Primal Scream - 'Can't Go Back'
WARNING! WARNING! Hot women, you do NOT want to go and stay in the hotel in which Primal Scream filmed their new video. There seems to be some kind of leather-gloved murderer there - it's not clear whether he is a guest or the owner, but as nobody seems to be ringing the police, or attempting to leave the building, it's probably safe to say he's managed to get hold of the master set of keys. And now he's chasing all the pretty ladies in the hotel, all of whom are backing away slowly, rather than just pegging it. Which allows him to murderise them using just the contents of a game of Cluedo, rather than anything cinematically boring, but actually useful, such as a weapon of some kind.
Look! He's got an axe! But he only uses it to chop up a pool table, so the leg will pierce the torso of the hot lady hiding underneath it! I'm not suggesting hitting people with axes is in any way acceptable in real life, but it's sort of OK in a horror movie, isn't it?
Meanwhile, Bobby Gillespie is slapping the walls and singing a lovely song about his baby and a needle and all sorts of things which should really only be delivered with a leaflet of some sort explaining the dangers of listening to dark rock songs with deliberately-provocative, nihilistic lyrics. Especially dark rock songs with deliberately-provocative, nihilistic lyrics and a silly horror movie video.
Musically I much prefer this thrusting, bass-heavy Primal Scream to the one which seems to assemble songs by rifling through their well-thumbed copy of 'The Rolling Stone Lexicon Of Previously-Approved Rock 'n' Roll Things', photocopying bits and then sticking them together like a collage.
It's not that this band actually breaks any more new ground than the other one (pinching ideas from '70s Krautrock records is the same as pinching them from '70s Stones records, after all), it's just that the records they make aren't as mind-deadeningly cliched and familiar, even on first listen. Bobby Gillespie doesn't care about that, of course. He's too busy living the live-action version of Guitar Hero or Rock Band to give a monkey's and, let's be honest, that's the way we like him, but it's still true.
So, good song, very funny video, and perhaps we should start crediting the band with far more of a sense of humour than we have until now. If only to save us from being killed by a falling toaster or something...
Download: Out now
CD Released: July 14th
(Fraser McAlpine)
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