makes this band stick out in my opinion. Also they managed to ever evolve albeit within quite strict stylistic boundaries. |
| 9 |  | Spiritual Beggars
Return To Zero
This was a huge disappointment for me. Being nearly devoid of psychedelia and multi layered emotionality and sounding like formulaic (albeit well executed) simple and straight 70s and even 80s hardrock. More Glam than rootsy and earthy. The voice of then-new singer Apollo underlined exactly that and makes this their weakest album to date. |
| 8 |  | Spiritual Beggars
On Fire
My opinon on this clearly differs from what most sputnikers think about 'On Fire', judging from its very hgh rating. In my opinion this sounds like a lazy version of their prime days (Mantra, Ad Astra) which is missing the spark, drive and energy of the former ones, albeit being stylistically very close. To add insult to injury IMO the songwriting and the voice of then-new singer JB do not combine well and the band did not do a good job of adapting their way of writing to his voice. Spice is so sorely missed all over this. Still a couple of very good tunes here, but overall doesn't cut it for me. |
| 7 |  | Spiritual Beggars
Sunrise to Sundown
This album is weird in a sense that it feels disjointed between VERY straight forward hard rockers (with a 'woman fromTokyo' Hommage in 'diamonds under Pressure') and more multilayered, 'typical' Spiritual Beggars stuff. The fact that the straight hard rock songs are all clustered together at the beginning of the album doesn't help much neither for the feeling of cohesion. Ths album has grown on me though and it is the best performance of Apollo with them in my opinion. |
| 6 |  | Spiritual Beggars
Earth Blues
This was kinda a back to the roots effort with a way stronger hint of psychedelia compared to the more straight forward hardrock of their comeback 'return to zero' (and also more than its successor). The singer Apollo with his more melodic and clean approach still doesn't fully cut it for me and prevents this album from being higher on this list. |
| 5 |  | Spiritual Beggars
Spiritual Beggars
The 'humble' begnnings... Everything said about Another Way to Shine is true here too to an even higher extent. A really, really good album but I find myself rarely revisiting it. When in the mood for this Beggars phase I usually turn to their sophomore work. |
| 4 |  | Spiritual Beggars
Demons
With this album they had succeeded to adapt their style and way of playing to the voice of second singer JB. Here his darker voice sounds way more naturally in place compared to 'On Fire', even though I can't exactly point out why that's the case. |
| 3 |  | Spiritual Beggars
Another Way To Shine
Way more roots psychedelic and stoner rock compared to their later material (eg. still no full time keys player here) and the catchy but deep songwriting mastery is notyet completely fleshed out. Nevertheless a wonderful album bursting with riffs and stoner grooves with much to discover albeit its stylistic homogeneity. |
| 2 |  | Spiritual Beggars
Ad Astra
Stylistically very close to Mantra III but a bit more stylistically varied, great guitar escapades standing more in the forefront (wonderful World, Sedated). This is very close to 'Mantra III' for me, but 'Euphoria' being the tie breaker in favor of the latter. |
| 1 |  | Spiritual Beggars
Mantra III
The perfect blend of heaviness, Psychedelia and catchiness. Also still wth stellar singer Spice who has one of the best voices for heavy psychedelic ever! Also features their best (and arguably among the best of all heavy psych, 70s, hard rock) song - 'Euphoria'! This is one of the few albums I can always go back to, completely regardless what mood or stage I am in. A true classic!! |
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