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McCartney In Goal
McCartney In Goal is a monthly podcast that debates and dissects the greatest albums of popular rock music. Hosted by David Hughes, and fellow judges, Brett and Steve Sumner, each episode the McCartney In Goal team pick a rock or pop music album that they love and put the songs through an imaginary competitive style-knock out format to find the best song on the album. At times, they may be uninformed, biased and they are often a bit unruly. Come and listen in on the fun - and if you enjoy it, TELL A FRIEND!!! Twitter - https://twitter.com/mccartneyin Website - https://mccartneyingoal.com
McCartney In Goal
Screamadelica (Primal Scream)
Episode 53: Screamadelica (Primal Scream). McCartney In Goal is the podcast that debates the great albums of pop music, using a competitive knock-out format. Today we’re discussing, Screamadelica which was the third studio album by Scottish rock/indie band Primal Scream. It was first released on 23 September 1991 in the United Kingdom. The album includes "Loaded", "Movin' On Up", "Come Together" and "Higher Than The Sun".
How did a remix transform a rock band into dance music pioneers? In our latest episode, we embark on a spirited journey through Primal Scream's iconic album "Screamadelica." Set against the backdrop of September 1991—a month that birthed Nirvana's "Nevermind" and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Blood Sugar Sex Magik"—we reminisce about our teenage years and debate which album truly defined the era. With a playful quiz on the band's roots, we explore their ties with figures like Bobby Gillespie and Alan McGee, and the influence of the UK indie and Acid House scenes, all peppered with tales of our adolescent awkwardness.
Our discussion takes a lively turn as we dissect the album's eclectic nature, bouncing between gospel-infused anthems and psychedelic dance tracks. We engage in a humorous yet passionate debate over whether "Screamadelica" should be considered a concept album, reminiscent of a journey through a weekend's highs and lows. We even engage in a cheeky saxophone solo showdown, diving into differing tastes in jazz and musical complexity, while reflecting on the transformative power of tracks like "Moving On Up" and "Slip Inside This House."
No conversation about "Screamadelica" would be complete without celebrating the profound impact of Andy Weatherall. We dive into his pivotal role in reshaping the band's sound with remixes like "Loaded," and ponder how his collaboration with Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes forged a legacy that won the 1992 Mercury Prize. Whether you're a longtime fan or a curious newcomer, our exploration promises not just entertainment but a deep appreciation for an album that remains a defining piece of '90s musical history.
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Website - https://mccartneyingoal.com/
Hello, welcome to McCartney in Goal. This is the podcast that debates a great album of popular music using a sporting knockout format. I'm David Hughes, and slipping inside this podcasting house are my fellow judges Brett hey, David, let's go and Steve Sumner.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's been so long since we recorded one I forgot we're supposed to do a funny thing here.
Speaker 1:Tonight we come together to discuss Sc funny thing here, uh. Tonight we come together to discuss screamadelica by primal scream and as usual, we will be loaded up with unruly opinions and uninformed debate. Uh, don't fight the puns, steve. Feel them feel them, that's three, three that's good, yeah, lovely I've been thinking that if scientists were, to study the typical chat of middle-aged men like us, would they conclude that it ever rises higher than the pun?
Speaker 4:Oh gotcha gotcha, gotcha he did the thing where his eyebrows went up, so I knew it was the end of the joke.
Speaker 2:No, that's still part of the puns. That's the fourth pun in a row. Is that the end of the puns? Yes, six out of ten.
Speaker 1:It's not.
Speaker 4:It's not because we've taken the piss. He's ended it early.
Speaker 2:I know, him so well. Sorry, dave, sorry, all right, six out of ten for the puns. Right, let's get into talking about this bloody album.
Speaker 1:Yes, which was the third album by Primal Scream. It was released in the UK on the 23rd of September 1991, which was One Day Before. Nevermind by Nirvana, which is episode 50, and Blood Sugar Sex Magic by the Chillies, which is episode 47 gosh, that was a couple of days, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:which one would you pick now?
Speaker 1:that's hard isn't it out of those three? Yeah, spoiler alert, I would pick this one. Oh okay, I don't think Brett would. I'll tell which one would you pick.
Speaker 2:Now? That's hard, isn't it? Out of those three, yeah, spoiler alert, I would pick this one. Oh okay, I don't think Brett would. I'll tell you that for free.
Speaker 4:You're obsessed with this week, aren't you, Dave?
Speaker 3:Well, there was Van Morrison, I think it was days like these, the other big album from 1990. Was it Brian Adams Working Up the Neighbours, for fuck's sake.
Speaker 1:There was Trump, lemond by the Pixies and there was the Low End. Theory by.
Speaker 4:Tribe Called Quest. That's it Tribe Called Quest. You always mention that.
Speaker 2:Tribe Called Quest and Bryan Eno. It's like you'll try and squeeze them in wherever you can, because no one else can be arsed to, always brings it up and the Wonder Stuff.
Speaker 4:That's the great yeah, only wonder stuff had released an album this week Dave desperately wants to get.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, can we talk about the wonder stuff? No, no, no no we talk about tricord quest. No, literally no one wants to have that conversation.
Speaker 4:You've mentioned it 74 times. Yeah, but it is a special week, dave, you're right. How old would we have back in a time machine? What, what, when, what it was? 91.
Speaker 1:September 91, uh 15 15 and a bit.
Speaker 4:Yeah, 15 and a half, you'd have been 15 and a half, steve, you'd have been a little bit. Yeah, 15, well, 15 and a quarter, you'd have been 15 and a quarter and that mattered. That mattered then, extra that, that bit of a fraction of a year is that?
Speaker 2:why? Is that why you bullied me at the time? Because I was?
Speaker 1:that yeah you know, that's why I was the one with his head down the toilet and his lunch stolen.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because of that extra quarter year, that extra little bit of puberty that made us all happy disclaimer we didn't know each other when we were 15 listeners it was what 18 we got to meet each other.
Speaker 1:There we go um, right, there is a complicated cast of characters involved, uh, in this album. What we need is a handy quiz. So, yeah, well, I have a handy quiz, brett what are the? Chances steve unbelievable so here we go. Uh, you have to fill in the blanks. Guess the answers. The home of uk indie music in the mid 1980s was where? Which country? Hey?
Speaker 4:has anyone got any clues? Listeners, can you tweet us because we've got no idea.
Speaker 1:Scotland it grew out of scotland. Yes, okay, the lead singer in primal scream was who? Bobby gillespie bobby gillespie started as the drummer in which band j Jesus and Mary Chain, jesus and Mary Chain, yeah, who were an influential band in the emergence of the UK indie music.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Bobby Gillespie left the Jesus and Mary Chain to start Primal Scream, Not true not true, he was in both bands at the same time Disclaimer.
Speaker 3:He was in both bands at the same time and the Mary.
Speaker 2:Chain gave him an ultimatum and said which band you want to be and he said well, I'm just the drummer in your band, I'm the front man and that band's I'm fucking off, so carry on the uh.
Speaker 1:The leadership fulcrum around which primal scream revolved were bobby gillespie and who? Andrew innes who was a school friend of bobby gillespie. Primal scream was signed to which record label?
Speaker 2:Creation.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Creation Records was founded by who?
Speaker 1:Alan McGee? Yes, alan McGee knew Primal Scream because before starting Creation Records he was in a couple of Scottish bands with who? Lulu, andrew Innes, andrew Innes, yes, he was. He was a school friend of Andrew Innes. Alan McGee introduced Andrew Innes Andrew Innes, yes, he was. He was a school friend of Andrew Innes. Alan McGee introduced Andrew Innes and Bobby Gillespie to the UK Acid House rave scene and at one of these raves the band met. Which DJ?
