From now until January 13, I'll be featuring my favourite tracks of 2008, some of which have already appeared in Click Hear throughout the year, some of which haven't.
I was glad to have what I feel are the real Primal Scream back in 2008. I get excited whenever these guys come out of their oft-extended hibernation and surprise us with whatever new direction they've turned to but this year's Beautiful Future was leaps and bounds beyond 2006's derivative Riot City Blues.
With the exception of the completely out of place "Zombie Man," Beautiful Future almost completely met up to my expectations of what they were describing as "much more pop and kraut than earlier... it sounds a bit like Alan Vega and Suicide." Of course, it didn't sound exactly like that (sigh), but it did give me what I feel is their best song since 2000's "Shoot Speed Kill Light."
"The Glory of Love" is up there with the Scream's best, sitting high with the Screamadelica set. That dirty bass slithering in Mani's hands, the backing vocalists turning Bobby G. into a snarling Elvis impersonator on the chorus and those Asian influences on the faux bells and bleeding synthesizer are as gorgeous as when Siouxsie tried a similar thing with the Banshees' "Hong Kong Garden" 30 years earlier.
In their mid-40s, this is exactly how the Scream should sound: cool, calm, laidback and ready to show us that being one of the greatest rock'n'roll bands isn't always about starting some kind of riot.
Primal Scream "The Glory of Love"
I was glad to have what I feel are the real Primal Scream back in 2008. I get excited whenever these guys come out of their oft-extended hibernation and surprise us with whatever new direction they've turned to but this year's Beautiful Future was leaps and bounds beyond 2006's derivative Riot City Blues.
With the exception of the completely out of place "Zombie Man," Beautiful Future almost completely met up to my expectations of what they were describing as "much more pop and kraut than earlier... it sounds a bit like Alan Vega and Suicide." Of course, it didn't sound exactly like that (sigh), but it did give me what I feel is their best song since 2000's "Shoot Speed Kill Light."
"The Glory of Love" is up there with the Scream's best, sitting high with the Screamadelica set. That dirty bass slithering in Mani's hands, the backing vocalists turning Bobby G. into a snarling Elvis impersonator on the chorus and those Asian influences on the faux bells and bleeding synthesizer are as gorgeous as when Siouxsie tried a similar thing with the Banshees' "Hong Kong Garden" 30 years earlier.
In their mid-40s, this is exactly how the Scream should sound: cool, calm, laidback and ready to show us that being one of the greatest rock'n'roll bands isn't always about starting some kind of riot.
Primal Scream "The Glory of Love"
