PRIMAL SCREAM

Come Ahead (BMG)

Bobby Gillespie did not have any desire to make another Primal Scream album. For the vocalist, the whole process had become “predictable”, yet writing his 2021 autobiography Tenement Kid and duetting with Jehnny Beth on the Utopian Ashes album revived Gillespie’s passion for creativity.

The result of this, new Primal Scream album Come Ahead, can also be attributed to encouragement from Belfast producer and soundtrack composer David Holmes. He worked on the rhythms, Gillespie added his previously created lyrics and melodies and Andrew Innes played guitar and keyboards. On a lyrical note, compassion, conflict, and class inequality are subjects touched on, with a world-weariness that digs and cuts deep.

Production-wise, meanwhile, Come Ahead has more gospel and string elements to it than Primal Scream’s previous Holmes collaboration, 2013’s More Light. An expansive, powerful and widescreen sound is treated to electronic touches and the uplifting vocal elements of House Gospel Choir. Old school-style funk, akin to Roland Kirk guesting with Chic, lights up Love Insurrection, and Ready To Go Home is a fine, soulful banger too – certainly when one considers it’s about death. And then there’s Settlers Blues, an Americana-flecked gem Willie Nelson might have penned.

As a whole, Come Ahead is an emotionally deep, cohesive album, richly cinematic and funky, made by a revitalised Primal Scream.

words DAVID NOBAKHT