PRIMAL SCREAM - Evil Heat

At last, the new, much-talked-about album from Scotland's Primal Scream: it had been generating a lot of buzz mainly because of one track, originally titled “Bomb The Pentagon”(!), a title that understandably made the record label tremble: perhaps Primal Scream could have been bold all the way, but instead they chose to avoid further controversy by changing the title of the offending track, which became “Rise”. That takes nothing away from the subversive charge of the song, an aggressive, genuinely “nasty” piece of industrial rock.

And it's precisely that nastiness that's the leitmotif of the album and of Primal Scream's new direction, as could already be sensed on the previous, superb “Exterminator”. Full-throttle tracks like “Miss Lucifer” (a kind of techno-punk launched at supersonic speed) and “City” (a garage rock number ennobled by a guitar contribution from his majesty Kevin Shields) best represent the balance the band has achieved in reconciling electronic experimentation with its rock roots.

Overflowing with references (even literal ones, like the nod to P.K. Dick in the instrumental “A Scanner Darkly”, or the tribute to the masters Kraftwerk in the long, mesmerizing “Autobahn 66”) and at the very least “special” appearances (see Robert Plant playing on “The Lord Is My Shotgun” and Jim Reid of Jesus & Mary Chain singing on “Detroit”), the album is perhaps the most fragmented entry in the already sufficiently scattered discography of the mixed-bag Scottish ensemble. A striking opening track like “Deep Hit Of Morning Sun” raises hopes for a masterpiece, but as often happens with Bobby Gillespie and co., along the way they stumble into frankly pointless episodes (see the embarrassing cover of the swing classic “Some Velvet Morning”, sung(?) by top model Kate Moss, which had already been redone a few years earlier by the wonderful Slowdive). Credit is nonetheless due for the choice to close an album like this with the slow, melancholy “Space Blues #2”.

In essence, an album that opens and closes with two gems, but in between, aside from the already mentioned “Miss Lucifer” and “Rise”, indecision reigns, though flashes of brilliance aren't lacking. Primal Scream nonetheless remain one of the most innovative and interesting British bands. We're still patiently waiting for the masterpiece that is, without doubt, within their reach.

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04/11/2006