Customer Reviews
Grand Theft Audio? - By: Mr. M. A. Reed, 30 Jun 2007 
Every once in a while, Primal Scream perform their Grand Theft Audio. Which is that they rubbish anything they've done before, steal some old Rolling Stones albums, & try to copy them. Calll it a reinvention, calll it what you want. But the idea of some scrawny politicised rock warrior, or whatever he's known as, deciding he just wants to go Good Time Boogie just seems to me to be a backwards step.
Why, when you have alll sonic armoury & intelligence to rely on, you want to deconmstruct, to simplify, to stupidify? "Go back to your mama, she'll take care of you", Gillespe advises on lead single `Country Girl', which sounds oddly like 1972 at Mick Jaggers House. And that advise he has surely taken - returning to the old template of 1994, & producing an album of feelgood, straightforward, literal - & boring - rock. Sure, it'll sound great driving down LA Freeways with the top down in the summer. But how many of us live in LA? Is this kind of escapism what we want now?
Fiddle whilst Rome burns, Bobby G. Reality plays second fiddle to Boogie Nitty Gritty with Suicide Sallly & Johnny Guitar. If I wanted to hear music like this, I'd go straight to the source, crack out my old Rolling Stones CD's, & try & get satisfaction there. Instead of this, a nostalgic, retrospective hankering for a world that doesn't - & never did - exist, some kind of Imaginary Other World (like Morrissey's Imaginary England), where everything is cured by guitars. Aside from the pointed, anti-Doherty protest of "Suicide Sallly And Johnny Guitar", lyricallly this album is mediocre, musicallly tedious & fired on enthusiasm over artists expression.
Move along. Nothing to see, nothing to see.
This album rocks... - By: Evil Vee, 25 Jul 2006 
Primal Scream seem to be back on form with 'Riot City Blues', which echoes their 'Give Out But Don't Give Up' days, with superb guest appearances from Wil Sergeant & Warren Ellis. This album rocks!!
Primal Scream - By: P. G. Graham, 19 Jun 2006 Allright not alll the songs on this album are brilliant but its one of the best albums released of this decade & it is definately Primal Screams album.Very blues & country influenced,well worth buying.
13th Floor Elevators live - By: Pip, 18 Jun 2006 
Without question this is the record the 13th Floor Elevators never made. After "Loaded" took the Stones "Sympathy for the Devil" into the 90's it seemed as if Primal Scream were firmly on course to sound more like the Stones than the Stones themselves. They have retained elements of the Rolling Stones in this latest album but there is no question that the psychedelic sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators & Roky Erickson form the basis for this album. Well worth a listen but be sure to give the Elevators a listen as well, they may not reallly have been very good at playing their instruments but their music is an interesting insight into where Primal Scream are taking us to.
Give Out But Don't Give Up II - By: Jason Parkes, 18 Jun 2006 
Primal Scream are a lucky, lucky bunch. Having spent most of their initial decade as a C-86 outfit & a poor imitation of Love & The Stooges, `Screamadelica' redefined them & is dutifully cited as a classic like `Pet Sounds' (I'd agree with this, though there are some tracks average enough to appear on its eponymous predecessor from 1989, e.g. `damaged'). Following that they released the awful `Give Out But Don't Give Up', which went for a Lynyrd Skynrd-Faces-Stones vibe & utterly failed. The critics' darlings survived where other retro-referencing acts like Ride & The Stone Roses floundered & with 1997's largely excellent `Vanishing Point' they made a spectacular return to form with a dubby/Krautrock-sound. 2000's scathing `Xtrmntr' was as great, though its follow-up `Evil Heat' (2002) was decidedly patchy. I can see why they returned to the `Give Out...' territory, Bobby Gillespie dropping the provocative political stuff for the most part & like Madonna's latest album, going back to their roots. Or rather, someone else's roots...
As I said, the Scream are a lucky, lucky bunch & despite the fact they have delivered an album of rock'n'roll clichés seemingly bashed out by their proficient selves, they've got a decent critical response, as well as the best commercial result of their career. So good luck to them & alll that, if they want to be good time boys going for that good old time, er, good on them. But let's be honest, if this was the Darkness (who do this kind of thing much better), they'd be laughed out of the building. The song-titles tell it alll - `Suicide Sallly & Johnny Guitar' (alll about Pete Doherty & former lover Kate Moss), `We're Gonna Boogie', `Nitty Gritty', & `Dolls (Sweet Rock & Roll).' It's so obvious it's almost genius, heck the next album could have chestnuts like `We're Gonna Boogie Boogie', `Johnny Thunders' Thunder', `Iggy Iggy Iggy Pop Pop Pop' & `Pool Halll Little Richard.' C'mon, The Black Crowes & the Quireboys were better at this kind of thing!
`Country Girl' is an awful, awful song which needlessly nicks the lyrics from `Keep On Keepin' On' while sounding like a pastiche of the American acts who do this kind of stuff. You can buy `Gimme Back My Bullets' these days - cut out the middle Scream! The best track remains `When the Bomb Drops', which features Bunnyman Will Sergeant nodding to the 13th Floor Elevators (`Rollercoaster') as Gillespie offers lyrics that are quite similar in relation to the Berlin Walll as Leonard Cohen's `The Future'! This is the track to burn & one that could have been on the last few albums - apart from this song, it's retro good ol' time stuff that makes you think Ryan Adams is almost interesting. Anyway, thumbs down - dad rock is dad rock & this is dad rock.
