Screamadelica



Screamadelica is the third studio album by Scottish alternative rock group Primal Scream, released on 23 September 1991 in the UK by Creation Records, and 8 October 1991 in North America by Sire Records. It was their first album to be a commercial success, peaking at #8 on the UK Albums Chart upon its initial release. The album received positive reviews and has been frequently named one of the best albums of the 1990s in critics' polls. Screamadelica also won the first Mercury Music Prize in 1992. It has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.

History
The album was a significant departure from the band's early indie rock sound, drawing inspiration from the house music scene (and associated drugs) that was becoming popular at the time of its production. The band enlisted house DJs Andrew Weatherall and Terry Farley on producing duties, although the album also contains a wide range of other influences including gospel and dub.

Although the band wrote a track also called Screamadelica, it does not appear on the album. The ten-minute dance track was also produced by Andrew Weatherall and sung by Denise Johnson. It appears on the Dixie-Narco EP, released in 1992, and is featured in the opening credits of the now rare Screamadelica VHS video tape.

The album includes "Loaded", which was a top twenty hit single in the UK. Dance DJ Andrew Weatherall began remixing "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have", from their previous album, and the resulting track disassembled the song, adding a drum loop from an Italian bootleg mix of Edie Brickell's "What I Am" and a sample from the Peter Fonda B-movie The Wild Angels. The single "Movin' on Up" was the band's breakthrough hit in the United States, reaching #2 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and also making #28 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

Screamadelica was influenced by the Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds (1966). The band's Bobby Gillespie says that after discovering the album, their songs became much softer.

Artwork
The album cover for Screamadelica was painted by Creation Records' in-house artist Paul Cannell. Cannell was allegedly inspired by a damp water spot he'd seen on the Creation Records offices ceiling after taking LSD.

Screamadelica was among ten album covers chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamps issued in January 2010.

Music and samples

 * "Movin' on Up" opens the album. It is in the key of C and is similar in style to the Rolling Stones. The song features Bobby Gillespie's vocals in the verse section with a gospel chorus, accompanied throughout by acoustic guitar, electric guitar and percussion. The song originally had a slower tempo and was described as a ballad, featuring only a piano and Gillespie's vocals. The song's first verse borrows from the lyrics to Can's "Yoo Doo Right": "I was blind, now I can see / You made a believer out of me". It was produced by Jimmy Miller and is frequently acknowledged as one of the standout songs on the album.
 * "Slip Inside this House" is a version of a 1967 song by the 13th Floor Elevators. Primal Scream's version features Sly Stone's laugh from the end of the song "Sex Machine" (from the 1969 album Stand!) and the Amen break. It is one of the few Primal Scream songs that Bobby Gillespie doesn't sing lead vocals on, guitarist Robert Young sang them instead.
 * "Don't Fight It, Feel It", in the Italo house style, with vocals by Denise Johnson. The refrain "I'm gonna live the life I love, gonna love the life I live" is lifted from the Holland–Dozier–Holland song "(I'm a) Road Runner", which in turn echoes the title of a Willie Dixon composition most famously recorded by Muddy Waters. It is almost certainly intended as a reference to both songs.
 * "Higher Than the Sun", produced by The Orb, uses a sample of the drum beat from "Wah Wah Man" by the Young-Holt Unlimited Trio. It also has a recurring spoken word sample from "Get Away Jordan" by Take 6. Lead singer Gillespie claimed the single "Higher Than the Sun" was the most important record since "Anarchy in the UK".
 * "Inner Flight" samples the closing sound on Brian Eno's "The Great Pretender" from the album Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), the drums from Dr. John's "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya" from the album Gris-Gris, and a brief vocal phrase from Alan Lomax's "Whoa Buck".
 * "Come Together" is the longest track on the album. On the UK version, the track opens with part of a speech given by Jesse Jackson at the Wattstax concert held in Los Angeles in 1972. About half-way through the track, a repeated female vocal line "Come ... together as one" kicks in and repeats for the rest of the track. For the US version, the sample of the woman saying 'That's beautiful ... that's really beautiful ... I like that' is from the film Sex, Lies and Videotape and is spoken by Andie MacDowell. The song's chord progression is based on that of "The Dub Station", a 1975 song by Tommy McCook and The Aggrovators.
 * "Loaded", in E-flat major, features lines spoken by Peter Fonda's character in the 1966 movie The Wild Angels, as well as a drum loop from an Italian bootleg mix of Edie Brickell's "What I Am", and The Emotions' "I Don't Want to Lose Your Love". There are brass pedal notes between the sections with vocals. It is a remix of Primal Scream's own "I'm Losing More than I'll Ever Have", from their second album Primal Scream, which in turn borrows the chord progression from The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil".
 * "Damaged", in contrast to the previous track, has a slower tempo and more reflective mood. Sparse percussion, acoustic guitar and piano accompany quiet vocals. "Damaged" is similar to "Movin' On Up", and was also produced by Jimmy Miller.
 * "I'm Comin' Down" has a similarly melancholic atmosphere but more electronic production, with a repeated percussion loop, tremolo-processed piano, organ, and saxophone. The use of reverb, tremolo, and drone-based composition are reminiscent of the early Spiritualized sound. The song ends with a sample of the line "Yep ... I know that feelin'", from the Wim Wenders film Paris, Texas.
 * "Higher Than the Sun (A Dub Symphony in Two Parts)", as stated in the title, is an extended dub remix of "Higher Than the Sun" produced by Andrew Weatherall and Hugo Nicolson. The mix features some samples of Gillespie's wordless singing and the title phrase, but is otherwise primarily instrumental. Jah Wobble's bassline enters at 3:28, and continues through the rest of the song.
 * "Shine Like Stars" is a subdued closer built around drum machine, harmonium and synthesizer. Samples of sitar and sound effects such as waves on a beach appear intermittently.

