In many ways, Primal Scream have had a strikingly similar career path to the Rolling Stones – despite them forming some 20 years after Mick and Keith’s odyssey began and it not throwing up quite the same level of financial rewards. That said, while drugs and death may have haunted both bands, they never seemed to sap Primal Scream’s creatively in quite the same way as it did the Stones.
Nevertheless, both outfits are generally recognised to have knocked out a string of quite spectacular albums some fair few years into their careers – in the Scream’s case, spanning the 1990s from Screamadelica to XTRMNTR. After which, there have been two or three decent tracks on all their subsequent albums but never a record of truly decent consistency, despite the odd hollow claim of a return to form. However, well over 20 years after their last great album and under the guidance of producer David Holmes, Primal Scream have finally escaped the doldrums and hit their sweet spot again – which is something that nobody has ever convincingly claimed of the Stones since their purple patch juddered to a halt.
From the uplifting rump shaker of “Ready to Go Home” and space funk of “Love Insurrection” to the disco class warfare of “Innocent Money”, the woozy “Settlers Blues” and bluesy-gospel vibes of “Melancholy Man”, the Scream are on fire throughout Come Ahead in a way that they’ve given scant evidence would ever happen again. In fact, their impressive eclecticism suggests a band who are back on top of their song writing game after so many years of never quite doing the business.
Of course, it’s not quite a flawless album and Bobby Gillespie’s lyrics still have an occasional tendency to slip into cliché and bursts of word spaghetti but the tunes on this disc more than make up for that. In fact, to describe Come Ahead as a return to form is a severe understatement.
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