Speaker 2:Andrew.
Speaker 1:Weatherall, andrew Weatherall. Yes, andrew Weatherall was the super trendy. Dj and remixer, and he'd already worked in the rave scene with bands such as who.
Speaker 2:Oh, Weatherall. Happy Mondays.
Speaker 1:Happy Mondays and.
Speaker 4:The Cheery Sundays.
Speaker 2:It's Happy Mondays and somebody else I can't think Go on.
Speaker 1:Happy Mondays and the Orb, the Orb.
Speaker 4:Isn't the Orb one person? No.
Speaker 2:No two.
Speaker 4:Oh, is it Okay.
Speaker 3:What about Orbital?
Speaker 4:That one person that's two.
Speaker 2:Okay, stop getting your electronic duos wrong electronic duos. And the apex tin and the apex twin.
Speaker 1:Ironically, there's only one okay, so andrew wetherall was given a copy of a song called what.
Speaker 4:I'm losing myself or something I have every bit of myself I've lost. I've lost more than I'll ever know. Yes, I'm losing more than I'll ever have. That one Plus that.
Speaker 1:He remixed into the song that we now know as Loaded. Loaded We'll get into that as we talk about that song later on. And that is remixed, loaded, is remixed around a circular bass line from the Primal Screen bass player. Who is who?
Speaker 2:Well, it was Robert Young, but around this period he moved from bass to guitar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the Primal Screen bass player for this album was a guy called I don't know.
Speaker 2:I only know the Joe Wobble.
Speaker 4:It's not Manny, because Manny is now Manny's much later yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:Henry Olsen. I've got an anecdote about him later, even though I couldn't remember his name All right.
Speaker 1:So he was a posh bloke who loved listening to what Classical music, jazz Free jazz.
Speaker 4:Oh should always pay for your jazz.
Speaker 1:He sat at the front of the tour bus reading, reading what? What does he like to read at the front of the tour bus?
Speaker 2:Fiesta.
Speaker 4:That was a very popular magazine at the time, town and Country Gardening magazines. Lady.
Speaker 2:Chatterley's Lover.
Speaker 1:Gardening magazines, the un-spergigated version, yeah, while the rest of the band were getting wasted in the party room.
Speaker 4:He was worrying about. He was thinking what would Monty Don do with this bass line?
Speaker 1:But Henry had a travel buddy at the front of the tour bus and that was Manchester singer who provides dance vocals on the album. And who was she? Denise Johnson.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:RIP yes. And to just close down this cast loop, the Screamadelica album was a commercial success and it won the first what? Prize. Mercury Music Prize. Mercury Music Prize yes. And in doing so it beat the fellow nominated album Honey's Dead, which was by influential Scottish indie band and Bobby Gillespie's former bandmates.
Speaker 4:The Jesus and Mary Chain, the.
Speaker 1:Jesus and Mary Chain. Jesus and Mary Chain.
Speaker 4:Well, you brought it back that quiz attack like we've been assaulted with a quiz there. Listeners has been brought back to narrative meaning by the fact that he left the Jesus and Mary Chain. And then he triumphs in 1991, wins the Mercury Music Prize.
Speaker 1:Dave, what's the first round? The first round tonight is Moving On Up against Slip Inside this House.
Speaker 4:Okay, so that's track one and track two of the album I don't know Darkness.
Speaker 3:My light shines on. My light shines on. My light shines on. My light shines on. I was lost. Now I'm found. Good luck, I know you can. I wish you more Cause I'm tripping inside this house With you in that fire.
Speaker 2:I'm tripping inside this house With you in that fire. You can tell immediately which way I'm going to vote. For what specific reason? Mccartney and Goallists Bookending no, you don't like cover versions. Don't vote for cover versions.
Speaker 4:Oh, that is true.
Speaker 2:You're right, I do actually really like it. I mean they completely. As we will say so many times, it's been so screamer-delicat that it's its own thing. It should be cheesy that he's changed Slip Inside this House to Trip Inside this House pretty much for the entire thing. I think that should have dated badly, but for some reason it hasn't. One of the many songs that Bobby Gillespie isn't singing on, he barely sings anything on this album, poor fella. But we'll get to that and, yeah, I really like it. It's great. It's a great cover.
Speaker 1:These are very different songs, aren't they Moving on up and Slip Inside this House?
Speaker 4:Well, moving On Up sounds like the Stone Rolling Stones meets. I don't know the Stone Roses.
Speaker 1:Well, rolling Stones meets the Rolling Stones, it sounds like it could have come straight off beggars banquet it's got a 90s feel to it.
Speaker 4:It's got. It's got a bit there's definitely some.
Speaker 2:There's some dance. There's some dance stuff going up. There's a loop in the background yeah just starts to hint where this is going maybe house of love, maybe that's what it makes yeah but slipping, slipping sides.
Speaker 4:It sounds like the happy mondays meets the happy mondays. I mean, it's very, very 90s.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very 90s, you know, but again you know, it doesn't, it doesn't, it hasn't dated that badly, I think it sounds. It sounds great. But um, what, moving on up? Yeah, uh, no, I meant slipping inside this house. No, no, slipping inside this house is amazing yeah, I know, I said it hasn't it hasn't it hasn't dated badly, that's what I was saying no, no, and I was joking that of the two.
Speaker 1:If, if one of them was going to date badly, it would be moving on up, oh you're out of your fucking.
Speaker 4:But it hasn't dated badly, that's no. You're out of your mind, dave, you're completely out of your mind moving on up and it was still. It's so fresh sounding moving enough is utterly timeless today.
Speaker 1:Well, it's timeless. They wrote a song that should have been released in 1968 well, no, I don't agree.
Speaker 4:I mean it was released like britpop? I mean, was the whole idea of britpop was this kind of revisionism and and um grabbing back?
Speaker 2:oh, you can't. You can't use the b word. The b word is off here.
Speaker 4:We're pre-sweden, I'm not saying no, no, I'm not saying this is britpop. I'm not saying that that whole genre of music embraced the idea of of going back and and recalibrating stuff and rebirthing it for the 90s and in a 90s way. The slip inside definitely is a 90s song and it stays in the 90s.
Speaker 2:That's why it's more dated, whereas moving on up it has a kind of a classic thing that just permeates any time it's in one of the things I want to talk about with this album is how something so eclectic in its styles feels like a dance album and everybody remembers it as that primal scream dance album, even though you've got like this gospel track that opens it and then like an acoustic track later on and then ambient tracks and whatever you know. It's got all this different stuff on it and everybody remembers it as a dance album. Uh, and there's just this something in the background there.
Speaker 2:You know it was a strange time, wasn't it?
Speaker 4:I don't think of this as a dance album. I think of this as a concept album and I'm very proud of myself for working out the concept without reading an article telling me what the concept was. The concept of this album is A Long Weekend, which is incredibly 90s. It's a perfect concept. You start off with moving up it's Friday night, you're getting out, you're getting ready to go out, and then it moves through the weekend and we'll get through all those kind of cinematic moments and that's why it gets to have been so ridiculously eclectic because it is a concept album I would.
Speaker 2:I would say that concept album is too grandiose a term for I. I think it's fair enough to say that it takes you on a journey and it's obvious that it's. You know, it's it's. There's a come up section and a come down section, because drugs, because 1991 because acid house yeah but, but I think I would. I would say a concept album is too grandiose, it's a term to grant it, but I I take your point but it's good.
Speaker 4:It's going to launch debate in people's mind, and that's what I like oh, that's the sort of guy you are yeah, that's why we're here to launch debate.
