XTRMNTR by Primal Scream is the last great punk record. Not punk in style, although it is certainly an album to strip the flesh from your bones, but in the way it felt dangerous.
It came out in 2000, and was the last release for Creation Records; as that label fell apart, XTRMNTR was under-supported Bobby Gillespie later said, and although it hit No.3 in the album charts when people still cared about them, it was not the smash hit it could have been. And yet with its aggressive aesthetics - they were renamed PRML SCRM, Gillespie had a buzz cut and they turned up to Glastonbury on a helicopter - and intensely visceral songs it had a cultural impact, an instant cult record par excellence, one that felt like a throwback to a time when music was a threat to the nation. As with records by Sex Pistols or Velvet Underground, it felt subversive and cool just to own it.
