Primal Scream
Beautiful Future

So. I waited, waited... and I came in third.

I mean: ever since I first listened to it, I've wanted to write something here about Beautiful Future... then I procrastinated, then I goofed around, and in the meantime, two great deBaserists wrote two great deReviews. Well, actually, even better. I can skip who they are and what the Primal Scream had done before and even the objective information (label, producers, collaborations on the album and so on). I'll stick to personal notes (you can do that here, right?)....

Beautiful Future is not the only Primal album that tells you everything right from the first time you listen to it. Instantly. You hear it and decide you like it or you don't. If you don't like it, I'd say, don't insist: in subsequent listens, you won't find much more, or in any case, nothing that will change your mind. If you do like it, and from the get-go, you'll continue to listen to it (not infinitely) and think it's really beautiful, just like the first time. This is not a negative comment; I'm not saying there aren't stylistic nuances and refinements to discover and appreciate. I'm saying that, like with certain people you happen to meet in life, the relationship here too is based on a visceral impression, and there's little point in delving deeper... in my case the gut feeling with Primal is there, and it's ecstatic. Not that they haven't ever disappointed me (the previous Riot City Blues, in my opinion, is not an indispensable album overall... and you could tell from the FIRST listen...). But with this latest work, I'm back to thinking that they are the band with the best taste in recent years. And I say taste thinking of that sort of talent often possessed by figures not strictly within the musical domain, but visual artists, designers, architects, great creative chefs.

The Primal always renew themselves (which doesn't necessarily mean they revolutionize or renounce what has been done before), but you never know with them how the next album will be (everyone was saying this one would mark a return to electronic... but to me, it doesn't seem so at all). They don't have their own genre (thank goodness...) but they certainly, indisputably, have their own style. And in this renewal... it's hard to say how much is elaborate, studied, and how much is instinctive. There's definitely a lot of pleasure and fun in doing it. One gets the impression they play only what, where, how, and with whom they enjoy the most. And their pleasure reaches, in waves, contagiously, even those who listen to them. Chapeau, no? In this, they are certainly aesthetes, even in the literal sense of the term: people (characters?) who live life according to their idea of art and vice versa. And we thus return to the taste I mentioned earlier: the taste in choosing which direction to go, and the pleasure felt in going there.

About the album, what can I say? I agree with the strengths and weaknesses already highlighted. The highest moments, in my opinion: Can't go back, a high-speed night drive in the pouring rain through a Japanese city, Beautiful Future, where the ill-fated optimism of the title and the danceable sounds clash against the bitter realism of the lyrics (and this might be the common thread throughout the album); the guitars in Suicide Bomb are beautiful, the tight closure with Urban Guerrilla is perfect (only present in the UK release, what a pity...); The Glory of Love is fun and seductive (even better in the remix version) and its alter ego I love to hurt you love to be hurt (where it states: "ain't no glory in love"), the more melodic interlude of Beautiful Summer is lovely. The only misstep, the Fleetwood Mac cover (even though one might say that, from the brazen and sly way Bobby sings it, he noticed it too).

This isn't an album that will swell the ranks of Primal Scream fans, in fact, it's likely to disappoint some of the historical ones. It gave me the impression (and the confirmation) of dealing with a band determined to make their point by choosing the form and content they believe in most. The Primal Scream are certainly not activists in the ecological-social-media sense (à la Bono or Chris Martin for example), they don't use music as this universal language to send messages of peace and love that everyone can agree on; however, I don't know if it's just my opinion, they seem more aligned with their time than anyone else. Their music is always the child of the here and now -I repeat- in both the forms chosen and the contents. (Also) this is politics. That too is a reason to love them. Not to mention they make you dance and jump like few others.

Beautiful Future is the latest journey you can take with them, as long as you're not afraid of either the dark or the blinding light, and don't care to know where you're going or if you'll make it there in one piece.