A friend who's a critic dropped off an advance copy of Riot City Blues today, I had 2 listens and remains undecided about it. Let me start by saying, this is old school.
Remember when your mopped-headed garage rock friend made you that compilation tape of all those early Stones (63-65), Nuggets, The Ramones, Thee Headcoates, with some New York Dolls and Hunky Dory -era Bowie thrown-in? or that themed cd on the cover of Mojo?
Well, this is the Scream covering that tape!
The Good - It's all very exuberant, fun, catchy and dumb in the best sense of the word – lyrics are ALL r'n'r cliches, whoops and "one more time!", Bobby's pipes (for him at least) are in top form, and at their age, they have no right to sound so young.
The Bad - At their age, they have no right to sound so young and dumb. It doesn't add anything new to the mix at all.
Is it as bad as Give Out But Don't Give Up? Well, it's more fun to listen to but Give Out at least tries to genre-blend, it's straight up garage punk here
Scream has always been upfront about their magpie approach to their music but since Screamadelica, they (or their producers) have injected their own twisted take of the rocknroll cliches by blasting them with noise, distortion and spaced madness. This time it's almost as if someone has switched off the "Primal Scream FX pedal", forgotten about their more out-there influences (Krautrock, funk, dub, electro, etc.) and what we got instead was a set of well produced B-sides and warm ups.
Is it crap? it depends if you have a sense of humour. For someone who considered their last 4 (Vanishing Point, Echodek, XTMNTR, Evil Heat) as near-masterpieces, I am quite disappointed but as a standalone piece of music, I did find it fun, highly listenable and probably even better when live.
It's better than the mannerisms of White Stripes but lacked the fire of The Black Keys. But then again, I think Bat Out of Hell betters Born to Run - so what do I know.
Critics would probably laugh this one off the planet. Imagine after Abbey Road, The Beatles releases a roots rock album -- oh, they did
I liked it but I got no taste in music, but if you only value originality and vitriol in rock, save it for another album, cause this ain't it.
Remember when your mopped-headed garage rock friend made you that compilation tape of all those early Stones (63-65), Nuggets, The Ramones, Thee Headcoates, with some New York Dolls and Hunky Dory -era Bowie thrown-in? or that themed cd on the cover of Mojo?
Well, this is the Scream covering that tape!
The Good - It's all very exuberant, fun, catchy and dumb in the best sense of the word – lyrics are ALL r'n'r cliches, whoops and "one more time!", Bobby's pipes (for him at least) are in top form, and at their age, they have no right to sound so young.
The Bad - At their age, they have no right to sound so young and dumb. It doesn't add anything new to the mix at all.
Is it as bad as Give Out But Don't Give Up? Well, it's more fun to listen to but Give Out at least tries to genre-blend, it's straight up garage punk here
Scream has always been upfront about their magpie approach to their music but since Screamadelica, they (or their producers) have injected their own twisted take of the rocknroll cliches by blasting them with noise, distortion and spaced madness. This time it's almost as if someone has switched off the "Primal Scream FX pedal", forgotten about their more out-there influences (Krautrock, funk, dub, electro, etc.) and what we got instead was a set of well produced B-sides and warm ups.
Is it crap? it depends if you have a sense of humour. For someone who considered their last 4 (Vanishing Point, Echodek, XTMNTR, Evil Heat) as near-masterpieces, I am quite disappointed but as a standalone piece of music, I did find it fun, highly listenable and probably even better when live.
It's better than the mannerisms of White Stripes but lacked the fire of The Black Keys. But then again, I think Bat Out of Hell betters Born to Run - so what do I know.
Critics would probably laugh this one off the planet. Imagine after Abbey Road, The Beatles releases a roots rock album -- oh, they did
I liked it but I got no taste in music, but if you only value originality and vitriol in rock, save it for another album, cause this ain't it.
