With its bright, icy appeal and a moody undercurrent, it sounds as if it should wear well. Fear not, though – it is still good – but in a charming slit-your-wrists, top-of-the-rock charts kind of way." David Sinclair of The Times wrote: "A heavily synthesised rocker, with an oddly lurching, varispeed intro, Spaceman is rich in futuristic imagery, with echoes of David Bowie and Gary Numan that extend well beyond its title. She noted: "The intro sounds just like the ad – all high pitched and squeaky – but then everything takes a turn for the serious. Also Helen Lamont of Smash Hits rated the song four out of five. Chuck Eddy at Entertainment Weekly described the song's "futuristic kitsch" as "both funny and seductive." Music & Media said it's "basically a good pop tune whose hooks grab you by the throat." Music Week gave it four out of five, adding that "the energetic and distinctive guitar rock of Spaceman is featured on the new Levis ad, so expect big sales." Reviewing The Boy with the X-Ray Eyes in Select, Ian Harrison described the song as a "bin-lid dancey metal effort with a weakness for vintage Bowie-isms (done like Bauhaus with synths) and a suspected humour deficiency".
Reception and legacyĬontemporary reception was generally favourable. The speeded up intro and outro sections are in the 'dominant' key: E♭ minor (video) and E minor (record). The song in the video (A♭ minor) is recorded a semitone lower than the record (A minor). Finally the vocals are sped up again, during a black-and-white epilogue that returns to the prologue's scene, where aliens go missing in the fog but one of them turns in front of the camera pointing to the night sky, showing that he's the night driver, turned into another alien.
#Spaceman, zoo s full
When the vocals decelerate and return to normal pitch, the video alternates between the band playing in an underground place full of young people dancing with the band playing alone in a blue-colored desert landscape, with Mann singing to camera.
#Spaceman, zoo s driver
It features a black-and-white prologue with Jas Mann as a night driver who has a close encounter with aliens appearing from fog on the road, with the vocals sped up. Music videoįollowing the release of the single a music video was produced, directed by Mark Neale. "Spaceman" is also featured in E4's My Mad Fat Diary, in the episode "Ladies and Gentlemen", during the scene where Rae and Finn begin their drive to Knebworth. "Spaceman" is also used in Eesti otsib superstaari (Pop Idol Estonia).
#Spaceman, zoo s series
In 2006, "Spaceman" featured on trailers for Ant and Dec's film Alien Autopsy, the BBC's children's channel, CBeebies for the animated preschool series Lunar Jim, and Network Ten's advertisement for Battlestar Galactica. There was a lower budget video made for this version. The "I killed you all" lyric remains buried in the mix. The initial intro to "Spaceman" on the promotional copies, before it was used for the advert, featured Mann's whispering vocals of "I killed your mother, I killed your sister, I killed you all." These lyrics were later taken out of the song and replaced with the more radio friendly Arthur Baker introduction. Russian model Kristina Semenovskaya played the daughter, wearing Levi's jeans.
#Spaceman, zoo s full version
There was a full version of the sped up vocals called "Spaceman (Zupervarian Mix)". The advertisement concentrated on Baker's sped-up vocal section at the beginning and end of the song, featuring an alien neighbourhood inspired by the 1950s with alien parents awaiting the return of their teen daughter. Promotional copies of "Spaceman" had been distributed, and the Arthur Baker remix was chosen to tie in with the release of a new United Kingdom Levi's advertisement titled "Planet" on 1 December 1995, which was directed by Vaughan Arnell and Anthea Benton.
"Spaceman" was the sixth song to reach number one in the UK after being featured in an advert for Levi's. Featuring heavily distorted guitars and metallic, robotic sounding vocals, it entered the UK Singles Chart at number one on 21 January 1996, after being featured in a popular Levi's jeans television advertisement in December 1995. " Spaceman" is a song by British rock band Babylon Zoo, released on 15 January 1996 as the lead single from their debut album, The Boy with the X-Ray Eyes (1996).