Beautiful Future [Import]

Primal Scream | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 29, 2008)
• Original Release Date: July 19, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Wea Int'l
• ASIN: B001B0DUWS
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,609 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk

Beautiful Future--a hopelessly optimistic moniker for their ninth album, no matter which way you approach it, since Primal Scream are almost universally accepted to have strutted past their zenith around the same time they helpfully mislaid their vowels (on 2000’s unrelentingly anarchic Xtrmntr). To claim any future, especially after the all-too-brief successes of 2006’s turgid Riot City Blues, let alone a handsome one is foolhardy to say the least. But, you see, they’re actually being cuttingly sarcastic, or so we ascertain from Bobby Gillespie’s ham-fisted sloganeering on the title track’s tirade against modern ills ("you live by the sword, you die by the sword, you’re only free to buy things you can’t afford", etc.). If anything in particular is exposed as a spent force here it is he and his pen, sense disregarded to the point of parody, words drifting like flotsam and the band’s systematic attempts to reinvent themselves. The small miracle is that they just about manage. "Beautiful Future" leads into the album with a curious and eventually overwhelming infectiousness, gleaming like CSS delivering a Shirelles pastiche complete with cheesy bell-ringing and an effeminate vocal delivery that almost clouds over the lyrical content. "I Love to Hurt (You Love to Be Hurt)" actually features CSS’s Lovefoxx as this album’s Kate Moss and holds its own with some minimalist malevolence. As an album it jerks and it stumbles, lacking a definitive identity, but it at least ensures they’ll live to see another day. A future of some sort is assured. --James Berry

Product Description

2008 album from the acclaimed British Alt-Rockers, the 10th album by this exciting and inventive band fronted by Bobby Gillespie. Since the band's inception at the tail end of the '80s, their string of releases have continued to astound and delight their fans while also managing to be commercially successful. Beautiful Future was produced by Bjorn Yttling (Peter, Bjorn & John) and Paul Epworth (Bloc Party) and features guest appearances from Lovefoxx (CSS), Josh Homme (Queens Of The Stoneage) and Folk legend Linda Thompson. 11 tracks including 'The Glory Of Love', 'Can't Go Back', 'Zombie Man' and more. Warner.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Going Uptown!!, September 19, 2008

By 

Nse Ette (Lagos, Nigeria) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Beautiful Future (Audio CD)

For their 9th studio album "Beautiful future", UK alt rockers Primal Scream hire Björn Yttling (of Peter Björn and John) and Paul Epworth (Bloc Party) to handle production. The result is a poppy sounding affair, though still pandering to their passion for jagged and dark undertones.

Opening is the bouncy sunny sounding title track with a lively piano riff, hand claps and rousing chorus. "Can't go back" is another rousing rocker with nice hooted backing harmionies in the chorus. "Beautiful summer" is a beautiful psychedelic sounding dirge with chiming guitars and trippy effects.

The extremely catchy "Uptown" is a groovy dance rocker with a gently caressing vocal and a beat nicked from Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". Superb! The stomping Blues-tinged "Zombie man" (with a rousing chorus) sounds like a more subdued sibling of "Country girl" from "Riot city blues". The whispered vocals and gently plodding beats give an eerie feel to "Suicide bomb" with snarling guitars adding to the dread.

Folk songstress Linda Thompson" lends her vocals to the gentle and dreamy ballad "Over and over" (a Fleetwood Mac cover). "Necro Hex Blues" features Josh Homme of Queens of the Stoneage and it's an explosive burst of electro rock. Even more electro is "I love to hurt (you love to be hurt)" which features the airy vocals of Lovefoxxx from Brazilian Electro/Punk collective CSS.

An enjoyable sonic experience!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, August 4, 2008

By 

Lovblad (Geneva, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beautiful Future (Audio CD)

Whiel primal scream have been able to make the best and some of the more strange records in the last 15-20 years, this is for once a very strong one. Indeed, while almost all previous efforts contained some extremely strong tracks with some that were less extraordinary, this si a much more even effort. The sound is also very different: this time it is more poppy while the music itself is a mixture of their more electronic music à la XTRMNTR and the rock of Don't Give...This succeeds in creating their strongest effort to date and it is up there with their best two records in my opinion, anmely XTRMNTR and Don't Give as well as parts of Scteamadelica (I know most people think it is a work of genius but it has dated badly and I did not like it that much back then. This one is really a keeper and could be the one that brings them really into the big leagus. Plus they have Lovefoxxx from CSS as well as Lykke Li on board. Also if you judge by his latest interview, Bobby G seems to be on top of things more than ever and I think these tracks live should be splendid.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Playground Scream, September 4, 2009

By 

Bryan M. MCNEELY (Fort Wayne, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beautiful Future (Audio CD)

At one time, this group was angry, bitter and had set its sights on America as being the biggest target for their sonic onslaught. Boy, how times have changed.

On "Beautiful Future," the group has abandoned the loud, abrasive brilliance of "XTRMNTR" and dirtiness of "Evil Heat" and instead gone a little more "pop." Obviously, the band is in a downturn and has been since the turn of the century, though there is something very appealing about hearing the band in a more standardized style of presentation and effect. Each track is easily listenable, in some cases, even the more slow and sensitive (ha!) songs don't come across as being too out-of-leftfield. They proved they can handle chilled-out moments ("Keep Your Dreams" from "XTRMNTR" is a good example) and have done so even more with this album.

I much prefer the Scream when they are giving the stereo speakers a workout, but "Beautiful Future" is a solid release, a much more fitting jaunt than "Riot City Blues" or even the aforementioned "Evil Heat," which was akin to a next-morning hangover after a long night of partying. Good album, just not extraordinary. ..or too far from what the London Suede have already done years ago.