Screamadelica

Primal Scream | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 8, 1991)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sire / London/Rhino
• ASIN: B000002LR3
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #65,074 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #97 in Music > Alternative Rock > British Alternative > General

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A watershed '90s release, Screamadelica was the most convincing marriage of overground rock and underground dance music yet. With one foot in Beggars Banquet-era Stones (the gospel-rock "Movin' on Up") and the other in the trippy soundscapes of rave culture (the Orb-produced "Higher Than the Sun"), Primal Scream caught the mind-blown euphoria of Ecstacy better than anyone. Frontman Bobby Gillespie had no singing voice to speak of, but his vision of cosmic hedonism made him a drugged-out Pied Piper for the acid tribes. From the incantatory anthems "Loaded" and "Come Together" to the sinister rendering of the 13th Floor Elevators' "Slip Inside This House," Screamadelica was a modern psych classic. --Barney Hoskyns

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly remarkable album of confident sunny optimism..... March 30, 2005

By fetish_2000

Format:Audio CD

Primal Scream are a band that move musically in so many different guises & Sounds, that If you became a fan of theirs, through a particular album, there's nothing to say that the next album is going to resemble the previous album, in any...way, shape or form. A band that reflect the musical landscape of the current time, and arguably take contemporary influences and ideas, and fashion albums that bookmark certain

periods in their career.

The year is 1991, and Britain is in the midst of a change in the current movement of music. "Dance Music" has become one of the more dominant sounds to have shaped Britain's music scene. And the majority of the music buying public has become enthralled by it, many acts producing the majority of the dance music, had discovered the drug "Ecstasy" years previous, and were, making scintillating fusions of acid, House, Techno & Alternative Dance. Primal Scream themselves had become no strangers to the Drug, and although their form of all-encompassing rock was extremely diverse, it wasn't truly representative of the explosion of Dance orientated music entering the charts. That's when the band hooked up with highly regarded Dance producer "Andy Weatherall", who'd worked on everything from: downbeat, Experimental techno, IDM, Acid, Dance. And would lend his considerable dance productions skills to embellish the album with a sunny-eyed optimism, and Hedonistic glow, (along with a helping of deep psychedelic / Exuberant arrangements).

"Movin' on Up", begins with a gospel-tinged soaring & joyous chorus, opening everything wide open and turning their previous sound of alternative dance-rock inside out by easing back on the rock dynamics, but not completely abandoning it, and fusing it with a effervescent exercise of modern dance sounds & imagination, with singer/frontman "Bobby Gillespie" singing plaintively "I've found what I'm looking for!!"...what exactly Gillespie has found isn't made entirely clear, (although it wouldn't take a genius to guess), and it's here that throughout the album a lot of the lyrical content can be open to more than one interpretation.

"Slip inside This House", locks 80's rave beats with a slightly psychedelic eastern guitar (possibly a "Sitar"), it's a highly imaginative fusion of two distinctly different sounds, and the influence on the production has "Andy Weatherall's" ideas stamped all over it. Something of a throwback to the days of Warehouse Raves, through a restrained slower melody, this is far more considered & slower paced than anything the band have previously attempted, over which Gillespie cryptically chants "Trip inside".

"Don't Fight It, Feel It" uses a reverberated bass, to elastic effect, over which the tune is stretched over, before the bassline is interupted, with female vocals, and prominent squelchy synths, take precedence, almost neo-psychedelic in approach, and such a monumental step forward for what the band is primarily known for, that it seems impossible to link this new sound, to anything the band have ever previously done. Interestingly the female vocals sing: "I want to Dance to the music, before getting High", alongisde minimal drum percussion, with the occasional euphoric looping keyboard bursts free, with surprising gusto.

