The Perfect Prescription


The Perfect Prescription is the second studio album by British neo-psychedelic band Spacemen 3, released in 1987. It is a concept album, "a vision of a drug trip from inception to its blasted conclusion, highs and lows fully intact."
Pitchfork Media listed it at #50 in their list of the greatest albums of the 1980s.
The album was promoted with two singles, with the second single, "Take Me to the Other Side", releasing in July 1988 as a 12" single. It was recorded at VHF studios in Rugby, Warwickshire.

Content

The music becomes progressively more orchestral and serene until the high of the trip, represented by "Ecstasy Symphony"/"Transparent Radiation," moving on to the moment of realisation where the high has faded and the comedown ensues, represented by the harsh opening guitar chords in "Things'll Never Be the Same." Coming down is represented in the blues-based "Come Down Easy," while the potentially fatal effects of an overdose are portrayed in the final track, "Call the Doctor." The music was written by the band, except "Transparent Radiation," which is a Red Krayola cover from the 1967 album The Parable of Arable Land. The band also borrows heavily from the gospel standard "In My Time of Dying" in "Come Down Easy," and it pays homage to Lou Reed in "Ode to Street Hassle."

Track listing

;1989 re-issue
Adds b-sides from the "Take Me to the Other Side" single as bonus tracks:
;1995 re-issue
Adds two tracks from the "Walkin' With Jesus" single and the Transparent Radiation EP as bonus tracks:
;1996 re-issue

Personnel

;Spacemen 3
;Additional personnel

Liner notes

The vinyl edition of The Perfect Prescription includes liner notes by author R. Hunter Gibson:

Forged Prescriptions

Forged Prescriptions is a compilation album by Spacemen 3 released on Space Age Recordings in 2003. It contains alternate and demo versions of songs from The Perfect Prescription, and some previously unreleased tracks.
In his liner notes, Spacemen 3 member Sonic Boom says this release presents the album's songs in their "full guitar laden versions with all the layers of beautifully streamlined guitar—considered by us to be too hard to replicate live and therefore reduced for the original release."