It's only in retrospect that I realized how big a year in music 1991 was. It was my senior year in college, and I spent much of that year listening to Metallica's Black Album and the newest Skid Row and Great White albums. I remember going to parties where EMF, Jesus Jones, and the DiVinyls were playing, and the big concert draw in town was Garth Brooks. A couple little bands from Seattle released some albums that year you might have heard of, but at the time they didn't hold a candle to Achtung Baby or that crazy Michael Jackson video where everyone’s heads morphed together at the end. The single most important musical event of the year for me was the release of Use Your Illusion I & II, which I stood in line for at midnight to buy. I had no idea that a week later a Scottish band would be putting out a modern masterpiece: Screamadelica.It was years later that I picked up Screamadelica at a used record store in Tempe, AZ, on a whim. I was by myself and driving up to Sedona to hike for the day, and wanted something new for the ride. It was a leap of faith, really; I'd never heard the band, just heard of them. I was probably halfway there when the first chords of "Movin' On Up" burst from the speakers, and for the next 45 minutes I was utterly mesmerized. The music was at once progressive and timeless, straddling the chasm between rock and club effortlessly. You could just close your eyes and escape into your head with it, although I thankfully chose not to do that on an Arizona highway. I saved that for the hours and hours of listening that followed.
And now, 20 years later, Primal Scream is releasing a new concert video, Screamadelica Live, in which the older but still spry band plays Screamadelic in its entirety (although not in order), as well as a host of other songs.
Um, yes please.
