Primal Scream have always touted themselves as the ethos of rock’n'roll: back in the day they made upstarts like Oasis look tame with their supreme love of narcotics, wild party lifestyle and euphoric acid-tinged rock. Yet like the Happy Mondays they keep on trucking, spitting out album after album and generally defying all odds to still be alive and kicking. These days though, lead singer Bobby Gillespie is more likely to be spotted playing with his rock’n'roll-named kids (Wolf and Lux since you ask) than filling up on booze and brown - hell, his tanned new look has even landed him a modelling contract for Uniqlo. So with all this off-rock’n'roll-message behaviour, does the band’s latest album “Beautiful Future” satiate our rock’n'roll needs as only they can?
The answer is, sort of - but that’s no bad thing. Sure, “Beautiful Future” has some supreme rock’n'roll moments - new single “Can’t Go Back” being one such example - but it also delivers pop moments, slow moments and indie moments. Critically though, the album rustles up enough magic moments to ensure it’s a raucous and sunny listen - Bobby and co have produced an uplifting and euphoric collection of tunes that should surprise no-one, following on from classic hits like “Rocks”, “Loaded” and “Movin On Up”.
The album begins with title track “Beautiful Future”, an upbeat portion of power pop, replete with chimes, clapping and Bobby’s whimsy vocals steering the ship. That it talks about “bodies hanging from a tree” doesn’t detract from its sunshine-filled beat, although perhaps it should… The exhilaration exhaled on the opener is carried through to “Can’t Go Back”, a swaggering wedge of Jagger-pomp-style rock’n'roll which demands that you turn up the volume - RealMusic Blog advises you do so. This is an album that’s definitely better listened to LOUD. “The Glory Of Love” is an obvious radio-friendly tune, glamming it up shamelessly a la T-Rex’s“Get It On”, “Necro Hex Blues” rocks out with the help of Queens Of The Stone Age guitarist Josh Homme, and “Zombie Man” is a jaunty number we can already imagine 100,000 people singing at next year’s Glastonbury.
Josh Homme isn’t the only collaboration, mind: CSS’s Lovefoxx steps up in “I Love To Hurt” and British folk singer Linda Thompson does the honours on a really rather stunning cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Over And Over” that evokes Primal Scream’s gorgeous version of “I Would Rather Go Blind”. There are still enough shuddering guitars on this effort for old-school fans to soak up, but it does seem like the Scream boys dipped themselves in sunshine and glitter before going into the studio, the result being an addictive and thunderous set of songs. And on “Uptown”, they even manage to sound a bit like Prefab Sprout - and RealMusic Blog never imagined it’d be writing that sentence…
Produced by Bjorn ‘Peter, Bjorn & John’ Yttling and Paul ‘Bloc Party‘ Epworth, Gillespie reckons: “This is different from the last record and different from the album before that. This album is more like a pop record, more like classic songwriting.” You heard the man.
Watch Primal Scream’s current single “Can’t Go Back” below…
(Clare Lydon)
