90s: Primal Scream|Screamadelica...we wanna get loaded...we wanna have a good time

90s: Primal Scream|Screamadelica…we wanna get loaded…we wanna have a good time

‘The best thing about ‘Loaded’ was that it proved we were right’ Bobby Gillespie, 1990

It was 1991, and bands like the Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays had already made quite an impact on the music scene. The twisted lyrical genius of albums such as ‘Pills ‘N’ Thrills and Bellyaches’ had griped the club cultures and Primal Scream wanted their moment. An already heavily anticipated band on the Creation Record books, Primal Scream released Screamadelica, an album that fused rock and dance and subsequently changed music forever.

Previous to the release of Screamadelica, Primal Scream were a band that failed to make a major impact, although a couple of albums under their belt Bobby Gillespie had at one point shared most of his time between Primal Scream and The Jesus and Mary Jane.Having signed to the iconic Creation Records label, key events such as Alan McGee introducing the band to acid house  (something Gillespie was very skeptical of) and the fact that acid house was really taking off in Britain paved the way for the experiment of a lifetime that resulted in the phenomenon of Screamedelica.

‘the ultimate fucked up family’ Alan McGee, 2011


Primal scream – Loaded by samithemenace

Introduced to DJ Andrew Weatherall at a rave, Weatherall was given the task of remixing  their track ‘I’m Losing more Than I’ll Ever Have.’ The result of this was ‘Loaded’, a track that featured samples of Peter Fonda in the iconic sixties movie The Wild Angels. ‘Loaded’ and it  became the bands first major hit record. Screamedelica featured gospel-house with ‘Come Together’ and the dub diffusion of ‘Higher Than the Sun’…a song that Creation Records founder Alan McGeee has cited he wants to be played as he leaves this mortal world. Screamadelica was the first album to win a Mercury Prize in 1992, beating the likes of U2 and Saint Etienne. The album was a musical gathering of gospel, psychedelic, bass-driven grooves, a masterpiece, an album that moves around with itself, an  esoteric  voyage of mind-blowing tunes.

In a way Screamadelica is the most daring album of the 90s, any experiment is risky and this one certainly payed off. Primal Scream proved that dance music and rock could exist alongside one another. Although a collaboration album, one of which can be credited mainly to the magic of Wearherall it was Primal Scream’s vision and sheer imagination  that created what I consider to be the most important album of the 90s.

 

 

  1. Does anyone else feel that Screamadelica is one of the most overrated albums of all time and now sounds dated as well?

    Jeez even Primal Scream have made better albums than this.
    XTRMNTR is so so much better. Better guitars, better vocals better songs less hackneyed beats…

    Was Screamadelica daring?
    Or did it jump on the back of Happy Mondays’ more pioneering fusion of dance and indie, or the Stone Roses far earlier efforts.
    “Daring”?
    This wasn’t daring at all surely? This album trod ground that others had previously prepared for them…

    It was undoubtedly right place at the right time after other bands efforts.
    “Most important album of the 90s”? is it heck!!!!

    Shall I count the ways that “Loveless” is so much better than this?
    More groundbreaking, more original, more influential, less derivative, less dated in 2010s…and that’s just off the top of my head.

    Spiderland, In Utero, F#A#Infinity blast this into a cocked hat too.

    Time to consign this one to a better context and lead the romanticising to the students of 1990/91….

  2. Nick you’re entitled to your opinions. This 90s week is about people exploring their passions for the music of the 90s. I explore some of the ideas surrounding our (sometimes unhealthy)obsession with 90s nostlgia here:
    https://godisinthetvzine.co.uk/index.php/2011/07/15/tied-to-the-90s-behold-the-retro/

    I for one think Loveless is a very influential album. But so is Screamadelica in the way it merged rock and dance and introduced Andrew Wetherall to the mix, but it is all subjective. I guess you could say parts of it are dated, but other people might say it makes sense whithin the context of the early 90s. But its a interesting debate and I welcome your thoughts! Slint’s Spiderland isn’t an album I know well enough to comment, but I’m aware of their influence…

  3. Hey the 90s – much maligned and praised in entirely the wrong areas in my opinion.
    What lasting effects has Britpop had exactly?
    Not much as far as I’m concerned (!) and what is has done is produced dross like The Twang, The View and many other half assed creative back alley bands. Indie landfill was a phrase created for these dullards bereft of art or spark.

    Do you really think Screamadelica is influential?
    I would take it as being a landmark album – right place and right time – sold loads will therefore have an impact with the nostalgic backward lookers, but who is it influencing exactly?

    Those baggy beats are hopelessly confined to the 90s aren’t they? (Although when I get around to listening to The Horrors I’ll see perhaps?)

    Other areas worth mentioning /investigating: Prolapse, Th’ Faith Healers (and Quickspace), Flying Saucer Attack, Kitchens Of Distinction, Disco Inferno. Harder stuff like Jesus Lizard / Shellac / Slint.

    Strange omissions Stereolab, Tinderstsicks, Sonic Youth…

    Agree with Nirvana, Mogwai, Pixies, and of course MBV!

  4. Appreciate the opinions Nick always great to have feedback. Think for me (and its my opinion here) that the album fitted the ecstasy scene at the time, the album is a coming up album, a loved up album, a chilled out album. Whats not to like? You can’t deny the impact of the album, fits in with everything that was great about the 90s! It was a mental album, going to clubs and hearing Primal Scream played on the dance floors…unheard of before this album!!

  5. …also i think its an album that i can put on now and it still sounds fresh, like it was made yesterday! Its stands the test of time and always will.

  6. the twang might sound shit on the radio, but you should see them live – very good live band – i couldn’t stop smiling, mainly because of their “bez” – the guy who just sings like a mad karaoke singer throughout (can’t think of his name).

  7. A classic album from an amazing decade for music. I prefer the 1997 album Vanishing Point and rate it as the bands masterpiece. The way they and Brendan Lynch used the studio for that record is astounding.

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