According to frontman Bobby Gillespie, for a while he wasn’t entirely sure if there would ever be another Primal Scream album after 2016’s entirely forgettable Chaosmosis. Should they have bothered? Well, new album Come Ahead is a sporadically groovy yet ultimately frustrating affair in which the music of fellow Scream stalwart Andrew Innes and star producer David Holmes repeatedly steals the show from under their leader’s feet.
Gillespie has never been the strongest singer or lyricist, but Primal Scream at their best have always managed to work around his limitations. Come Ahead is not Primal Scream at their best. Granted, it isn’t a total disaster. Holmes’s symphonic funk arrangements are undeniably attractive, but that in itself presents a problem. I’d love to hear, say, the neopsychedelic/blaxploitation‐tastic Innocent Money as a powerhouse instrumental, Gillespie’s unarresting vocals just get in the way.