Speaker 2:Don't shut him down. He's just trying to stimulate debate Across the continents.
Speaker 4:Yeah, just trying to make people think and they love it.
Speaker 2:Alright, fair enough, fair enough.
Speaker 1:So I think you two are going to vote for Moving On Up.
Speaker 2:Because we've got ears and a mind and we're sensible humans. Come on, Dave.
Speaker 1:And I think you're gonna vote for, for the weird song that you love, I'm going to save my critique of moving on up for when we see it again in round two.
Speaker 2:Um, I would vote. Well, I am voting for slip inside this house. Why, fucking, why justify yourself, man? Because it, because all right, fair enough, yeah, in 1991, when this album was released.
Speaker 1:There's something original and fresh about slip inside this house. There's nothing original or fresh about moving on up. But then we'll get into. As I said then, I haven't saved my critique of moving on up. That's why I don't think it should be on this album. Um, I don't think it fits on this album it fits perfectly as as I for me especially for my idea of it being a concept album.
Speaker 4:It fits absolutely perfectly.
Speaker 2:It's one it's still one of the most popular songs, I think I, I totally agree with you, brett, and I know I sort of put slightly pooped with the concept album thing, but I think the point is that it was. It was a. You know, bobby gillespie's very clear that it wasn't. You know, we're trying to make it, um, you know. So basically we're trying.
Speaker 2:He said we were trying to save rock and roll, we were trying to make a rock and roll album, but we wanted to make a modern rock and roll album and to us the modern rock and roll at the time, a lot of it was kind of dance music, but we weren't trying to make dance music, you know. And so what you get is a rock and roll album with all these different elements on it which a lot of people remember as a dance album. But I think, with that in mind, moving on up, I think it's the perfect opener because it's I'm coming up, I'm excited, it's a night out, we're going dancing. Isn't dancing great, which is the concept of the album? The concept of the album is not yeah, I'm saying content.
Speaker 2:Now, the concept the album is is not. Oh, we've got to have beats on this. It's all about andrew weatherall. It's it's like celebration of dancing and and and and that time, and that culture, and I, and I think moving and up does that brilliantly, uh, even though musically it can sound a bit yeah, could it be described?
Speaker 4:could it be described as a gateway drug to this gateway drug to rest?
Speaker 2:down. Very nice, brett. Let's move on. I love that. Sorry, I've told myself to move on Right, so why did, of the many things he doesn't sing on, do you know why Bobby Gillespie Didn't sing on? Slip Inside this House? And who is singing?
Speaker 4:No, it is it's Robert, isn't it Robert Young? It's Robert Young singing on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he did the vocal Because Bobby Gillespie had a shocking fever and he came down from glasgow. He managed two takes of the vocal and then passed out and then when, when he came around, he said oh, you say fever, I say hungover okay, so the next pairing in round one is damaged, damaged, against.
Speaker 1:I'm Coming Down.
Speaker 3:Said I felt so happy. My, my, my and the way I fell inside Made me feel so glad to be alive. God damn it. I got damage. I got damage. I lost myself in you, ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. I can't face the trouble I'm coming to. I feel so far away. I'm coming to you. I'm coming to you. I'm coming to you. I'm coming to you. I'm coming to you.
Speaker 4:Wow. Okay, so we've got Damaged, which is there's two songs in this album that were produced by Jimmy Miller and they're very I mean, it doesn't take a genius to pick which they are. And this is number two, isn't it? Damaged is by Jimmy Miller, who worked with the Rolling Stones very famously. Yeah, I like it. I'm voting for that, For Damaged, yes, and I know it's not representative of the album and it's a song that you probably think shouldn't be on the album, Am I right?
Speaker 1:I'll go for it, steve, and then you can be the balance. Um, I, I think damaged it's fine as a song on its own, but on this album I hate it. If you're using your your weekend uh concept analogy, brett, then the song damaged it's the friend at that party. That's really annoying.
Speaker 3:You're like why is he here who?
Speaker 1:invited him in the party. That is this album. It's like, oh just get rid of it that makes you that guy.
Speaker 4:That makes you that guy. So you've got to remember. It's so easy to be that guy.
Speaker 1:To me. Looking at it, it's just so clear that they're not supposed to be here. They're produced by Jimmy Miller, who's Rolling Stones early 70s. What was the album that he did? In fact, he did three albums, didn't he? He did Beggar's Banquet. Sticky Fingers and then what's the one that we did?
Speaker 3:Let it Bleed, and I think.
Speaker 1:Jimmy Miller did Let it Bleed, didn't he?
Speaker 4:I've got no idea. I think he did. We would love to weigh in and look knowledgeable. I think he did three or four.
Speaker 1:Rolling Stones albums in a row from that period.
Speaker 4:You don't like Moving On Up, but I think it works in this album and obviously You're Right, Damaged is a bit of an outlier. Well, I like Moving.
Speaker 1:On Up as a song and I think it's as a song from the early 90s. If you heard it on the radio you'd think, yeah, it's a great song. If you hear it on this album, and especially when it opens up this album as like the statement piece of you hear the rest of the album it's like, oh no, hang on. Moving on up is not a statement piece of where this album's going at all.
Speaker 2:I like it as a song, but it just doesn't fit here you know, if you're like I, expect a certain sound palette from this album. Moving on up doesn't work, but I I've come around to thinking that it's more of a a moods piece rather than an electronic music piece, and so I think it does fit it's one each.
Speaker 4:I don't think Dave like Damage the 7 minute diatribe should give it to you.
Speaker 2:So I felt exactly like Dave does for a very, very long time, probably until I started listening to the album and researching the album for this podcast. I have always I've never felt that way about moving on up, because for me it was about get me on the dance floor. You know, not a lot gets me on the dance floor other than alcohol, but that song got me on the dance floor and and so so for me free bird by linen skin and free bird skin and obviously, obviously um but, that for me that was a listeners there was a site to see.
Speaker 2:I wish I'd seen it myself.
Speaker 4:You're on your back with your arse in the air usually. Yeah, that's it, so you couldn't see yourself.
Speaker 2:I've still got a chipped tooth from doing those, anyway, but the truth, that's the truth, just this one. But I feel like moving on up was always coherent. But, yeah, I always felt like Damage was wildly incoherent stylistically. But now, you know, listening to what they wanted to try and achieve with it and what they were trying to do, what I eventually came back to that made me realise why I think Damage does work. Here is I remember the parties I went to in 1991. And what I remember of Screamer Delica at parties is that when everyone would be dancing to Moving On Up, just as they'd be dancing to Don't Fight it, feel it in the same way that when they were knackered at the end of the party, they'd be sitting in a corner snogging to I'm Coming Down and Damaged, and it worked, and it worked. And it was the come up at the party and the come down at the party and nobody was sitting in those corners going, oh, but this one's acoustic, I'm not having any of this.
Speaker 3:and jimmy miller doing here.
Speaker 2:What's how this sounds very, very rolling stones in 1968.
Speaker 3:I'm not sure I approve of this, and but you know yeah, so I'm.
Speaker 2:I'm going to vote damaged there's so much to say yet about how great it was created. But I'm going to vote damaged because, after all those years feeling like dave, I've changed my opinion wow, and that's the song I thought you were.
Speaker 4:But that's great, because I'm coming down. It's fucking awful. The saxophone solo on it is fucking awful. It goes on the entire song. It's six minutes long. It's like the sax player is getting paid by the fucking note oh no, I do like it. No, it's terrible it sounds like a man having an argument with a saxophone and losing it's awful.
Speaker 2:I hate it. Are you a John Coltrane free jazz fan?
