Primal Scream

The inverse to their "we wanna party" ethos from the landmark Screamadelica, this post-rave-era release from 2000 is bathed in anger and violence. Toying with everything from hip-hop to Stooges-punk, the Scottish innovators didn't try for a hit record here. This the album you listen to while tossing Molotov cocktails into Starbucks.

Primal Scream's previous albums sounded filtered through a drug haze. But if the U.K. band
was occasionally stunning on its landmark acid-house soundtrack, Screamadelica (1991),
and on the dubby dance exploration of 1997's Vanishing Point -- even its lame 1994 attempt
at Stones-y cock rock, Give Out but Don't Give Up, had its moments -- the highs usually
didn't last long. Primal Scream's new album, Xtrmntr, is a sober, brutally visceral... More >

To hell in a cybercar ("Kill All Hippies," "MBV Arkestra [If They Move Kill 'Em]"). (Grade - **)