Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a hard, angry primal scream of a record,, 11 Nov 2000
the echo of which will, one hopes, be around for some time to come. Give Out But Don't Give Up was a quite enjoyable trad-rock album and Vanishing Point was a crazed, dubbed-up brute. However, both lacked the vision of Screamadelica. This album is the true follow-up.While undeniably harder and darker, with its mix of film dialogue samples and dubby grooves, Exterminator is easily the equal of Screamadelica. Bobby Gillespie's vocals here are minima but his presence hangs over the whole album. Kill All Hippies takes Kowalski's death wish to its (intended?) conclusion. Then there's Swastika Eyes' surely the deathliest disco record since New Order's Blue Monday, a track to which it bears more than a passing resemblance, before going right off the rails into Prodigy territory (Liam Howlett is thanked in the sleeve notes). An aggressive hip hop track, Exterminator is easily the best thing on the album. It goes mental, Bobby Gillespie rapping about how the Government wants to kill the poor. It's an invigorating, enervating track, completely different to anything else Primal Scream have ever done. Oassis should try something like it. MBV Arkestra, a jazzed up reworking of Vanishing Point's If They Move Kill 'Em almost but not quite matches it. As I've said before, this is a hard, angry record, and MBV Arkestra is by far the most unhinged track on it, going off in all sorts of directions, not caring if (or even, where) it ends up. That's what's called taking risks, kids, and Primal Scream are one of the few bands brave enough to do this in today's sterile musical climate, which is one of the reasons this is such a breathtaking record. The only real moment of respite during this album's sixty minutes and twenty nine seconds comes with the lovely Keep Your Dreams, which comes on like the result of a clandestine tryst between Damaged and Long Life. Like a lot of other things on this album, it shouldn't work, but it most definitely does.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Politically Charged Excellence, 9 Jan 2002
By A Customer
2000 was the year Radiohead broke onto the scene with electronic, bizarre rock. Yet while all the attention revolved around them, Primal Scream released this stunning album, which arguably eclipses the achievements of both KID A and Amnesiac. The album begins on an aggressive note, with Kill All Hippies, and the pace remains throughout. I have yet to listen to an album which manages to keep the sheer pace and energy flowing for so long; Accelerator, a brash, intense fuzz of guitars and strained vocals follows, leading onto the excellent Exterminator. This and Swastika Eyes become the political centrepiece for the album, with Manis pulsating bass pumping the songs up to the maximum. Elsewhere, look out for Keep your Dreams and MBV Arkestra. Shoot Speed/Kill Light concludes the album in style, a wonderfully grogy, blurred track. Perhaps the addition of a remix of Swastika Eyes made the album perhaps overlong. Truly a record to riot to. Superb.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Genius at work. The Scream get better and better., 4 Feb 2001
Over the years since their inception they've been a winsome Byrds tribute band, a hoary Stones tribute band, an awesome, euphoric, eclectic, alternative dance outfit, and a smacked-up 12-bar blues barroom boogie rock band. And now this... Punk. Dub. Funk. White noise. 21st century idealist political ballads. Free jazz. Gay disco. Psychopathic machine rock. 9 years after 'Screamadelica' they've finally come up with an album that can stand up alongside it without looking either weak or just plain bad. They may be nearing 40, they may be dangerously close to insanity due to taking all the drugs, but Bobby Gillespie, Innes, Throb, Duffy, Mani and now Kevin Shields (plus anyone else who fancies popping in to the studio for a few minutes now and then) are probably the most exciting band in the country right now. Bar At The Drive-In, the most exciting band in the world. The breadth, depth, energy, anger, compassion and downright bloody-minded brilliance of this record can't be emphasised enough. XTRMNTR is, simply, fckng xcllnt.
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