Critical reception
Screamadelica was well received by critics. In a contemporary review for Spin, Simon Reynolds found the record "totally mind-blowing" whose best songs were "almost unclassifiable". AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine called Screamadelica "an album that transcends its time and influence." Pitchfork praised the album on their 2003 list of the "Top 100 albums of the '90s," saying: "Screamadelica's atmospheric and imaginative hybrid of past, present and future captured its moment in vivid color and splendor, and it still radiates with a kaleidoscopic glow." In a 2009 review, the BBC hailed the album as "a solid gold classic." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice, on the other hand, assigned it a "neither" rating, indicating an album that does not warrant repeated listening despite coherent craft and one or two highlights.

Accolades

 * The album won the first Mercury Music Prize in 1992.
 * It was Melody Maker's album of the year in 1991.
 * It was Select's album of the year in 1991.
 * In 1996, Select named it as the #1 album of the 1990s.
 * NME placed it at no. 3 in its "Best Albums of 1991" list.
 * In 2003, NME placed it at no. 23 in its "100 Best Albums Ever" list. In 2006, the magazine also placed it at no. 15 in its "Greatest British Albums Ever" list.
 * NME also named it the "Druggiest Album Ever" in 2011.
 * In 2000, Q placed the album at #18 on their list of the "100 Greatest British Albums." In 2001, Q placed it at #81 on a list of the "Top 100 Albums of All Time." The album ranked #2 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime" list.
 * In 2003, Pitchfork placed it at #77 in a list of the "Top 100 Albums of the '90s."
 * Also in 2003, the album topped The Scotsman's list of 100 Best Scottish Albums.
 * It appeared in Channel 4's list of the "100 Greatest Albums of All Time."
 * According to Acclaimed Music, a site which uses statistics to numerically represent critical reception, Screamadelica is the 84th most acclaimed album of all time, and the 11th most acclaimed of the 1990s.

"Movin' on Up" was used on the previous Telewest Broadband commercials before Virgin Media bought them out. Subsequently, Bacardi spirits used the song on a UK television ad. The song was also featured in the popular game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on fictional alternative radio station Radio X. A Northern soul version was also recorded by Edwin Starr for the cult British surfing film Blue Juice.

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of French electronic duo Daft Punk, who drew inspiration from the rock and acid house in the United Kingdom during the early 1990s, referred to Screamadelica as the record that "put everything together" in terms of genre".

Commercial performance
The album reached #8 on the UK Albums Chart, and was later certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry. The album has now sold 680,000 copies as of September 2011.

Legacy
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the release of the album, Primal Scream performed the entire album live at Olympia London in West London on 26 and 27 November 2010. The performance included a full gospel choir and horn section. The first of these gigs was broadcast live on BBC 6 Music, presented by Steve Lamacq. These gigs were followed by a UK tour in March 2011, where the band performed the album in full.

20th Anniversary Limited Collector's Edition
Notes
 * A ^ The lyrics of "Slip Inside This House" were truncated and altered in places in comparison to the song's original recording by the 13th Floor Elevators. A notable example of such modification is in the chorus, where "Slip inside this house" was altered to "Trip inside this house".
 * B ^ On the American pressings of the album, the Terry Farley mix of "Come Together" was featured in place of the original UK mix. The Farley mix runs 8:06.

Primal Scream

 * Bobby Gillespie - lead vocals except on "Slip Inside This House"
 * Andrew Innes - guitar
 * Robert Young - guitar, lead vocals on "Slip Inside This House"
 * Martin Duffy - keyboards, piano
 * Henry Olsen - bass, guitar solo on "Damaged"
 * Phillip "Toby" Tomanov - drums, percussion

Guests

 * Denise Johnson – lead vocals on track 3
 * Jah Wobble – bass on track 10

Additional personnel

 * Jimmy Miller, the Orb, Hypnotone, Andrew Weatherall, Hugo Nicolson – production
 * Paul Anthony Taylor – programming
 * Dave Burnham – engineering
 * Jimmy Miller – mixing