Speaker 4:It's been a while since I've bought free jazz.
Speaker 2:I love my John Coltrane.
Speaker 4:I hate it With jazz the freer, the better I like it when it's like proper Lock up the jazz.
Speaker 2:I like my jazz locked up no.
Speaker 4:I know With a tag on.
Speaker 2:Jazz is like the biggest genre thing ever. So to write of everything from like Dixieland jazz, which is like super tuneful, to like Coltrane, which is like insane.
Speaker 4:Listen, I like a seventh chord, but that solo.
Speaker 2:I love it To me. You should have voted for it then Actually, no, I'm not going to vote for it because I've come around, I'm coming down. But the thing, is they were listening to a lot of pharaoh sanders. No, no, they were listening to a lot of a saxophonist called pharaoh sanders at the time, and that solo is particularly influenced by pharaoh sanders, who I have got into since this album entirely on the basis of how much I like that solo and how much I like the saxophone I hope you listen to it.
Speaker 4:So on headphones, otherwise your wife has got reason I love it.
Speaker 2:I love the sax on that song and I voted for this, I voted with you don't put me off, don't put me off I don't get.
Speaker 4:I mean I I had my whole diatribe there ready for the quarterfinals, but I was surprised he went out say, launched it in.
Speaker 2:Say one more thing about that saxophone solo, and I will change my vote so let's move on let's move on. Let's move on up, david, move on.
Speaker 4:I'm coming down just as that goes out is that just you expressing how you're feeling, which is very rare for you, or just talking about the song that's just gone out?
Speaker 1:he's coming down, yeah uh, I'm feeling pretty down, um, but on the subject of that song I'm coming down, for me the saxophone is everything on that song and that's why I hate it it adds a layer of performance to what would otherwise be a very computer-generated noises, which I love. And I love the layers, the build-up of layers, but then, when you lay that saxophone over the top, it's just amazing. So good, in fact, that that's my second favourite song on the album Nice. I'm coming down.
Speaker 4:And what was your first favourite, Dave?
Speaker 1:He's going to tell us that when we get there oh, I love that so much and and of everything, that I love about that song the saxophone is is just sublime.
Speaker 4:I mean, we've had quite the the gamut of opinions on that sax solo, so that's good, everyone's been covered there. People who love sax solos happy, it's been well backed. People who, like me, hate them.
Speaker 2:Whoa, whoa, whoa there I fucking hate sax solos. What are you talking about? I like free jazz saxophone solos if it's like the solo to baker fucking street. I don't want to hear it. Don't throw me in with the saxophone oh, that's just that's.
Speaker 4:But I, I would, I would argue, steve that sax solo lovers would would balk self, self-confessed sax solo lovers would balk at being at baker street solo being part of their uvra.
Speaker 2:They'd be like come on, man, that's well, fine, but you've just that's for the populace lumped me in with with every kenny g fan on earth. You've just lumped me in with because I happen to like something sounds like john coltrane, it's like oh well, obviously, steve. You like saxophone solos. Fuck you, brett. That's the worst sweeping thing you've ever said on the entire podcast. Unbelievable. You have the power. Yeah, that's it. I'm changing my vote. Right, I'm voting for Uncoming Down. I'm so irritated by being lumped in with quote-unquote saxophone solo lovers, which is the most ridiculously broad statement anyone has ever made.
Speaker 4:I'm changing my vote no, the most the most ridiculously broad statement is anyone has ever made. Is that that? That's the? That was the most ridiculously broad statement ever made no on this podcast no, I mean, you've been on this podcast for over 50 episodes, so you've definitely made some more broad sweeping statements than that yeah, but I forget things, so in my memory then yeah, for which lasts for 74 minutes that I can actually remember it's the length of the cd.
Speaker 2:It's length of the music on cd yeah, that's what it's been tempered to over time. That's right. Anyway, rough change my vote.
Speaker 1:That's it all right, I'm chopping my pencil and I'm putting, I'm coming down through.
Speaker 4:Dave feels less damage than he did five minutes ago. That's brilliant.
Speaker 1:Quite right, excellent, okay. The next pairing in the first round, next pairing in round one, is In A Flight Against Shine Like Stars. Thank you, I watch you sleep. You look so peaceful.
Speaker 3:I watch you sleep. You look so peaceful, you look so far away. I feel, I feel scared for you. To me you're precious and you're mine.
Speaker 1:Share a star, share a star Do you want to know something about in a flight?
Speaker 4:Yes, it's too long, it's like every flight ever. It's like, for fuck's sake, are we there yet? And yes, we're flying economy. Who's doing the?
Speaker 1:layered vocals in the background.
Speaker 2:I don't think I know actually it is Henry Olsen.
Speaker 4:Oh, it's our friend.
Speaker 1:He's Monty Don's best mate, Henry Olsen According to the band, spent a day doing all kinds of layered vocals, vocal harmonies, and then Andrew Weatherall composed them, arranged them in the background. I love them although this In A Flight doesn't have vocals and Shine Like Stars does, and they're really good on Shine Like Stars. I just love the noises on In A Flight. That's my favourite.
Speaker 4:I like the first minute and then it is too long. But you know what do I know? Steve, what do you think of these two tunes I love Shine Like Stars. I think it's a lovely. That is on the concept of this album. That is the Sunday night. You've had the mad weekend. It's a Sunday night in the bath for a glass of red wine. It's beautiful, calm down. It's almost a lullaby, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It's glass of red wine. It's beautiful. Come down. It's almost a lullaby, isn't it? It's just so gentle, it's wonderful. I, I, yeah, I quite enjoy both of these. I didn't used to, I used to find them both incredibly boring. I mean incredibly boring back in the day. I I don't now. I I enjoy both, for different reasons. Um, shine like stars sounds to me like hefner, which is a band that I used to love, who were not very big at all but were sort of john darlings of john peel back in the day. Um sounds remarkably like hefner, actually.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah I can't really pick between these two, though. I mean, as I say, I used to find them like I mean, almost throw the cd at the wall boring, and again I've come to appreciate them over time. Uh, again, I mean, inner flight is very much, and again, I heard bobby gillespie talking about it today and sort of he was he's we should really talk a little bit about. Just, I'm not, maybe not now, but this, this whole thing of the remarkable attitude of, of of wanting to create something and being the lead singer and just allowing the total egolessness of going well, I don't need to sing on that one. No, you sing that one, oh one. Oh, that one's going to be an instrumental. Oh, that's just a remix. That doesn't matter. You know it's like.
Speaker 4:Is that because he's slightly insecure about his vocal?
Speaker 2:No, no, I don't think it's the case at all that Bobby Gillespie felt bad about his vocals. But, brett Knight, you and I were having a conversation this week about about why you love um punk and the sort of the diy spirit of it and the lack of ego, and one of the things that's remarkable about this album is that there was, there was a diy spirit, there was a purity of spirit and there was a huge lack of ego around it and obviously what had happened was that you know they to give, you know, obviously, backstory that we haven't talked about yet. You know, you've got two albums have come out, of sort of middling rock and roll that nobody's bought, and then somebody's done a dance remix that's turned up from one of your songs from your last album and put it out as a single which is loaded and suddenly it's like, well, this is a great direction, let's do this. This is wonderful and they're taking a lot of ecstasy and listening to Ac, acid house and all of these things and getting into these ideas. But but bobby gillespie yes, he was the leader, the sort of spiritual leader of the thing, but there wasn't any sense of, well, I'm the lead singer. It's like what sounds good. That sounds good. Am I singing right now? Just dance at the front and if you look, you know he's.
