Let's start with the best song, number nine, because starting with talk of how this conceptually admirable but in the end unfulfilling band once again comes up short would be an endeavor as tedious as the album's anti-war, -racism, -multinational corporations, -whatever messages. Number nine, an unrelenting free jazz-styled instrumental titled "

MBV Arkestra" is, as the name implies, a Sun Ra homage credited in part to Kevin Shields, the brains of My Bloody Valentine. The notes say Shields mixed it, but let's assume he contributed to a greater extent. It's head and shoulders above all else here, and you get the idea the Ra horns marking the song were of his choosing, if only because My Bloody Valentine have always been more musically adventurous than Primal Scream. The rest of the album is good, too rock for dance clubs, and too dance for rock clubs - it deserves better vocals than Bobby Gillespie's whine. Let Shields and his Ra sounds replace him, as long as My Bloody Valentine continues to idle.

To The Top