Album review: Primal Scream, Chaosmosis

Primal Scream have described their 11th album as a “statement of beauty in dark times”. It has certainly been a fraught several years for the great 1990s innovators who, across recent records, have struggled to remain relevant and, at moments, tumbled towards unwitting pastiche.

They work hard at correcting course on Chaosmosis — their second LP since the departure of late guitarist and founding member Robert ‘Throb’ Young — and the results will unquestionably challenge the received wisdom that the band have just two settings: trippy electro-crossover and sub-Stones boogie-woogie.

Here, they flit between juddering krautrock, retro synth pop and catchy psychedelia. The overarching tone is twitchy and restless — as if the group can’t wait to finish what they’re doing and move onto the next idea. It wears its fecklessness like a badge of honour.

The finest moments hold their own against the best in the Primals’ catalogue. There’s a fantastic vocal interchange between frontman Bobby Gillespie and under-the-radar pop princess Sky Ferreira on single ‘Where The Light Gets In’, while hayseed Cali-girls of the moment Haim pop up on ‘Trippin’ On Your Love’ — a lurching, looping romp that would not have sounded out of place on 1991’s seminal Screamadelica. Elsewhere, Gillespie and guitarist Andrew Innes adopt a pick ‘n mix philosophy with varying results. There’s a bang of Human League on ‘(Feeling Like A) Demon Again’; cooing ballad ‘Private Wars’ suggests a faded facsimile of ‘Some Velvet Morning’, the band’s Lee Hazlewood cover featuring Kate Moss.

Chaosmosis is not a great album, but it is exceedingly ambitious. Having outlived baggy, Britpop and shoe-gaze, perhaps it is sufficient that Primal Scream are still seeking to meaningfully progress their sound and have arrested their slide towards self- parodying karaoke. Sometimes, brave intentions are enough.