“Soul on Fire” takes what was once Pierce’s tried-and-true solo meditation on the fine line between transcendence and self-destruction (also: how religion and drugs are a path to both) and finally stretches it so thin as to render it nigh transparent. In fact, since Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (1997) overtook Pierce’s Spacemen work, establishing his identification with dense orchestral sweeps, every official release has had the diminishing returns of an artist unsure how to respond to his own best efforts: Let it Come Down (2001) approximated known techniques with inferior songs, and Amazing Grace (2003) only works when thought of as a departure, hardly standing on its own two legs. It’s been Pierce’s steps off the beaten path that have surprised: the overwhelming Royal Albert Hall (1998), the Complete Works compilations (which somehow have greater cohesion than anything released in an official capacity since), and his beautiful remix of Yoko Ono’s “Walking on Thin Ice.”

It’s so disappointing, then, to realize that “Soul on Fire” presages a predictable “return to form.” Pierce tries to pare down Let It Come Down‘s oversaturated ambition while capturing the essence of Ladies and Gentlemen‘s largeness and pantheistic submission.

Pierce’s imagery is less central than redundant. Where Jason Molina of Magnolia Electric Co. might use moons, lightning, and other natural elements, these lyrics are palettes to be explored in as full a way as possible. Here, Pierce continues to explore the same two dimensions of being “on fire.” How believable is the assertion that one is so in the throes of passion that their soul is ablaze when it takes four years to release an overcooked, repetitive registration of now-rote images? I’m starting to think that Pierce owes himself a trip to the edge of the rock scene before another assertion that the bottle or the Lord defines the contours of his being. The song cycles the same gospel rock-out formula that Spiritualized has been oscillating the volume dial over for a decade. The man needs a reboot.