“Movin’ On Up” – Primal Scream
(Words/music: Bobby Gillespie, Andrew Innes, and Robert Young, available on Screamadelica, Sire 1991)

I wasn’t prepared for my first encounter with Screamadelica.  I only knew Primal Scream casually, and from a couple casual listens to their late 90s output (plus my preconceived notions of what a band called “Primal Scream” should sound like) I expected something harsh and jarring.  Instead, I found the record in the used bin somewhere, brought it home and watched my jaw drop.  Until Bobby Gillespie sang the titular line to this song, I wasn’t sure I had the right album.  This was far too bright, melodic, and even soulful to be the same band I expected.  Instead, the album turned out to be something incredibly unique (to me, at least) – it manages to transcend genre.  Most reviews will throw out a bunch of hyphenated genre terms, but it’s really about using elements from different genres to create a specific sound.  It shares sounds with dance records and rock records (and soul, hip hop, and others too) yet never wholly belongs to any single genre.  It bursts out of the stereo and commands attention, regardless of your genre preferences.

Screamadelica hasn’t aged equally.  A couple of the tracks (predictably, the ones that lean a bit heavier on house music, so that might just be my taste talking) sound like the early 1990s, but many of them still sounded fresh when I discovered the record in the early 2000s (and still do today).  “Movin’ On Up” still sounds vibrant and uplifting.  Appropriately, Gillespie borrows some of the language of gospel music (“I was blind / now I can see” or all of this talk about shining lights) and even recruits a couple members of the choir to assist him.  This is dangerous territory – one false step and the track becomes cheesy imitation or a bland pastiche – yet Gillespie navigates it capably with producer Jimmy Miller’s guidance.  Rather than make a gospel record (and really, who would want to hear one sung by a guy who was once in the Jesus and Mary Chain), Gillespie and Miller borrow the elements they like – the specific shades that will help color the entire picture – and place them along with that bright “Love the One Your With”-like guitar riff.  Everything works well together – especially that wonderful guitar solo, one that I can imagine Noel Gallagher tucked away in his memory bank.  It’s the kind of song that might sound clumsy on paper, but quickly reveals its graceful nature within seconds.

More on Primal Scream: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm