Primal
Scream, Scottish indie/alt rock legends, 36 years young now, have led a varied
and bewildering life. Encompassing mid 80’s indie, early 90’s rave scene,
challenging electronica, transatlantic rock and most recently straight down the
middle pop, they are a band whose new album is always approached with a sense
of ‘what’s this gonna be then?’. And that’s exactly how I feel coming face to
face with ‘Chaosmosis’, their 11th full length LP. This is Primal
Scream’s sobriety album, it’s title referencing French psychotherapy.
Somewhat
unexpectedly we’re faced with Madchester in full on Happy Mondays/Soup Dragons
mode on opener ‘Trippin’ On Your Love’. Bobby Gillespie is joined by Haim on
vocals on a track that genuinely sounds as if it came from 1990. It’s high
octane pop and it’s fabulous. Surely the whole album won’t be so specifically
retro? Well no, cause immediately we trip 10 years further back in time with
the synth pop of ‘(Feeling Like A) Demon Again’. It’s so 80’s it could be La
Roux. It’s a cyclical song about a relationship being battered through chemical
(as in drugs man) warfare. It may sound sugary to the ears but lyrics like
‘Lost my love, became a ghost, Hurt the ones I love the most’ paint the true
horror of the situation. Cheery stuff! ‘I Can Change’ lyrically is the
optimistic reply to this, and it grooves on a Roxy pop vibe, with Bobby G even
attempting a Bryan Ferry vibrato. So far it’s fairly retro sounding but then
even when at their harshest and most inventive Primal Scream have always drawn
from the multi coloured tapestry of rocks history.
‘100% or
Nothing’ opens with a continuing synth pop vibe but is quickly slashed away by
buzzsaw guitars, more Haim backing vocals and more brightside struggling
relationship words, ‘The anti-depressants don’t anti-depress’. And then ‘Private Wars’ chimes in, all modern
brit folk, and it becomes clear we’re delving into the most diverse Primal
Scream album yet. I really like this track, and even with a lyric like ‘Death
in all you taste’ there’s a genuinely more hopeful vibe here. Musically
unexpected and a true wonder.
‘Where The
Light Gets In’, a Bobby Gillespie and Sky Ferreira (American singer/songwriter,
model and actress) duet, returns to bright, synth pinned pop, catchy as hell
and again a lyric of contrasting highs and lows. It’s followed by a much more hard-core
electronica sound on ‘When The Blackout Meets the Fallout’, a decaying story of
crumbled love, a sexless relationship cast adrift in the slums of romance. It’s
short, sharp and snappy and in its own way as enticing as anything else here. ‘Carnival
of Fools’ unites some of the albums influences in one song, single finger
synthpop riff, dancey keys and a killer hook. And this quick-fire album is all
of a sudden on the home straight, seemingly almost as soon as it’s begun.
‘Golden Rope’
uses another Scream staple, the Stones riff and groove. And the Happy Mondays
are again evoked in the ‘Hallelujahs’ of the chorus, there’s even a sax solo
before a heavenly ‘Hallelujah’ choral precedes the final part of the song, a
softly sung repeated ‘I know that there is something wrong with me’ which in
turn is carried out with a clattering drum beat. And then finally ‘Autumn in
Paradise’ is hauled in alongside as it should be on this album, a simple synth
riff. It’s not ending on a positive note either, this is as bright an ‘all is
lost’ song that you could ever wish to hear. You could even imagine it as a
late Abba number without too much effort. ‘I’ve got nothing left to steal,
There was something when you came here, there’ll be nothing when you leave’
lyrically tops the album perfectly. There’s oodles of despair and loss, broken
love and divorce all wrapped up in as polished a Primal Scream album as there
ever could be. It’s good stuff, an easy and uncomfortable listen all at one.
That’s the chaos I suppose. A melodic paradox.
8/10
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