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Bagpuss |
Released in 1991, Primal Scream's powerful fusion of rock and dance music met with a small but enthusiastic reaction at first, before enjoying a massive upsurge in popularity after becoming the first winner of the Mercury Music Prize, and going on to become arguably the most influential album of the decade. But does it stand up well today? Was it actually that consistent in the first place? And have the band ever done anything to match up to it?
Primal Scream had made their name in the late 1980s as an interesting but largely undistinguished indie outfit, whose songs had a clear garage rock inflection and displayed a deep love of The Stooges and The Rolling Stones. These leanings were still very much in evidence on "Screamadelica", but they were matched by and fused with an immersion in dance music, which took many of their fans - and detractors - by suprise. I didn't get Screamadelica when it first came out as I had bought their first album containing rather drippy, sub-psychedelia such as 'I Love You'. I had heard the remix of 'I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have' - 'Loaded' in a club and was blown away. When I got the album I was spine-tingly throughout most of it and that feeling remains to this day. The sax break in 'I'm Coming Down' still makes me vibrate slightly and I'm hoping always will. I remember Bob Geldof saying on that top 100 albums of all time thang a few years back that this album was hugely derivative of The Rolling Stones. Justine Frischmann pointed out that surely he meant the next one ("Give Out But Don't Give Up"), but Saint Sir Bob was adamant. At the time I thought he was wrong, now I can see his point a little more, but still think that as a mainstream fusion of Indie-ish Rock and the dance culture of the time, it remains unsurpassed. - Stephen McCarthy Annie Nightingale (their manager's mum and the Radio 1 DJ who actually played the records rather than just paying lip service) put on 'Inner Flight' and the new single 'Higher than the Sun' one Sunday evening. I bought the album and was disappointed - there were gems among the dust, but karaoke Rolling Stones impersonations? On the whole, they just sounded like whoever was producing them at the time - a "crime" for which pop acts are regularly baited. The record should have come with a government health warning - "You need to take drugs before you can listen to this properly", and I was on nothing stronger than coffee at the time. But the reception it got was so ecstatic, the journalists must have been taking the same stuff as the band. Only the slightly staid Q dared stick its neck out and measure up the Emperor's New Clothes. Listening back, some of the more languid stuff stands up, the more derivative stuff never did anyway, but "Loaded" and "Come Together" now sound really embarrassing - maddening one-dimensional loops aimed at people too stoned to care. Bobby Gillespie - "Could he dance before the stroke?" (Mary Whitehouse Experience sketch). - Andy Durrant
Hailed as a groundbreaking work at the time of release, and arguably a defining moment with regard to the direction that music would take through the 1990s, "Screamdelica" does not seem to enjoy the same reputation nowadays, and is generally regarded as a collection of good songs rather than actually being important. "Screamadelica" is the 'Citizen Kane' of 90s British pop - it's so important and so often namedropped that you forget how entertaining it is. - Dave Rolinson Since 1991/92, the album and its contents have been marginalised in an insidious fashion - seemingly, recent years have seen it transformed from exciting and innovative-sounding music to mere air-punching 'anthemic' nothingness by people who wouldn't know how to get excited by music if they tried. Which is a bit of a shame, but then again was probably always bound to happen. - TJ Worthington
paintbox(a)bluejam20.freeserve.co.uk.
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