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album reviews

Primal Scream



Beautiful Future 6½ ( 2008 )
Beautiful Future / Can't Go Back / Uptown / The Glory Of Love / Suicide Bomb / Zombie Man / Beautiful Summer / I Love To Hurt (You Love To Be Hurt) / Over & Over / Necro Kex Blues / The Glory Of Love

Look, why is it Primal Scream continually underacheive? Any band with former Stone Roses bassist Mani in it alongside former Felt man Martin Duffy has to be good, don't they? I mean, they just have to be? No, Bobby Gillespie, former drummer with Jesus And Mary Chain in their more ramshackle days still gets to sing and write vocal nonentities. Don't get me wrong, a couple of Primal Scream albums have been very good indeed, but only those that have featured an appropriate producer who has been able to stamp a different kind of sonic imprint onto proceedings. 'Over & Over' might sound very Rolling Stones in country-mode, it might have all the right elements, on the face of it present and correct. Well it might do, but there just doesn't seem to be any real emotion here, rather more a piece of canny method acting. 'Uptown' is so much better because Mani does a revolving bass-line that goes round and round in circles, instantly creating a much more modern feeling. Well, the guy has feeling, enough said. Subtle bass-variations through the mid-section of the track and a violin then joins in, most attractively. Mani again shows strengths during the pumping 'Necro Hex Blues', linking up brilliantly with Josh Homme from Queens Of The Stone Age guesting on guitar, and boy does Josh make a difference.

'Glory Of Love' is the single and instantly sounds stupid with crap glam beats and a very weak guitar pattern. Very eighties. The vocals sound very nearly unintelligble and the lyrics are completely meaningless, particularly coming out of the mouth of Gillespie and everything he's been through. I won't quote individual lines, but some of them are just horrific. If Primal Scream really had balls, they'd release something like 'Necro Hex Blues' instead and come out all guns blazing. Maybe they will, who knows? Anyway, 'Beautiful Future' opens with its own title track, a slice of pleasing although ultimately not very substantial pop guitar music. Instead of Bobby Gillespie, I can hear the singer from The Charlatans singing this one better, or how about Ian Brown? It's a thought to ponder, really it is.

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Readers Comments Ricardo New York City (sigh) oh Primal Scream Primal Scream. So much potential for a great ground breaking band and just choose to create an uninteresting album after the other. Vanishing Point and XTRMNTR are both great, but they are a very inconsistent band.