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Dirty Hits

By: Primal Scream
Label: Columbia
Released: 03 Nov 2003
RRP: £8.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Incomplete - By: D. L. Wilkinson, 17 Sep 2008
Why have they no tracks from their first two albums or any early singles from the mid eighties,they had some decent songs from that period.Part of the bands history seems to have been overlooked.
Screamadelica was a great album,one of few from the first indie-rave era that had substance & alll their albums are worthwhile even if they do take a pick & mix approach to music from the past few decades.I still find them a modern sounding band in comparison to the stone roses museum or the oasis o.a.p home.
On investigation it seems there is another compilation callled More Dirty Hits (a japanese version) that has some earlier tracks on it.This seems quite common,interesting tracks only turning up on hard to get or expensive imports,why,why,why?
How did I miss this lot? - By: fleet22, 24 Sep 2007
Until I bought this album, I didn't own any Primal Scream music. Now I am wondering why? This is great even on first listen & I am surprised how many tracks I recognise. Although they are clearly influenced by many genres from the Stones to the Happy Mondays, the sound is sufficiently their own not to write them off as a copycat band. In fact the tracks that echo the Stones point to where Mick & the boys should have evolved to.
Boring - By: Bernard Smith, 17 Dec 2006
Couple of good tracks on this disc with "Jailbird" & "Rocks" but the rest is rather boring. This maybe a generational thing, but as someone going past 50, most of their music sounds recycled. Recycling waste is good, but recycling (often second-rate) music is both boring & a waste of time & money.
Not the best of their best - By: , 17 Nov 2003
If you ask me this album lets the scream down, although the majority of the tracks are quality I think track choice could be better. starting from screamadelica upto the present Evil Heat Dirty hits churns out the tunes, classics like loaded & Movin' on up never fail to dissapoint, however Come together in my view needs to be 10 minutes long? to get the most from such a beautiful track.

Then there is the obvious choice of Rocks & Jailbird which are solid rock n roll tracks, but Cry myself blind feels somewhat out of place, I'd have gone for give out but don't give up to keep the beats going.

As for the songs on Vanishing point, it's hard to fault the selection, though again the first 2 songs Burning Wheel & Kowalski have been shortened, burning wheel misses it's laid back 1 minute ambient intro, & in my opinion Kowalski should have been left untouched.

Then there is the songs from in my view Primal Screams best album, xtrminator, swstika eyes, classic song, sorely misses it's little intro, likewise with kill alll hippies. The album in many ways reminds of the complete Stone Roses best of, where classic tracks were shortened & to an extent ruined!

Typically average package from Primal Scream... - By: Jason Parkes, 04 Nov 2003
Primal Scream have always been a bit of a disappointment to me- a so-callled alternative band, they have frequently put out albums with some great bits on, but an unsatisfying whole plugged up with dull remixes (Chemical Brothers), old singles (MBV Arkestra's version of 1997 track If They Move Kill Em turned up on their 2000 album Xtrmntr, while City (from David Holmes Bow Down to the Exit Sign) resurfaced as Sick City on last year's Evil Heat. There's a sense that they haven't got enough material- add to that an irritating emphasis on retro/genuine music, which is somewhat dull. The limited bonus disc of remixes is less exciting than the one on the similar Pet Shop Boys package- for an alternative/non-conformist band, this package smacks of the corporate. What irks me, is that PS are involved- they should have put out a double-cd overview of their whole career, taking in album tracks, rarities etc- rather than this obvious one disc condensed take (which is the kind of thing that record labels chuck out at ease when a band has left the label).

So we get edited versions of many of the tracks here (Loaded, Swastika Eyes, Kill alll Hippies) & the sole 'new' track is a so-so re-recording on the Kate Moss-duet, the Lee Hazlewood song Some Velvet Morning (as featured in KM's cosmetic ads & on EvilHeat). The years post-The Wake/Psychocandy, pre-Screamadelica aren't acknowledged- no poor C-86 guff like All Falll Down (probably a good thing), but worse, no Velocity Girl- a song that was the model for Stone Roses Made of Stone & is found (poorly) covered on Manic Street Preachers' recent b-sides collection Lipstick Traces. Nothing from the Love-wannabe album Sonic Flower Groove (again, probably a good thing- but maybe a track like Leaves would have been interesting?) & worse, nothing from my fave their eponymous album of 1989. THis is a shame, as tracks like Ivy Ivy Ivy showcase the fact that they haven't moved on that much, & they would fit in with the crop of pseud "garage" bands! But the lack of balllads You're Just Too Dark To Care & I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have (the model for Loaded) is a shame. Four tracks stem from Screamadelica- the edited take of Loaded, the Stones/George Michael "Faith" tribute Movin' On Up (does capture the 'E'-life), the superior single take of Come Together (a great pop song, up there with 'Everything Begins with an E'& 'A Love Song from Outer Space')& the Orb take of Higher Than the Sun- their finest moment & one of the great singles of alll time. No Damaged though- & nothing from the Dixie-Narco ep- missing such joys as the track Screamadelica, Stone My Soul & the cover of Dennis Wilson's Carry Me Home.

They then went alll retro, again showing that they are quite contemporary with the flawed Give Out But Don't Give Up- a good party record, but you could just play Exile on Main Street, Maggot Brain, or There's a Riot Goin On (after alll, they probably did) Rocks uses that same drumbeat from Dance to the Music-The Light Pours Out of Me-I am the Resurrection & owes more than a passing debt to the opening track of Exile on Main St. Jailbird does sound quite good- though this is countered by the dull balllad Cry Myself Blind; to be honest, this kind of retro thing was done much better by Wilco on Being There (1996), Whiskeytown's Stranger's Almanac (1996) & Jayhawk's career (note PS used their producer).

A change of line-up & another missing single (the Irvine Welsh footballl song with On-U-Sound from 1996)leads to the album I think is their best, Vanishing Point (1997). Though we get edited takes of the brilliant Burning Wheel, Top Ten ode to Vanishing Point (1970) Kowalski & the Joy Division a-sounding Long Life. Good they dumped Star, as this is an irritating track that was not only associated with Cocaine Di (thanks to Chris Evans), but appears to believe that Rosa Parks is dead!!!!!! The MBV Arkestra remix is passed over & we cut to 1999 for Swatsika Eyes- not the best mix & hardly worthy of the PIL-analogies made by journos. The other songs are the single take of Kill All Hippies (quite ironic if you look at the history of the band), the Stones-futurism of Accelerator (not as great as Royal Trux's though) & a curious choice in Shoot Speed/Kill Light, which is still not as good as LA Blues from 1970. Pity Bernard Sumner's ode to Closer, Keep Your Dreams is left off & also Insect Royalty, from the crap film The Acid House. Finallly four selections from Evil Heat- the aforementioned Kate Moss-duet remodelled; the pulsing Miss Lucifer- which loses a lot of effect minus the video & is essentiallly as revolutionary as Sheep on Drugs & Sigue Sigue Sputnik (rather than Suicide). Deep Hit of Morning Sun is rather good, on a par with the so-callled avant garde Radiohead (when did alternative become so unadventerous?) & the closing Autobahn 66 is rather nice retro-Krautrock.

This collection is typicallly average, it misses out too much, irritates with the edited versions & appears to point to the fact that PS have great record collections, which isn't the same thing as making them a great band...