What we love about Primal Scream is their unflinching determination not to stay in one place or to rest on their laurels. 2013’s More Light received fabulous reviews from the media, being lauded as their best outing in some thirteen years, yet three years down the line Scream have moved on again, abandoning the lengthy psychedelic grooves of that sixty-eight-minute monster to produce the stripped down Chasmosis, which runs to just thirty-eight minutes and ten tracks. And this latest offering is possibly the purest pop album the band have ever produced, the dominant synthesisers giving the music a Casio-danceability but with most songs showing a preference for melody over rhythm. As such, it is probably fair to say you will not fall in love with this record at first listen, but treat it with respect and give it a few spins and you will find yourself appreciative of its gentle charms. There are moments when Chaosmosis comes across as Primal Scream’s Young Americans, with brash, soulful female backing voices dominating ‘100% Or Nothing’ and Bobby Gillespie’s vocals crushed and earnest on ‘I Can Change’, but the record is eclectic. ‘Private Wars’ is pretty much a folk song, ‘When The Blackout Meets The Fallout’ darker T. Rex-techno, and ‘Golden Rope’ a rockier groove.
The remainder of the collection is pretty much fizzing synth-pop and it is difficult not to feel uplifted by the lightness of its touch. ‘Trippin’ On Your Love’, probably the closest the band get to a Screamadelica moment, is an inexorable grower, ‘Where The Light Gets In’ is full of Abba influences, and closer ‘Autumn In Paradise’ hints at a gentler, more positive New Order. As ever Primal Scream draw in a myriad of influences and turn them into something surprising and challenging.
The Fat Angel Sings 