The Fashionably Late Top 60 of 2013: #7 – Primal Scream

When it comes to year-end lists, y'all know I don't mess around. I don't post my picks from the previous year for weeks after the next year has started. In 2013 there was a bounty of music that entered the world that made me deliriously happy to be blessed with the sense of sound. So I have pondered, marinated, and contemplated for weeks. Music from 2013 has been digested for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and yes, even dessert). And now, friends, it's time. Time to share with you what I consider the cream of one heck of a crop indeed. You might see things omitted here that you think should be on a Best Of list. This list isn't what I think you want to read. This list is what I feel about last year. These are records and songs that really mattered to me for one reason of another. If it's not here, I either didn't spend enough time with it or just didn't love it quite enough. A big, big thank you to all of the artists who created the music on this list, the music that I fell in love with last year.

WHO: Primal Scream

WHAT: More Light

WHEN: June 2013

WHERE: First International

WHY: I’ve been a Primal Scream fan for well over 15 years now, and have seen them undergo many a sonic reinvention. The Bobby Gillespie-led outfit has proven chameleon-like over the years, but while the method of delivery changes many of the messages stay the same. With More Light, the Scream continues their quest to agitate the powers that be through their music, and hits many a right note in the process. Leadoff track “2013” is one of the best songs of the year, in my humble opinion, a terrible sprawling sonic diatribe mixing vitriolic social commentaries with an uncanny danceability (a Primal Scream hallmark). “Punk rock came and went and nothing changed/was it just a pose,” “The total subjugation of the rock & roll nation,” "What happened to the voices of dissent/they're gettin' rich I guess," and “You fear in another/what you fear in yourself” are a few select barbs Gillespie lobs at the state of the civilized world today (and quite frankly, their take on the complacency of today is spot on). Modern life, Primal Scream has not come to praise you. But they have come to show you a good time while they have their say. Over the course of the record, the Scream does what they do best, ripping society to shreds while kicking out seriously killer jams. Cynical lambasting of societal deficiencies has never sounded so good.

MY JAMS: “2013” “Culturecide” “Hit Void” “Invisible City” “Goodbye Johnny” “Sideman” “Elimination Blues” “Turn Each Other Inside Out” “Walking With The Beast”







[posted 3.19.14]