Speaker 2:He's happy to sing, he's happy to talk and he's a terrible singer but he's very happy to sing if it's what the song requires. And he he's got that kind of wonderful, stoned kind of uh laconic sort of thing in his delivery that works with a lot of their stuff. Or sometimes he does whisper stuff. When they went through their krautrock period, which I actually really like it's the only other chrome screams period that I like is their really krautrock period like exterminator and stuff like that. Later on he does like lots of whispering vocals like vanishing point, vanishing point, because he's not trying to be a singer and it's like you get all these people like guitarists like keith richards and jimmy page will talk about like lead singer disease, lead singer syndrome and how the lead singer is always a cock because it's all ego and they want to be the center of attention and Bobby Gillespie just isn't that.
Speaker 2:One thing I've learned listening to his interviews is there's just no ego on the man at all. You know he grew up in a sort of slum, essentially in Glasgow. His father was like a massive trade union guy. So he grew up in this incredibly left-wing, very unionized environment and it was just, you know, all of us together. We're all in this together and and this is amazing we're making music.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited what sounds great, and if it's him singing, he'll do it, and if it's not him singing he won't do it. And it's such an amazing attitude, uh, which I've come to respect enormously in because he comes across as such a surly bastard and it's anything. He's like john lyden, you know, it's like. If you actually spend any time listening to his interviews, you're like this guy's awesome, you know, because there isn't, there isn't a shred of ego on him, and I cannot think of any lead singers that are off the top of my head that I can say that about. So I think that's why he doesn't sing on these songs, not not his vocal so what are we voting for?
Speaker 4:gang dave um in a flight okay brett, I'm, I'm, I'm voting for shine like stars because I really like it and it's a very nice. Uh, bobby gillette will be vocal.
Speaker 1:Very gentle yeah, and it closes the album. It's a nice way to bookend. Yeah, it's a nice gentle close it's a.
Speaker 4:It's the perfect way to close the concept album.
Speaker 2:You're right, dave I like both equally, but I think I'm going to vote shine like stars because a book ending, you know you start coming up with uh, moving on up and come down with shine like stars. Very nicely, it's a good way to end there. But also, mostly I'm just voting for it because any anyone who plays a harmonium on anything wins points with me. Harmoniums are awesome, so it just pips it, harmonium okay, so shine like stars goes through.
Speaker 1:And uh, we now have eight songs in round two, quarterfinals. You mean, come on, eight songs in the quarterfinals. But it sounds better, I think, if I say we've now got eight songs in round two.
Speaker 4:It doesn't sound better. It sounds less sexy and less exciting. Quarter-finals makes me think, oh, we might get to an end soon. We might get to have my dinner. People can go home and do something else. Round two sounds like fuck me, how long's this got to go? Yeah. Else round two sounds like fuck me, how long's this gotta go? Yeah, and it's the world cup round two. No one's tuning in for that. Champions league round two, quarterfinals. Oh, there's a bit of prestige on the line there. The finals in hove it's in view, perfect come on, we can't.
Speaker 2:We can't have this argument every time. Quarterfinals it's fine. Fine, I vote for it to be the quarterfinals Me too, there you go, dave Forevermore, you can have round one.
Speaker 4:That's nice, we like that, but then quarterfinals as soon as we get here.
Speaker 1:So the first pairing in the quarterfinals is moving on up against Loaded. I'm a shadow, I'm a shadow, I'm a shadow.
Speaker 3:I'm a shadow. I'm a shadow. We're going to have a party. I've got all the limits and I'm up. I've got all the limits and I'm up.
Speaker 4:Oh, mammoth, a lot of people these would be. Wow, these are the two biggest songs in it.
Speaker 1:I would imagine in streams from this album a lot of people on this podcast would have these two, probably in the final. Yeah, two of the people on this podcast. Yeah, there's no, there's no, there's no subtlety here.
Speaker 4:They will fucking know you wouldn't you fuck me yeah, they would I mean, but only one person in this podcast listener gets to do the running order here, so he's definitely done this on purpose to get them to melt ridiculously early in the quarter minus and one of them has to go out as a juxtaposition.
Speaker 1:I thought moving on up against slip inside this house was a was a very nice juxtaposition, um, but equally I think moving on up against loaded is the same. Is now the time to talk about producers.
Speaker 4:Go for it tell us about how? No, I'm not talking about it.
Speaker 2:I want one of you to talk about it oh, you want one of us to be entertaining about it you go for it, please, yeah there's a lot of producers yeah, there's a lot of producers, but, but by far and away the most important producer on on this is andy weatherall. And andy weatherall, basically, was, you know, one of the dance producers do du jour, that's. That's not true.
Speaker 4:He was a remixer yeah, he, he's not really. Yeah, he was. He had not been in the studio much. No, he's not true, he was a remixer. Yeah, he'd not really. Yeah, he had not been in the studio much.
Speaker 2:No, he'd not been in the studio, he was nervous about it, because they asked him, didn't they?
Speaker 4:Yes, I think he'd reviewed a gig of theirs quite favourably. No.
Speaker 2:What it was was that he'd said nice things about one of the ballads on their previous album Okay their previous album and nobody had said anything nice about anything on their previous album.
Speaker 2:So bobby gillespie was like we like his happy monday remixes, because andy weatherall was writing for some music magazine at the time as well, and and he'd written nice things about this song. And they were like do you want to remix our song? Very successful remixer, andy weatherall. And, and, and and so he did, and I think he initially uh, so he took that song that we all keep getting the name wrong for. I've Forgotten More Than I'll Ever have.
Speaker 1:I think I'm Losing.
Speaker 2:More I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever have. That's it from the previous album, which essentially is a riff on Sympathy for the Devil, anyway, and he took that, remixed it and again, this is where this egoless comes into it, because Primal Scream at this point is really only Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes, because everyone else is sort of you know, either left or fallen by the wayside. So they're the sort of nucleus of the thing. And he did a remix of it that was basically just kind of the song, but with a dance beat.
Speaker 4:And they said no, no, no, no. Said no, no, no, no, not like that, yeah, not like that. Rip it to fucking pieces, yeah, we want it more fucked up than that. I think was what they said take my vocal off it.
Speaker 2:So he did and you know, and then he only put you know film samples on it. And he puts you know those, those wonderful um, what are they? The clicking at the beginning? I forget what it's from, but I found the 12 inch that that was sampled from it's an italian band, is it's like an italian it was it. No, it was an italian 12 inch remix of what I am by edie brickell and new bohemians. It was very, very surreal, surreal.
Speaker 2:Specific sample from yeah, I think it's wild angels peter fonder film which is actually all, has already been sampled by mud honey at the beginning of one of their tracks, which which is odd, but anyway.
Speaker 2:So he sticks all these things together and then suddenly, out of nowhere, Bobby Gillespie and Co are here, people are ringing him up and going. This dance floor went fucking mental for that song of yours and it just started blowing up. And so, you know, had it not been for Loaded, screamadelica would not have happened at all, because they would have gone. Well, that was a nice dance mix that we had. And then we carried on. We made the third Promo Scream album and it was kind of a rock and roll album. So be it, which is why one of the reasons Screamadelica is so odd and it would have died, in my opinion, it would have died completely if they'd released the songs that you can hear on Demodelica that they really you know, because a lot of them you know you go back to them.
Speaker 1:Tell us what.
Speaker 2:Demodelica is. It's the original demos and they're pretty rough and they're pretty raw, but a lot of them you go back to them. The songs sound nothing, you know, it's like songs written on guitars and pianos and these sorts of things.
