After the poorly focused, if not botched, “Chaosmosis” of 2016, there were few hopes that Bobby and his crooks could straighten out and decisively revitalize a career that has only worked on and off for at least fifteen years. Like all self-respecting Scots, however, Primal Scream have thick skin and a thick head and with them a vigorous strike, the kind that changes the fate of the match, is always around the corner. Even when it might seem too late.
That something great was brewing was clear from the release of the single “Love Insurrection”, probably the best thing the band has ever recorded since the searing “XTRMNTR”. Syncopated flow of the guitar, bass that oozes grooveacidic disagreements here and there, a hooking and sensual refrain, horns to liven everything up and the party is served. But it doesn't end there, at the end our Anna Caragnano is called to a touching political monologue which ends with a resounding “long live love, no pasaran”.
This lightning-fast comment, together with the gospel departure of the opening track “Ready To Go Home”, announces that “Come Ahead” is a record that was born in the wake of the acid and political dance of “Screamadelica”. A world plagued by populism, lack of reading and perverse capitalism is the scenario where they flourish protest song hard but full of hope like “Heal Yourself”, “False Flags” with its very soft guitars and the wonderful “Deep Dark Waters” – another memorable refrain sung by a Gillespie in great form and a tense arrangement dominated by an acoustic arpeggio that digs in the soul.
Arches disco musicfestive horns and funk rhythms ready to take possession of even the most reluctant, nourish a bold “Innocent Money” ready to cause havoc live. While “Melancholy Man” and “Settlers Blues”, which closes the album with a carpet of strings and guitars that reverberate like circles of water in a marsh, complete the ballad park.
The twelfth Primal Scream does not have the solidity of the masterpieces mentioned throughout this writing, nor the vision of a classic like “Vanishing Point”. However, it is finally exactly the album you expect from a canonized band in the midst of its maturity like Primal Scream: strong, committed, fresh, often incredible.
11/11/2024
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
