CD Review

Published on 19/07/2008 13:46

RELEASE OF THE WEEK

PRIMAL SCREAM *****

Beautiful Future

Atlantic 5144292372, 11.99

It appears that Primal Scream have made a glam rock disco album, but with Bobby Gillespie things are seldom as they seem. From the soaring opener of a title track – "Are you heading for the gas chamber? You want to see a real electric chair" – the Scream marry the darkest of lyrics to shiny, sparkly pop music.

Lead single 'Can't Go Back' is driven by an absolute monster of a bass line, emphasising Mani's increasingly pivotal role in proceedings, be it the slinky, seductive, faux disco rhythm in 'Uptown' or glam stomping through 'Zombie Man'.

At the epicentre of the record is the juddering threat of 'Suicide Bomb', an intensely mesmerising electro-rock dance rhythm possessed of a brooding menace – "If looks could kill, It would be Murder One," drawls Gillespie. The title and lyric are perhaps even more controversial than the earlier 'Swastika Eyes' but are not shocking for shocking's sake. "I see the beauty in everything!" Gillespie sings by way of valediction.

Josh Homme is credited on the driving 'Necro Hex Blues', twisting riff upon riff into a big rock plait, but it sounds like there is a sprinkling of the dust from his desert rock elsewhere on the record. But Beautiful Future's defining moment is Bobby's improbable duet with British folk legend Linda Thompson, an aching, yearning ballad called 'Over & Over'.

Download this: Over & Over, Beautiful Summer, Suicide Bomb