Primal Scream - Sonic Flower Groove

Complaining about this album being an obvious photocopy of its influences is a bit like cursing the sky for being blue. Reworking past inspirations into something else has always been the raison d'être of Bobby Gillespie and company, after all. But that said, there's no question that Sonic Flower Groove is one goofy headscratcher of a release, the sound of a band that didn't quite know exactly what to do yet trying to record a big-budget (of sorts) debut album and ending up with little more than a pristine but dull photocopy of Turn! Turn! Turn! While not intrinsically horrible, it's not intrinsically much of anything else either, and certainly in light of everything the band did in the following years, it's the most wistful, fragile, and ultimately boring of their releases. The Byrds worship evident in earlier songs like "Velocity Girl" was here taken to ridiculous extremes, and if Jim Beattie wasn't trying to hide his love for chiming guitars, he wasn't trying to do anything with it either. Songs like "Gentle Tuesday" and "Imperial" (which benefits from strings and a more direct vocal) are so obviously straight from the early Roger McGuinn and company model that one might as well just pretend that's what's being heard. It's also a bit of a bemusing shock to hear Gillespie trying to politely and gently sing as opposed to his later dripping of attitude in every borrowed Jagger sneer, but such are the ways. This all said, there's a weird way Sonic Flower Groove was prescient -- if the Stone Roses loved the Byrds too, then they also loved this phase of Primal Scream just as much, while jaunty songs like "Treasure Trip" slightly forecast bits of Brit-pop almost ten years down the line. If there's a secret highlight, "Love You," with its moody ghost-of-Jesus & Mary Chain drums’ underpinning the slow chime has got to be it.

Ripped from the 1991 CD reissue to underwhelming FLAC

Primal Scream; Sonic Flower Groove

1.       Gentle Tuesday

2.       Treasure Trip

3.       May The Sun Shine Bright For You

4.       Sonic Sister Love

5.       Silent Spring

6.       Imperial

7.       Love You

8.       Leaves

9.       Aftermath

10.   We Go Down Slowly Rising

Now there was supposed to be a mid-day post with a couple of Primal Scream singles from the above album, but something went tits-up and the post was a no-show…so tactfully added on here are two 12” singles both ripped to MP3 @ 320kbps.

Primal Scream; Imperial

A1.  Imperial

A2.  Star Fruit Surf Rider

B1.   So Sad About Us

B2.   Imperial (Demo)

Primal Scream; Gentle Tuesday

A.      Gentle Tuesday

B1.   Black Star Carnival

B2.   I’m Gonna Make You Mine