September 2008
Brendan Kelly
The Brits have always been so very different, and that’s why we love them (most of the time). From Bowie and Roxy Music back in the day, to more recent popsters like Blur and Pulp, artists from the Britain appear to inhabit a musical universe that has nothing to do with pop life on this side of Atlantic. And that, by the way, is a good thing.
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Take Primal Scream, the totally brilliant band that’s been confusing fans and critics for more than two decades. The outfit, led by eccentric Scottish singer Bobby Gillespie, has just released its ninth studio album, Beautiful Future, and as usual it’s a brain-twister unlike anything they’ve done before.
The last Primal Scream disc, 2006’s Riot City Blues, was an exuberant blast of punky, Stonesy vitriol and, just when you thought you knew where Gillespie’s head was at, he and his bandmates return with a collection that includes a title track almost Bay City Rollers-ish in its cheeriness, a truly sublime reinvention of Fleetwood Mac’s Over and Over with folkie Linda Thompson providing vocals, and a stomper called Zombie Man that rips off Ringo Starr’s Back of Boogaloo (?!).
Weirdly enough, one of the lead producers is Swedish hitmaker Björn Yttling of Peter, Björn and John fame. How bizarre, how bizarre, and the oddest thing is that Primal Scream somehow makes it work.
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Members of The Verve were the poster boys for Brit pop in the late ’90s, thanks to the smash hit Bitter Sweet Symphony. Several years after splitting up, the band returns this summer with Forth, which delivers more of the atmospheric-but-tough rock this Manchester band specializes in, but a few too many of these songs kind of wander along with no direction home.
Unlike The Verve, The Charlatans never went away – you just thought they did. The quirky outfit from the West Midlands was a cult item in the early ’90s. Then the it lost its way in a haze of drugs and booze (a familiar tale), only to make it back onto the radar this year with You Cross My Path, which mines the “Madchester” rocked-up dance-club groove with trademark organ swirls right up front. This time, frontman Tim Burgess and his crew steal shamelessly from the New Order electro-pop songbook – but, hey, there are worse catalogues to plunder.
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Where does Coldplay fit in all this? Well, its members think it’s one of these cool Brit bands but really it’s not. The only cool thing about its latest, Viva la Vida or Death and all his Friends, is the title. You want cool? Go for the real McCoy, as in Radiohead – and if you somehow missed what might be the greatest body of work by a British band since the Beatles, start your homework with the new Best of Radiohead. The title might not be as catchy as Coldplay’s, but there’s no denying the power of these art-pop classics.
Related article:
Paul Potts
A walking tour of Brit cinema