Primal Scream started as a duo of Jim Beatty and Bobby Gillespie. As they developed their music and started playing live, they expanded their line-up. Their flavour of jangly pop-rock did not go over well with punters or critics, with the band being accused of being unoriginal and bland.
The band started to get into the acid house scene and asked DJ Andrew Weatherall to remix one of their tracks. The resulting remix of "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have" (repurposed as "Loaded") was a success and the band delved deeper into this mix of rock and dance, already being explored by bands such as the Happy Mondays and New Order.
Screamadelica actually lives up to some of the hype laid on it by the book. It has heart, it has musical exploration, it has some catchy bits, some interesting bits and a wide range of sounds. If it has any weaknesses for my tastes, it's maybe that some of the more electronic/remixy tracks don't necessarily sit coherently alongside the more "voice and guitar" kind of tracks. They aren't really completely incompatible or anything though, so it just adds a little extra variety to spice up the lengthy runtime of the album.
The album wasn't a commercial or critical runaway success, but it was certainly a step up for the group, making it to number 8 in the UK charts and gaining a few accolades including the inaugural Mercury Prize. Speaking of the Mercury Prize, looking at the calibre of the winning albums that I am familiar with I feel like I should put the other winners on my musical 'to-do' list for future investigation.
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