Originally
published on isnotwas.com
On Primal Scream's latest disc,
we discover that Bobby Gillespie's three favorite words are "fuck,"
"sick," and "syphilitic." I don't know whether
I've heard the word "syphilitic" in a song before, but
Gillespie manages to sing it at least six times on three different
tracks.
We're talking about XTRMNTR, of
course, which is being compared with Death in Vegas' "Contino
Sessions" most places. It's like "Contino Sessions"
in that the guest artists contribute strongly to this album's
groove. And with guests like Bernard Sumner (New Order), Tim Holmes
(Death in Vegas), David Holmes (Let's Get Killed) and the Chemical
Brothers, how could it fail to groove?
"Hello, this is Gorgeous,"
a girl announces at the beginning of our sonic thrill ride, and
she launches into a tirade, demanding that we "subvert normality"
and "kill all hippies." The Scream often lift sound-bites
from cult movies-remember the Peter Fonda clip from "The
Wild Angels" in "Let's Get Loaded" and the clips
from "Vanishing Point" in "Kowalski." In "Kill
All Hippies," they borrow from "Out of the Blue,"
a Dennis Hopper flick in which young Gorgeous erupts into a violent
frenzy and kills her hippie parents. The girl's spiel opens the
song, the drums kick in and we're off. "You've got the money;
I've got the soul," Bobbie chants in falsetto. "Can't
be bought can't be sold." Already he sounds kinda pissed.
After we've knocked off a few hippies,
we're told to "exterminate the underclass" to the driving
beat of "Exterminator." "Swastika Eyes" follows
and continues in much the same vein. Nattering on about a "military,
industrial, illusion of democracy," it's as angry a musical
rant as you'll ever hear. It's anti-fascist, anti-capitalist,
and it's where the syphilis first comes into play, too. "You're
parasitic, you're syphilitic; Swastika eyes; you've got Swastika
eyes," Gillespie sings. In interviews, the band has made
it clear that the song is a scathing evaluation of globalization
and "the Americanization of the planet."
The ranting continues in "Pills"
which opens harmlessly with a Gregorian chant sample, but then
Gillespie starts rapping, and his simplistic rhyming eventually
escalates into a Tourettic tirade, until he's finally just spewing
"sick" and "fuck" over and over. He says "fuck"
at least 31 times and "sick" 13 times in this song alone.
You should've seen me sitting in Borders trying to keep track
of each "fuck," making a little notch on a scrap of
paper every time he said it. I about wore my pencil down to a
nub.
Two of the best tracks are instrumentals.
And even they are pretty angry. Produced by David Holmes, "Blood
Money" is a gloriously raucous instrumental, both funky and
threatening at the same time. It's over seven minutes of screeching
horns and drums and guitars and laser beams going off and a harpsichord
that sounds like it's stabbing at you. In a good way. A My Bloody
Valentine homage, "MBV Arkestra," follows later, and
it's a reworking of the song "If They Move Kill 'Em"
on Vanishing Point. And a brash, beautiful racket it is. "Shoot
Speed / Kill Light," might as well be an instrumental, too,
as its only lyrics can be found in the title. In fact, after listening
to these three tracks (and with all due respect to Bobbie Gillespie's
warbled vocals), I suspect Primal Scream might fare even better
as a purely instrumental band.
"Keep your Dreams," perhaps
the album's only uplifting track, is a pretty, tinklely little
number, which reminds me of "Shine Like Stars" off Screamadelica
or "Stars" off Vanishing Point. "I'm going down
to the underground," Gillespie sings, "as deep as I
can go." If the real world has been savaged by the commercialism
and capitalism the balance of this album focuses on, the only
way to salvage your dreams may be to find solace in a culture
you create on your own. (Hmm. That's what the hippies tried to
do, isn't it? Aren't we supposed to kill 'em?) Anyway, the song
provides a peaceful center point for this tornado of an album.
Even here, Gillespie manages to insert a syphilis mention. Industrious
little bloke, isn't he?
XTRMNTR may be the most successfully
angry album released so far this year. While other bands like
Korn and Limp Bizkit revel in their baby rage, relentlessly roaring
on about their soiled diapers, at least the Scream are hollering
at precise problems in the world.
Primal Scream have been putting
out work for a few years now, and, at a point in their career
when most bands are sinking into oblivion, they've offered up
what many consider to be their best album yet. It is a determinedly
angry and surprisingly fresh set, ripe with social-not to mention
colorful-references. Definitely worth a listen, as long as you
don't mind the odd run-in with syphilis and whatnot.
Robert Stribley
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