On More Light, the band exercises this need for reinvention while incorporating—and even emphasizing—the danger and despair inherent in its best work.
With Gillespie partly muted, experimentation back on the agenda, and a guru knob-twiddler at the helm, Primal Scream are back on form. This might not be their finest work, but it’s the best thing they’ve made in at least a decade.
The Britain of 2013 may be a place full of dread in Primal Scream’s world but that sense of anger has prompted them to deliver an extremely impressive return that’s brash, bold and often brilliant.
With blazing horn riffs on tracks like “2013” and “Invisible City”, moments of soulful rock, free jazz explosions, psychedelia and grooving rhythms, More Light is sure to please both long-time fans as well as attract new ones.
More Light doesn’t get straight to the point like other Primal Scream records, mainly because, unlike several of their past efforts, it is much more multi-faceted.
As inventive and relevant as they’ve ever been, it’s an alarm call for a comatose nation being slowly drained of lifeblood. It’s exactly what 2013 needs: more fight.
More Light primes the Scream for their fourth decade in the best possible way, serving as a summary of everything they’ve done before, yet sounding nothing like it.
‘More Light’ is prosaic, but also proof that when you want to rally a new generation, it’s not Marcus Mumford you want holding the megaphone.
This is quite something, and though Primal Scream is far from a perfect band, one thing remains with More Light: they’re still undeniably very, very cool.
Fewer of the screechers and More Light would be just right: Screamadelica-lite.
The problem with More Light is the problem with any given Primal Scream record: too much variety. And the problem with that problem is it can also work for them as a strength. But on More Light, it can get hard to see any kind of cohesion beyond compilation.
It’s the best Primal Scream album since XTRMNTR, though that would say more about how badly they’ve gone astray over the past thirteen years rather than the actual quality of this release.
An incredibly solid late era album from an incredibly overlooked act that continues to push their own boundaries while grabbing anyone by the throat should they pass by.
Another, I use this term a lot with this group, apocalyptic album, here we find sibling record to Screamadelica and XTRMNTR in all of it's groovy noisy terror. Settles into blistering kraut rock adjacent passages of distorted throbbing urgency set against bobby's cool but paranoid vocals. Brilliant.
1 | 2013 9:01 | |
2 | River of Pain 7:00 | |
3 | Culturecide 4:37 | |
4 | Hit Void 4:14 | |
5 | Tenement Kid 4:48 | |
6 | Invisible City 4:43 | |
7 | Goodbye Johnny 3:32 | |
8 | Sideman 3:56 | |
9 | Elimination Blues 5:48 | |
10 | Turn Each Other Inside Out 4:38 | |
11 | Relativity 7:31 | |
12 | Walking With The Beast 4:00 | |
13 | It's Alright, It's OK 5:11 |
#30 | / | MOJO |
#39 | / | Rough Trade |
#46 | / | NME |
#47 | / | Under the Radar |
#49 | / | Q Magazine |