.:,;
Sgt. Angel Eyes | in europe | 04/11/2005
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I knew right away when I heard the news about a collection with Primal Scream that it was going to be problem. The biggest problem is that the songs dont mix very well. One minute youre listening to Rolling Stone-type of rock, like "Movin on up", and some minutes later it's raw punk-rock like "Accelerator". Both songs are good but its not a very good combination. Im glad they skipped the first two albums because they would have made this collection even more unstable. Yet this might be a good place to start if you are not familiare with the band at all.
Another downside to this album is that a lot of the tracks have been edited and shortened in order to fit in more songs. That means that classic PS songs like "Loaded", "Come together", "Burning Wheel", "Swastika eyes", and "Kill all hippies" all have been more or less destroyed. But if youre not familiare with these songs you probably wont miss the parts that have been taken away.
None of the songs on this collection is straight out bad, but I dont see what songs like "Cry myself blind" and "Deep hit of morning sun" are doing on this album while other great songs are absent.
The bonus disc is a collection of old and new remixes. I had heard most of them before I bought the album so there where no surprises. Some of them seem very pointless. "Rocks" is pretty much the same as the original but with a harmonica added in the background. "Jailbird" is pretty much the same parts looped over and over again. "Higher than the orb" and "Some velvet morning" are longer than the originals but they both feel empty and pointless, as if they had just removed most of the instruments and looped what was left a couple of times. Instead of this bonus disc with mediocre remixes they should have had a disc with rare studio recordings like "Hammond connection", "96 tears", "How does it feel to belong", etc.
Personally I prefer listening to the ordinary albums. I recommend "Screamadelica", "Vanishing Point" and "Xtrmntr" for starters."
Very nearly perfect, though not entirely career-spanning...
Daryle Maciocha | Washington, DC USA | 03/11/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Nearly 20 years into their career, Primal Scream have finally released a proper greatest hits album. Everything you'd expect is present. My only disappointment is the band's continued non-acknowledgement of a clutch of early singles and two full-length albums that pre-date their full flowering on Screamadelica. While the band's early recordings show them reaching for self-definition, they created some very entertaining music. What should be added as prologue:
1.) The spiky jangle pop of early Creation single B-side "Velocity Girl"
2. & 3.) "Imperial" & "Gentle Tuesday" from the Byrds-worshipping debut album, 'Sonic Flower Groove'
4. & 5.) "Ivy Ivy Ivy" & "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have" from 'Primal Scream.' The former encapsulates the band's appropriation of Rolling Stones posturing & MC5 riffage (a direction they reprised on 'Give Out But Don't Give Up'; and the latter is definitely a career highlight, a soulful, gospel-tinted potboiler of a tune that served as the basis for Andrew Weatherall's "Loaded," the song that single-handedly changed indie pop forever, which IS included on 'Dirty Hits.'"
Great Hits, So-So Sequencing
WrtnWrd | Northridge, CA USA | 01/20/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Why do greatest hits packages insist on sequencing tracks in chronological order? Is this blatant artist or record label laziness? Primal Scream's Dirty Hits is a case in point. These 18 tracks were `hits' elsewhere - the closest they came in the U.S. was their rave-era anthem "Come Together". Not even the Stones-y "Rocks Off" broke AOR. Instead, we get the progression of dance-happy Brits into acid-drenched pseudo-hippies into paranoid millennium progenitors of bleak electronica. That's an interesting development, sure, especially for those not familiar with PS's musical agenda, but a more interesting case could be made for Bobby Gillespie's dance marauders with a bit of inspired re-sequencing. I'd start with their creepiest, and slowest, musical works - "Higher Than the Sun" and "Long Life", then let `em rip with groove after warped groove, and ending with "(I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind", at which point you'll need a breather."
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1
