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The 21^st century hasn’t been especially kind to Jason Pierce thus far. After firing his band and rebuilding Spiritualized from the ground up he issued Let It Come Down in 2001; the record’s initial charms ultimately suffered at the hands of simplistic melodic structures and unnecessarily dense orchestral arrangements. Perhaps sensing he’d overreached, Pierce pulled a back-to-basics move on 2003’s Amazing Grace but it, too, despite the presence of a handful of sorta-cool garage numbers, hasn’t aged well, like Pierce was straining to sound relevant in the White Stripes era. Then in 2005 he was slammed with a pneumonia-related illness and reportedly almost died, effectively taking him out of commission for two years.

That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, though, right? The sixth Spiritualized studio effort is the album Pierce should have made after 1997’s Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. Like that masterwork, Songs In A&E (“A&E” is a sly pun: “Arts & Entertainment,” sure, but also the “Accident and Emergency” ward he spent time in) is a cornucopia of styles, sometimes rendered as jarring juxtapositions but ultimately sinewy and sleek — a genuine sonic journey. From dreamy waltzes with choirlike vocals (“Sweet Talk”) to orchestrated numbers that rather than aiming for “lush” are exercises in restraint (“Borrowed Your Gun”) to the best Stooges ripoff (“Yeah Yeah”) you’ve heard since Pierce’s old band Spacemen 3 ripped off the Stooges, Songs covers plenty of ground. Thanks to the minimalist instrumental interludes each titled “Harmony” (six in all) that punctuate the 52-minute record, the overall effect is to create mini-suites — in one, the spooky, morphine-drip blooze “Death Take Your Fiddle” sets the stage for the irresistible twangy/jangly rocker “I Gotta Fire” which in turn yields to the gospellish, quietly anthemic “Soul On Fire” — that provide Songs with the ebb-and-flow dynamics of a live concert. And with recurring lyrical themes that reflect Pierce’s recent medical travails alongside his usual meditations on mortality, religious transcendence and love’s healing properties, the album also manages to feel subtly conceptual without turning pompous. No deaf, dumb and blind pinball players in here.

If Songs In A&E is the unanticipated byproduct of Pierce’s protracted stint in intensive care, maybe we should sentence all our musicians to hospital stays when they need to recharge their creative batteries.

Standout Tracks: “I Gotta Fire,” “Death Take Your Fiddle” FRED MILLS