Primal Scream - Come Ahead

Unless spoiling for a fight, you really don’t want to hear the words ‘Come Ahead’ in Glasgow. Two words plucked from Bobby Gillespie’s home city, you’ll usually hear the ominous saying in a thick Scottish accent from someone a few Tennent’s deep just before a scrap. It makes total sense then, that Primal Scream are a band meaning business on their twelfth studio album. That’s clear right from the gospel chorus introducing the album on ‘Ready To Go Home’ before a disco bassline pulls the listener straight for the nearest dancefloor. Having taken some time out through lockdown to pen his memoir ‘Tenement Kid’ in the run-up to the record, their unmistakable frontman said “he didn’t want to make another straight up rock and roll album”.

That’s clear in tracks like the disco-infused ‘Love Insurrection’ as he swoons over a jangly guitar-line with some of his most potent lyricism to date: What do we believe? / When we punish the poor for being poor / And celebrate greed.” Elsewhere, ‘Innocent Money’ is built for a festival main stage as the swirling ‘Screamadelica’-tinged anthem cuts into a spoken word segment and a backing singer fumes of the wealth divide: “The slugs at the bottom feed the wolves at the top.” An album packing plenty of highlights, it’s clear from ‘Come Ahead’ why Primal Scream remain such a respected and unique force in music today. A group refusing to stand still, this is another chapter in a band priding themselves on forward movement while celebrating their storied past.