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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
SHAKE IT BABEY!!!!!!, 6 Aug 2002
Primal Screams new offering is actually less compromised than 1999’s Xtmnr. Xtrmnr, far from being compromised itself, offered slight relief by being flawed towards its closure. The inclusion of 2 remixes, (one of which was by Chemical Brothers and sounded as if it belonged on Surrender rather than a Primal Scream album) an awful baggy style number which went nowhere (Insect Royalty) and a ballad which was a little dull (Keep Your Dreams) meant that the album trailed off and failed to match the raw intensity of the first 6 tracks (luckily, awesome finale Shoot Speed Kill Light stopped it from being a complete failure). In terms of this continuity, Evil Heat is a vast improvement, and sounds far more complete. There is nothing on here that really matches those first 6 tracks (and its final track) but there are echoes of them to be found here; the hyped up guitar battering of Accelerator (City, Skull x), the fuzz bass of Exterminator (Some Velvet Morning, featuring kate moss who is actually very good), and the adrenaline rush of the first and proper mix of Swastika Eyes (Miss Lucifer, nowhere near as good as Swastika Eyes but is still a Jagz Kooner production, so they are similar). Elsewhere we get warped psychedilia (Deep Hit of Morning Sun), the overrated 'krautrock' of Autobahn 66 (I was honestly expecting this to be special and its not) a track that sounds like Garbage, and Babylon Zoo(!) (Detroit), a very aggressive punk anthem about ‘collateral damage’, and ‘taxes’ (Rise, a raw version of Pills) a very funny wonky blues number called Lord is My Shotgun (great when your drunk), and A Scanner Darkly, a peculiar number that sounds as if its going to be one of those dark, brooding instrumentals but turns into a quirky 80s style melody that sounds like Cat Stevens ‘Is Dog a Doughnut’ or something off McCartney 2. Final track Space Blues #2 is one of those tracks that is included just to make an album sound complete and is hardly a classic in it’s own right (yep, plenty of them around these days). Each and every Primal Scream album thus far has captured a certain essence and spirit (lets forget about Sonic Flower Groove for now). Screamadelica was a reminder of those crazy acid days when people rediscovered dancing, Give Out But Don’t Give Up had stadium retro rock and roll plastered all over it, Vanishing Point had a road movie concept going for it (in dub!) and the aforementioned Xtrmnr became one of those rare monumental albums that told us how the youth are effected by cruel political movements. Evil Heat is a less compromised album because there’s little to relate to here, it’s just a downright dirty, claustrophobic, sleazy and intense selection of songs that offers little form of light relief, because its so twistedly engaging from start to finish that you cannot press stop on your CD player. This album captures the essence of pure, undiluted rock and roll rebellion better than any other album in a while, and in doing this Primal Scream have once again excelled themselves as the masters of truely great, exciting and uncompromised music.
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