Speaker 2:If they turned that into what it was going to turn into, released it and then released this or something like this with a couple more weather or wixes on it and called this the remix album, both of them would have been completely forgotten because the parent album would have died a death by for being bad and the remix album wouldn't have got anywhere because everyone had hated the parent album but because loaded blew up on the dance floors. They're like, well, this is an interesting direction. And then it took months. There was like this huge, huge, huge gap before screamadelica actually came out to the point where everyone said, well, they've, they've missed the boat now that by the time it came out it was just so of its time it blew everything up. But anyway, the debate is, even though there are lots of producers knocking about this album, andy Weatherall's influence over this whole project is probably arguably as big as Primal Scream is, and Bobby Gillespie would say, yeah, no, andrew Weatherall, certainly no Screamy Delica.
Speaker 4:Well, the interesting thing is Weatherall is very, very modest about his influence on this album. But I probably agree with you, steve. It is huge and numeratelyably, I think of all the many producers on this album, weatherall has got the most songs. But he says it gets on my nerves when people think it was all down to me. I played a very small part in it. They're great songwriters and Bobby is a really good singer. So it wasn't me. It wasn't like I wasn't presented with some brilliant material to work with.
Speaker 4:I think he's being nice yeah he's being he's, he's being kind, but I mean, I think he's right as well. Bobby has got a great vocalist and they are, you know, writing some great songs, but he's, he's put something to it which is very different.
Speaker 2:I think the, the, the meeting of all of them, has worked really well but the point I would disagree with you on is I and I disagree with him on is I don't think the songs were good. I think I think, yes, we've said damaged is a whole song and it works quite nicely and I think moving on up is a great song. But listening, sitting through demo delica has been fucking turgid because I think that the the songs, quote unquote are essentially bad. I think they're bad songs, badly done.
Speaker 2:You sounded so like aaron bartress yeah, the songs are essentially bad, yeah they're bad songs, they're rubbish they're not good songs, but I mean, if you, if you listen, are you saying andrew weverall has polished a turd.
Speaker 4:Is that what you're saying about screamer delicate? Yes, yes, in a lot of cases.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, yeah I think that's absolutely correct.
Speaker 2:I mean, if you go back and listen go back and listen, to come together, which is 10 minutes of this joyous thing with jesse jackson, you know, doing his speech over it and all these gospel vocals on the end and everything else. Listen to the actual song that that came from, none of which has really been salvaged other than the gospel vocals at the end, and tell me it's a good song because it ain't uh, and and and. Yeah, I think it would have been an awful album. Um, I, I think wetherall's doing himself down there. I think he. I think, yes, this is the very definition of turd polishing.
Speaker 1:Yeah yes, not not, not my words exhibit.
Speaker 4:A Dave and Steve. We've definitely got two camps here, Not only polishing it but sprinkling some glitter on it as well.
Speaker 1:Because on this song Loaded, the only line that Bobby Gillespie sings is that one that goes I'm going to get deep down, deep down, deep down. Ooh, hey, that one. Yeah, that's it, and that's a cover. Think that's, uh, terraplane blues by robert johnson. That's what he's he's trying to sing there. So, given that the only line that he sings is from a cover and the only other recognizable component of that song from the primal scream um, I'm losing more than I'll ever have is henry olsen's bass and then the rest of it is is andrew weatherall doing his polishing and glitter sprinkling the songwriting. Credits for loaded are andrew inns and bobby gillespie.
Speaker 1:So andrew weatherall doesn't get a songwriting credit at all I mean and not Andrew Weatherall was bothered necessarily about that but just in terms of trying to apportion credit across the whole album for who brought what? To it. The songwriters on this album are Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes not Andrew Weatherall, but he's contributed so much to this album yeah, but Dave, you're his lawyer in court and unfortunately you've got this quote.
Speaker 4:I played a very small part in it. It gets on my nerves when people think it was all down to me. How are you going to get him a bit more coin after?
Speaker 1:that quote. He's going to need some coaching yeah, he really is.
Speaker 4:You'd definitely have had a word with him before that. Wouldn't you have a word that him before that, wouldn't you yeah?
Speaker 1:That's not have a word. That's far too modest.
Speaker 4:Yeah, quite right. Yeah, I mean, the beat at the start is genius, which he's taken from the Italian remix of something else. I mean, it's just so like. It's just lovely, isn't it? Yeah, it's going to get you up, yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:This is. It's just lovely, isn't it? It's just yeah, it's going to get you up, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is impossible. This is an impossible vote. We need to vote, no, but you know what he's done.
Speaker 4:He's done it to get rid of moving on, because he hates. He's got an agenda against moving on so I'm voting for loaded we know what you're fucking voting for, dave. It's about me and Steve.
Speaker 1:Shut up yeah, that's true oh my god yeah that's true, oh God Me me, me and Steve, steve, steve.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'd say that's completely impossible. I absolutely adore both of them.
Speaker 4:They're both great songs. This should be the final, but Dave is a very curious chap and he's put them in the quarterfinal. Come on.
Speaker 3:Steve.
Speaker 4:You're sounding like you're having a very painful bowel motion oh, you're voting for moving up, obviously, who? Knows, this is, this is the.
Speaker 4:This is the really this is this is why this is. This is a great format. This is a great format which dave designed. It's the only compliment I ever give him, apart from telling him I love him at the start of this podcast. Uh, is that we don't know what I'm voting for. We're going to you. What are you voting for? This is the nub of it. This should I mean should be the final, but anyway, brackets what are you going to vote for?
Speaker 2:moving on up. I'm going to vote.
Speaker 4:I'm voting for moving on up and that's why it's a great format, because you both just I'm going to vote for moving her up as well and kind of. I can imagine why you think I'm voting for moving up, but I'm not. I'm going to vote for loaded because it's fucking totally representative of this album, whereas moving on up, as dave rightly says, he's not totally representative of this album, so it has to be loaded it's the archetype, and that steve is why it's a great format rest my case.
Speaker 2:It's a great outcome as well, because I I got to vote for moving Up but Loaded went through, and I'm very happy with that outcome, so it's all good.
Speaker 1:Just vote for the one that you want to go through. All right, well Loaded, goes through. Moving On. Up is out, Trying to suppress the glee in your voice when it should be Okay and the next pairing in round two is Quarterfinal.
Speaker 4:We've coached you through this, David. Quarterfinal I'm coming down. I am too against.
Speaker 1:Don't Fight it, Feel it.
Speaker 3:I have a soul I never wanted to condemn. I have a soul I never wanted to defend. I'm coming to Gonna dance to the music. On the clock, getting high, getting happy, getting gold. Gonna dance to the music.
Speaker 2:On the clock Getting up, getting down, gonna get it all? Well, that's easy. Everyone's going to vote for. Don't Fight it, feel it, let's move on. We need a bit of brevity here.
Speaker 4:I'm coming downs out. I'm coming. I'm coming. What is? Oh, fuck me. I mean, this is fucking what a choice this is. I'm literally stuck between a rock and a shitty place. Are you joking? No, I'm not fucking joking. Do Fight it. Can't Feel it. That's my no on this song.
Speaker 2:That's the key dumb centrepiece of the album People go. What made you go mental for that song?
Speaker 4:Well, yeah, I've gone mental in a different way for it.
Speaker 3:I mean do you know what?
Speaker 4:Well, obviously you're going to vote for that and Dave's going to vote for that and Dave's going to vote for it. So let's talk about it when it gets through, because I mean, I'm happy to see the F1 go out. I really am so off. You fuck Fucking saxophone murder. Go on, fucking, do it.
Speaker 1:Okay, I just need to be clear what's happening here. Steve, you're voting for, don't fight it. Feel it Absolutely, because obviously, and brett, obviously you're fighting, voting for. Can I abstain? What?
