For all Bobby Gillespie’s veneration of old gods and classic rock iconography – the Keef t-shirts, Gram caps and strict adherence to the gospel according to Nick Kent – Primal Scream make a lousy rock band. They’ve always been at their best when appropriating from the synthetic and science-fictional – autobahn rhythms, inner-city disco pulses, Sprawl claustrophobia. When Bob and the boys repair to the arts lab and conceive imaginary soundtracks for In A Scanner Darkly, they’re as visceral as the most ferocious rock ‘n’ roll, but when they regress to fanboy 1974 tennis racket fantasies, the results are feeble.
Here’s a band of natural born futurists who, every five years or so, get distracted by bogus notions of heritage rock authenticity and insist on leaving the house dressed as Foghat. Strange indeed that a unit capable of such tough and taut urban soundtracks as Vanishing Point, XTRMNTR and Evil Heat could also be satisfied with pubby Parliament parodies and dadrock Charlatanism.
Praise the sages though, the pendulum has swung back to the future after the theme park rawk of 2006’s Riot City Blues. Throb’s left, and he’s taken those stinky leather trousers and Quireboys licks with him. Enter new producers Björn Yttling (Peter, Bjorn and John) and Paul Epworth (Bloc Party) to streamline the sound and ensure that even the darkest tunes keep one eye on the bright lights.
Beautiful Future is, as the title suggests, a forward-looking and often celebratory pop record. The title-track is a shiny cruising tune so caffeine-addictive you can almost ignore a chorus hook that evokes Kaiser Chiefs, while ‘Can’t Go Back’ and ‘Necro Hex Blues’ (the latter featuring Josh Homme) possess an energy and focus all too often absent from their haphazard live shows.
Granted, they’ve been mining some of this ore for years: Can’s mantric dance and Suicide’s motorpsycho nightmares are both central elements of ‘I Love To Hurt’ (featuring Lovefoxxx), and they can do slow spacey blues comedowns like the cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Over And Over’ in their sleep. Nor have they completely weaned themselves off obvious chord progressions, cornball lyrics, and pseudorevolutionary MC5-lite guff like ‘Zombie Man’.
However, on the classic discotheque thwack of ‘Uptown’ and ‘Glory Of Love’ (which could could slot nicely into Warm Leatherette or even Erotica) the collective sound is recharged and inspired. Primal Scream’s 20-year history has been a right-hand/left-hand struggle between modernism and rockism – four wheels good, two legs bad – but Beautiful Future sees Bob and the gang cleave to their wiser instincts. It mightn’t be the most essential album in the Primal Scream canon, but by gum it’s good to hear them sound like they know what year it is.

Key Track: ‘Necro hex blues’