Well, The Cover Looks Promising...

Primal Scream, those loveable genre shape shifters from Glasgow, are releasing a new album later in this month and from what I’ve read it’s a return to the glory days of Vanishing Point and XTRMNTR. That would be a good thing, because their last album was crap.
Primal Scream fans have had to be a patient lot, able to weather the band’s stylistic diversions down the 2nd rate trad rock rabbit hole with albums such as 1994‘s “Give Out (But Don’t Give Up)” and the absolutely dreadful “Riot City Blues” in 2006. These aberrations are doubly frustrating because they usually appear directly following a great Primal Scream record. To wit: “Give Out” was released after the ‘Scream’s genre-defining “Screamadelica” and “Riot City Blues” was released after the one-two-three knock-out punch of “Vanishing Point“, “XTRMNTR” and “Evil Heat“, the last being the lesser of the three. There’s no rhyme or reason why they do this, other than to cleanse their otherwise brilliant pallet. Both these albums are, for the most part, second rate Black Crowes records complete with embarrassing lyrics and horrible “classic rock” musical clichés. It’s like singer Bobby Gilespie ate too much fried “Exile On Main Street” and crapped the results on a mixing board.
To be fair, ‘94’s Give Out did contain at least a couple of tracks that were worthy of their discography. “Riot City” contained maybe, MAYBE, one decent composition in When The Bomb Drops. So I’m skeptical but resigned to the fact that I’ll buy the new one without even hearing it first.
My problem is that I cannot wait for the reviews to come in before purchasing a new Primal Scream record, so I end up playing a mad version of aural Roulette, hoping that I end up with the empty chamber instead of a shit-bullet lodged just above my right temple..
I’m also hoping that with the new album the cover gives a hint to what’s inside, with it’s futuristic Blade Runner screen image. But who knows? It could end up sounding like the Spin Doctors...
Here's an early review for one of the new tracks, Can't Go Back":
"Like a man who realises he’s forgotten his mobile charger when he’s halfway to Heathrow, Bobby Gillespie knows he can’t go back. So do his band. After the pointless retro of ‘Riot City Blues’, saints be praised, the Scream team are facing forward again. With a dental-drill hook and Bobby muttering about how he “Stuck a needle in my arm… stuck it in my baby’s heart”, ‘Can’t Go Back’ rockets straight from the ‘XTRMNTR’ school of propulsive, night-streaked electro-rock’n’roll. In anyone else’s hands it’d sound try-hard, but it’s impossible to call them a cliché when they invented so many."--9/10