Speaker 4:are you voting for what's?
Speaker 1:dave. Voting for. I'm voting for.
Speaker 3:I'm coming down because as I said earlier, it's my second favorite song on the album out of your mind and that's off.
Speaker 4:That is fuck off. I can't deal with that sax.
Speaker 3:I cannot listen to that sax anymore.
Speaker 4:Off it fucks. I'll vote for the other one, the other one.
Speaker 1:Okay, the other one goes through. Don't fight it, feel it.
Speaker 4:What's the next one? Come on, let's get through this, lads.
Speaker 1:We can do it. We can do it Okay.
Speaker 4:I'll cut me down. We know it, we don't care anymore. Next round, next quarterfinal.
Speaker 1:I care, yeah, but no one else cares apart from you. No one cares that you care. The next pairing in round two is higher than the sun. The jar wobble. Dub symphony in two parts against. Come together. Thank you, we are together.
Speaker 3:We are unified, we are together.
Speaker 2:Together. I fucking love Joe Wobble.
Speaker 4:You do love him because you love Metalbox, don't you?
Speaker 2:I love Metalbox. I had a big, big obsession with Public Image Limited's second album, Metalbox, recently and that album is essentially 50% just Jar Wobble's amazing bass lines.
Speaker 4:Okay, nice, I mean Jar Wobble as punk as they come, as are Primal Scream. They started off as punks and that's what informs this album, as Steve's been saying. It's that kind of ego-lessness of it versus Come Together, which was a single in the summer of 1990.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, easily, the jar wobble one for me. Easily, I think. Come together, it outstays its welcome. It's 10 minutes and it's it's five minutes too long, I think. Um, it's, it doesn't deserve to be as long as it is. It's got to be jar wobble for me I really like come together.
Speaker 1:I think it's similar in style, um in the production to uh loaded um, but maybe a more obvious rave influence. You've got that really banging kick drum in the background all throughout it, and then you've got those euphoric vocals that come together as one.
Speaker 4:For a good ten minutes as well, isn't it? I love it. You get your money's worth with this one, don't you Dave?
Speaker 1:I love ten minute songs. I think all albums should have a 10-minute song on there somewhere.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean I think the first 30 seconds are all right and then it's just like what the fuck is going on. For fuck's sake. It's supposed to be. It's called the Sound of the Summer of 1990, which obviously it's not. It's obviously Nessim Dorma as 90, and it just goes on and on and on and on. It's got a jesse jackson sample, which is really cool. His voice is amazing. Um, it's about different forms of music, but it just sounds like bobby bobby gillespie's bought a new keyboard and he's just going every setting. Yeah, in the 10 minutes I mean he's got the time and also the together as one, the together as one stuff it is a bit more.
Speaker 2:It is a bit more datedly, less acid culture-y-ness than a lot of the other stuff on the album, I think. And again, if you want to play a bit of the Demodelica version, it just goes to show what a terrible, terrible song it was taken from. So, yeah, it was made better by the weatherall-ness of it all, but yeah, I think it overstays its welcome.
Speaker 1:Okay, so made better by the weather allness of it all, but, yeah, I think it overstays its welcome. Okay, so I don't. Yeah, I I don't have such a negative um outlook on this song. I I really like it. Um, that said, I'm voting for higher than the sun because it's supreme, it's just fantastic yeah yeah, I'm voting for higher than the sun as well and, and all credit on both of those to andy weatherall and hugo nicholson the other producer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, although they, I think, when we'll talk about the orb version when it turns up later. But the orb version at least salvages the original song, whereas this version is just like nothing saying higher than he says higher than the sun a few times.
Speaker 2:And then there's like and then I just called up Joel Wobble because of you and said, do you want to play bass on it? And then it's just a whole song that's got nothing to do with it. It's like oh okay, somehow manages to be brilliant anyway yeah, so higher than the sun goes through.
Speaker 1:And the last pairing in the quarterfinals is shine like stars against Higher Than the Sun. The Orb remix.
Speaker 3:Snow shade, snow shade, snow. I've glimpsed, I have tasted Fantastic good places, fantastic faces. My soul elevates it Higher than the sun.
Speaker 4:Higher than the sun, higher than the suns. Well, I mean, I do like Shining Lights, so it's a beautiful end to the album. But the orbs higher than the sun, which I think is track four on the album, it's great, it really the album. But the orbs higher than the sun, which is, I think it's, a track four on the album, it's great, it really is great it's a new order depeche mode. It's got this. I mean gillespie described it as the most important uh record since anakin, the uk um, which is an interesting claim.
Speaker 1:That's quite I hadn't heard that. What did he describe? Higher than the sun the orb version he described as the most important record since anarchy in the uk wow yeah, big, big claim yeah it's lovely.
Speaker 4:It's got a really nice opening as well. It's really kind of almost baroque, isn't it?
Speaker 2:it's beautiful yeah, I'm definitely I love it. I love it when all the orb stuff kicks in and it gets all really intense, though I'm voting for that as well.
Speaker 1:100% yeah, higher than the sun goes through. And that completes our semi-final lineup. The first semi-final is loaded against. Don't fight it, feel it. Can I talk about? Don't fight it, feel it please do.
Speaker 2:This is the best example of how bad I mean the original track was, because it was basically built around the hey Bulldog riff by the Beatles, so it's just like looped many times, with some nonsense flapping about and possibly the worst chant of any song ever, which is rama lama, lama, fi fi fi gonna get in high till the day I die yeah, that is the worst chance ever oh, a bad grammar aside, one of the worst things that's ever happened, and if you, if you watch them, do live versions of it at the time, it's spectacular because, and when they do it live now, they put the hey bulldog riff back in, but when they did it live at the time they did it as like a rock and roll tune and it's just denise johnson, bless her going. Ramma lamma, lamma, five, five, five with with bobby gillespie gonna get in high till the day I die with some drums on the bass oh no, I'm liking it.
Speaker 4:I'm liking the sound of it.
Speaker 2:Now it's good this is now you're singing it and I've got it in context.
Speaker 4:I'm liking it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and I think that this is the only time I've ever talked about I think that I can think of although, as we know, my memory's bad, so I probably did it last episode and the episode before but where a record was entirely saved by a noise. It's like Andrew Weatherall just goes yeah, that bit's not very good, that bit's not very good. I'll put these bits together. What does it need? Oh, it needs a bloody great whistle, and it's like the entire song is defined by the insanely irritating sound of a whistle and whistle, or is it someone literally fiddling with a frog?
Speaker 3:I mean it sounds like a frog is getting abused during this song.
Speaker 2:It sounds like it'd be an abuse, I mean but I think the thing is if, if you hate, it which sounds like you do, then then you're gonna really not being subtle, but but I, I love it I love, no, I love it, and I think I think that it it, it brings together a lot of disparate frankly shockingly bad in a lot of cases elements. I mean also, at one point, various points. You've got a vocal going on and then a piano comes in and you realize that she's been singing over something in a different key and then the piano comes in in the key she's been singing in and you and it's so jarring because you're like oh whoa, hang on, I thought she was singing in like f and she's actually singing in a and the pianos come in. I've got to recalibrate. It's a fucking mess the whole thing. So it's so.
Speaker 4:Just to recap, it's based on a terrible song it's an absolute mess, it's, it's someone's abusing a frog call rsbca, it's it's a mess.
Speaker 2:It's a mess of disparate influences and yet somehow, by putting the sound of a whistle over the top of it and keeping that going for most of the song. It brings together the whole thing into something completely brilliant. I love it. I'm voting for that Against.