"Higher Than the Sun", brings a spooky-ambience to begin with, with various sampled vocal wails, throwing the listener into (slight) confusion, before giving way to a slow horror-soundtrack inspired arrangement, that begins to gather pace, then disjointed beats with synth melodies soar & Conflict against each other, with Gillespie singing a ballad-like "Higher than the Sun" vocal. Layers of booming almost Breakbeat beats begin to take hold....a very unusual track by conventional song structure methods, but still arguably stunning.

The centrepiece track in-amongst this beautifully Euphoric rush of an album, is the breathtaking "Come Together", with a snippet of movie dialogue saying "It's a Beautiful Day", "We are Together", as church organs begin to swirl into the sound, mixed with synchronised hand-clapping (Possibly sampled from an actual Church congregation), and the minimal Drum Hi-Hat gaining momentum, before a gradually soaring arrangement of Dance Beats, begin to thump into action, driving the sound into a truly ambitiously soaked sound of Dance/Gospel Fusion......."Together as one" is the chanted message of the group of female voices singing in harmony, and it quite a breathtaking air of euphoria surrounding it, unquestionably one of the best tracks on the album.

"Loaded", another of the albums strongest tracks, opens with more snippets of movie dialogue, with the sample "We Wanna get loaded & have a good Time", showing the tracks statement of intent, and couldn't be more apt. Trumpet sections soar, minimal dance beats intertwine with everything, and shredding Guitars punctuate halfway through, being interspersed with more Clips of movie Dialogue saying "We Want to Be free, to do what we want to Do!!?", liberal use of backing female choruses, gives the track a level of unity & hedonism, that most conventional dance music couldn't possibly had to emulate....and to end the track with the sampled "We wanna get loaded, and have a good time", is a tremendous closer, for a truly stunning track.

To compare this albums against Primal Scream's previous albums is a redundant exercise, as it so out of step with what they've previously done before, that a reasonable judgement, becomes incredibly hard. This is such a brilliantly realised and produced album, that is such a monumental step forward for the band, that those that listen to it for the first time, will (initially) have difficulty believing it to be the same band. Even more astonishingly, is the fact that even though this was created around the time of the Dance music boom (in the U.K.) in the early 90's, it doesn't sound horribly dated, listening to it some 13+ years later (partly due to Andy Weatherall's incredible production). Few would argue, that this & XTRMNTR are the finest two albums Primal scream have ever made thus far, utterly essential.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic November 22, 2002

By S. Finefrock VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Released over ten years ago, Screamadelica still sounds fresh today. To these ears it stands as one of the best albums released in the ninties. However, looking at it on paper it looks like it should have been a total failure. Primal Scream had been a noisy rock band who suddenly veered into dance music. Equal parts techno, gospel, circa 68 Stones and spacey dub, it move in several different directions, yet somehow manages to cohere. There is no shortage of great tracks, with MOVIN' ON UP(gospel meets Let it Bleed Stones), STEP INSIDE THIS HOUSE(techno cover of the 13th Floor Elavators!), DAMAGED(like a long lost bluesy outtake from Beggar's Banquet), LOADED(cool Peter Fonda sample) and HIGHER THAN THE SUN(ambient dub worthy of The Orb)among the standouts. Released the same year as Nirvana's Nevermind, this release stands at least as tall as that seminal album. In time it may even eclispe it!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Trip Hop Landmark September 9, 2004

By Jack Barrett

Format:Audio CD

This is it, the album where psychedelia, techno and blues rock all blend together in one blissful mix. This is also one of the best albums I've ever heard just for the sheer variety of styles that can be found. Most of the tunes are very trip hop oriented then there are the blues rock flavorings that resemble the Stones at their peak. This was the exact opposite end of the musical spectrum back in the 90's when, in the U.S., the grunge scene was in full swing. In the U.K. this album was a big hit but it didnt make quite that big of a splash over here in the states as we were engrossed in Cobain and company. But this album deserves more attention than it has received, its one of the most original albums I've ever heard, true it may be a mish mash of familiar genres but the way its all put together and heard sounds brand new. Anyways highly reccomended!