The Primitives – Spin-O-Rama (Elefant)

by Chuck Foster

Triumphantly returning after their 1992 demise, Coventry, UK’s The Primitives deliver their first full-length of original songs in twenty-two years.

Spin-O-Rama finds the band in top form, stripping down to the bare essentials that made the band so great in the first place. Taking a step away from the noisy Jesus and Mary Chain/Ramones attack of their earlier recordings and their later full Brit-pop sound, the quartet have found a perfect balance of melody, production and edge. The result is like an updated version of Nuggets, all fuzzily familiar riffs filtered through a dreamy kaleidoscopic prism. Shades of The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Nancy Sinatra,Love, The Byrds and even Spiritualized waft through immediately catchy songs without getting lost in derivation. It’s a purely joyous celebration of playing together again, making music and records again without the demanding pressure of major label life.

Usually, when bands get back together and release new material, the results are less than mediocre. There are exceptions, of course, and, happily, The Primitives are one of them. Bask in the dandelion glow of the velvet valley for a few.