Speaker 4:Loaded? Is it against Loaded? Of course it fucking is. Wake up. Of course you're not voting for it.
Speaker 2:Maybe I'm not voting for that.
Speaker 4:I mean, I know your memory is 74 minutes long at the most, but fuck me, dude, even for you that is extraordinary, amnesia.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just got excited about talking about it.
Speaker 4:You really got excited about frogs there, didn't you Frog noises?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did the frog whistle.
Speaker 4:It's great, it's so great. Don't fight your feelings.
Speaker 1:Don, I want to agree with Steve Before it might go out. I just want to agree. But the genius of this album and this is where, for me, it's all built on Andrew Weatherall it's the different sounds that he gets and layers up. That's where this album is all about. It doesn't matter that it's not guitar noises and it's not verse, chorus, verse, chorus. It's all about the tapestry of sounds and audio that he builds up next to each other. For example, going back to the saxophone solo. That's what that saxophone solo is, that particular texture on top of all of the other textures, and that's what Don't Fight it, feel it is as well.
Speaker 2:All right, I've thought about it and I am still voting for Don't Fight it, feel it, because and I tell you what, even though Loaded feels like it is the sort of all encompassing aspect of this album. It was made so long before it. I think that the big dance centrepiece of this album is Don't Fight it, feel it and I'm just so entertained by just how you can take so many bad things and put them together and make something so awesome.
Speaker 4:Tomorrow, when loaded has gone out to this and it wins it, you will feel bad about that nope, I'm sticking with my vote, okay fine, dave, what you're voting for I'm voting for loaded of course you are, as am I okay uh.
Speaker 1:So next the second semi-final. We have Higher Than the Sun, the Jar Wobble, dub symphony in two parts against Higher Than the Sun.
Speaker 4:The.
Speaker 1:Aubrey mix.
Speaker 4:Too Higher Than the Suns. Very different songs though they're very different songs. I mean, the first one is redolent of like yeah, new Order, depeche mode, and like it's a classic and it has vocals and it has vocals and the second one. But the second one it was is very long at seven minutes it it really reminded me of like a proto portishead song and it really must be massively influential. On, on, on, trip hop and that whole bristol sound. I'm sure it's got so many things. Bloody hell that laid a blueprint that song.
Speaker 2:But I like the Orbs version so I'm going to go with Higher Than the Sun one as it appears on the album track four Okay, I'm going two because I love both equally but I could listen to that Jar Wobble stuff just on loop for the rest of the time, to be honest, I love both of them.
Speaker 1:This is my favourite album of the 90s Screamadelica.
Speaker 4:So it's your favourite album of that week in September.
Speaker 1:Then yes, it is, and also the 90s, so it beats all the Wonderstuffs albums. Yes, it does. And Higher Than the Sun. The Orb remix is my favourite song on it.
Speaker 4:So that goes through to the final, and we know Steve has voted for don't feel it, don't fight it, feel it overloaded. I mean the final is I hate to say this because it's a massive pun, loaded with danger for the favourite. I mean, come on as a segue. That's quality, it was good, it was strong for the favourite, okay, oh, I mean, come on as a segue.
Speaker 2:That's quality.
Speaker 4:It was good, it was strong, it's less strong now I've admitted it was strong.
Speaker 2:The reason I'm being quiet is because my memory is so bad I can't remember what's going to be in the frame.
Speaker 4:We know that you fucking ass talkies don't, so I'm waiting intensely, in great tension, to try to tell me what the song's like, but you'll forget after two minutes of your first rant. You'll forget what the final is if I care, so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Okay, brett, do you want to announce the final?
Speaker 4:The final, dave is Loaded vs Higher Than the Sun brackets orb higher than the sun Brackets or version Close brackets.
Speaker 3:Yes, my brightest stars, my inner light, let it guide me, experience some deliciousness bleed inside me and this, no chance can open me or untie me. I'm trapped in a space free of time. I find a higher state of grace In my mind, a beautiful world to fall. I live just for today. I don't care about tomorrow. What I got in my head, check it. I'm still a boy. I believe in it and let me in.
Speaker 4:I believe you get what you get. Well, you know which way I'm going. It's your favourite album of the 90s and your favourite song of the 90s.
Speaker 1:Not my favourite song of the 90s. It's my favourite song on this album.
Speaker 4:OK, so it's high up the list for you.
Speaker 1:It is, so we know what you're voting with.
Speaker 4:So I'm definitely voting for Loaded. It's the archetype for this album. It just leads it beautifully. Everything about Loaded is just just perfect. It has all these samples, all these new things you've never heard before. And then, when you think it can't get any better, their fucking gospel choir comes in with a bit of slide guitar and you're just taken to another level of euphoria. It's phenomenal and it should surely win. What is interesting about loaded davis? I think of it as a 90s version of memphis soul stew, which I know you love.
Speaker 1:I do and I see how you make that connection as well. Yeah, it's really great. A lot of the dance stuff was like that, wasn't it? It was layering up. It's what memphis soul stew does with the instruments it gradually layers them up, and that's what um a lot of dance music does with um introducing layer and layer and layer. We want to be free Do what we want to do so.
Speaker 4:we need to remind Steve what's going on.
Speaker 1:Steve, we've got, we're on a podcast. Steve, we're doing a podcast Because it's quite important.
Speaker 4:You've got the deciding vote here. You've got the deciding vote here. You've got the deciding vote. Dave, you love this album. You were 15 at the time. If you, what do you reckon you'd have? How would you have reacted if you'd have turned up to one of these acid house raves?
Speaker 1:I um, I remember buying this album at the time, but so this is back in the day where you didn't really hear the albums before you listened to them unless you heard it on the radio, and this wasn't really a mainstream radio kind of album.
Speaker 1:So you had to sort of take a chance and I can't remember I think I probably bought it because of the cover this beautiful cover and got it home and then, moving on, up came on and I was thinking, yeah, this is the album that I thought it might be because I was listening to guitar music. And then track two comes on Slip Inside this House. I remember listening to it and being like whoa, hang on, but I loved it. I really liked this album at the time.
Speaker 4:And you like it now. So you thought it deserved the Mercury Prize, and you stand by that.
Speaker 1:I like it now. Yeah, well yeah, does it deserve. Yeah, it was the best album of those contenders of those nominees in 1992. So, yeah, it deserved the Mercury Prize, for the Mercury Prize.
Speaker 4:British albums. I mean, was it the best album released that week? Listeners, you can decide for yourself. We know it's up against some stiff competition, steve, but we now need to get the winner, and it's that down to you.
Speaker 2:Look, I know I got weird about voting for Don't Fight it Freely, because I do think it's amazing and I love the story behind it and I love how they took an absolute stinker of a whole thing and turned it into this brilliant dance floor nonsense with a whistle on it. But I think Loaded is one of the most fun and memorable moments of the 90s, right down to the video. If you find the video, it's just it's. It looks like you know classic 90s shows, like the word. It's got all of that sort of bad, cheap, sort of vaguely psychedelic colorful stuff going on and it just looks fucking great.
Speaker 2:Bobby gillespie looks great in it, even though he's got nothing to do. He's just just, he's just grooving because he likes it loaded is is. It's magnificent. I love all the samples. I love the fact it's basically just sympathy for the devil ripped off for the second time, because they ripped it off with the song the first time, you know, and they even referenced that when they used to do it live on stage they used to go towards the end because it's so obviously the same chords, why not embrace it? It's got to be loaded, it's it's magnificent.
Speaker 4:Yes, you're right, you have a good time.
Speaker 1:So loaded is the winner of screamadelica. We want to get loaded and we want to have a good time.