Summer, it turns me upside down. Actually, I’m more of a fall person, truth be told, so I tend to look forward (and right-side up) to the change in the weather that often coincides with Labor Day Weekend more than others might. Since many of us seem to have a, well, divine connection with all the sun and fun that’s usually associated with these past three months, I figured I’d close out my special, end-of-summertime 360-degree listening sessions with a pair of “spiritual” Dolby Atmos tracks, if you will—one old, one new—to honor the passing of the season.
Thus, I’ve chosen Norman Greenbaum’s forever holy Top 5 hit “Spirit in the Sky” and N’Awlins royalty Jon Batiste’s brand-new “Angels” to suit my premise. As those of you who follow this column regularly already know, I prefer listening to Atmos mixes in a variety of ways—via a rotational combo of earbuds, headphones, and open-air speakers—before deciding which way better aligns with the immersive music vibes of the songs at hand.
After giving both “Spirit” and “Angels” their respective dues with my AirPod Pros and House of Marley Liberate XLBT headphones, I felt that my open sky, er, open-air system setup—which features floorstanding GoldenEar Technology Triton One loudspeakers serving as the fronts, a pair of GoldenEar Triton Sevens as the rears, and my current Sony Atmos speakers for the height channels—is ultimately what best serve the far-reaching cosmic rationales of each cut.
For further comparison, I also listened to the Hi-Res Lossless mixes of both cuts on my current favored pair of Fosi Audio i5 planar magnetic headphones, and I’m happy to report they handled the literal highs and lows of the stereo playback going on inside my head during both “Spirit” and “Angels” with much aplomb. The more I use these i5 phones (SRP: $549.99) for two-channel playback, the more I dig ’em.
As for other streaming service options, you can also access both “Spirit” and “Angels” in Ultra HD on Amazon Music; High (“Spirit”) and Max (“Angels”) on Tidal; 24-bit/192kHz (“Spirit”) and 24-bit/48kHz (“Angels”) on HDTracks; and, shall we say, “the usual” for the two of ’em on Spotify. But now, let’s get to the then/now Atmos matters at hand, shall we?
NORMAN GREENBAUM: “SPIRIT IN THE SKY”
California singer/songwriter Norman Greenbaum achieved instant immortality when “Spirit in the Sky” soared to No. 3 on the U.S. singles charts and ascended to No. 1 in five other countries, including the UK and Canada, in the early months of 1970 (shortly following its December 1969 release on Reprise). All you need to hear is that indelible, opening fuzztone guitar riff and heavenly choruses to understand why. And, in its new-to-2025 Atmos mix, it’s safe to say that “Spirit” literally reaches new heights. (The Atmos mix of “Spirit in the Sky” was released digitally back on April 15, 2025, via Craft Recordings, who also reissued the full, long-out-of-print album of the same name on vinyl a few months later on June 13, 2025.)
Right from the get-go, the riff Greenbaum plays on his fuzzed-out Fender Telecaster is beyond epic, mostly nested in the right quadrants, with its delay/echo wafting just slightly over to the center and then the left. Percussion and handclaps enter up the middle, with a counter acoustic guitar line off to the far left. A second electric riff takes center stage, and woodblock percussion joins the prayer circle as well. When Greenbaum’s opening lyrics, “When I die and they lay me to rest / I’m going to the place that’s the best,” arrive circa 35 seconds into the song, he’s already ascending to the clouds where he’ll mostly stay for the duration.
When Greenbaum repeats the title phrase in the first chorus, the gospel-tinged background vocals of the Stovall Sisters mirror that line over in the left heights, holding the vowel at the end of “sky” and, at the end of the next line, “die.” They also do blessed wonders with their vocal blend on the assertion that “you’ve got a friend in Jesus.”
Greenbaum’s irresistible sneering ’n’ snarling guitar riff carries forth in the right quadrants pretty much the entire way through the track, and the more direct electric wrangle/counter stays mostly centered, as does the ensuing solo. (Keep an ear out for the channel-wafting tambourine shakes from center left to right before and during that initial solo run too.) It’s fair to say that if Greenbaum hadn’t deployed the fuzz circuitry on his Tele to such a recurring degree here on “Spirit,” the backing track might not have been as memorable as it remains to this day—even though the connective tissue of the lyrics would have likely tipped the balance regardless.
The Stovall Sisters keep their gospel call-and-response thing going on the remaining choruses, and with barely a minute left, one of them (either Nettie, Lillian, or Joyce) steps out for an added, individual higher-harmony run. About the only thing that isn’t letter-perfect about this truly brilliant song is how the second guitar solo leads to a too-abrupt fade in the last 20-ish seconds. Even so, the holy gospel remains that if you do want to go to the place that’s the best in 360 degrees, verily, you cannot go wrong by connecting with Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit” in Atmos.
“Spirit in the Sky” can be listened to in Dolby Atmos here on Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit in the Sky album on Apple Music.
JON BATISTE: “ANGELS (FEAT NO ID)”
Fast-forwarding to the present day, where Grammy-winning pianist/composer Jon Batiste released his ninth album, Big Money, via Verve/Interscope just over a week ago on August 22, 2025, and it is yet another potent gumbo/stew of musical styles that reflect a talent who can’t be put into one genre box (let alone five).
The album’s compelling closing track, “Angels,” features producer/rapper/DJ No ID—not to mention it also serves as a major spotlight for Batiste’s alter ego Billy Bob Bo Bob, who’s described in the official press materials as being an “interstellar DJ beaming soul across space and time.” Spoiler alert: Batiste-as-Bx4 is all that cosmic brio, and more.
The opening harmonium/melodica bleats pulse wide across the soundstage until they flirt with achieving all-out, all-channel distortion as Batiste and/or his alter ego sings the opening lines up in the ether, “Lay your wings on my shoulder / The world needs an angel today.” His semi-detached, almost otherworldly vocal approach here is a good choice, and then his voice gets pushed even further to the forefront of the mix as he intones, “fly higher.” As he repeats the latter word, the echo volume increases, and a brief synth/laser blast rotates clockwise around the field.
The lilt and sway of the backing track is an admitted nod to the dub/reggae stylings of Lee “Scratch” Perry, with chucka-chucka guitar lines sometimes starting off on the right, and sometimes blowing free over to the left before pinging through all points in between. Meanwhile, Batiste/Bx4 has much fun enacting the phrase “round and round and round” through his 360-degree proclivities, with much echo and reverb in tow. When he exhales “whoo!” halfway in, he spreads the field even wider, and the hypnotic nature of the backing track becomes even more playful, with spiraling effects utilizing the entire space available. “Angels” has that pay-full-attention kind of mix I’d play for 360-newbies to show them the promise and excitement Atmos has to offer, hands down (and wings up).
Just like Batiste-cum-Billy Bob Bo Bob sings, the world really does need an angel today—and the unabashed, ecstatically immersive nature of his “Angels” in Atmos is a comforting way of embracing this most hallowed of concepts.
“Angels (Feat. No ID)” can be listened to in Dolby Atmos here on Jon Batiste’s Big Money album on Apple Music.
