Primal Scream announce first album in eight years
Iconic indie band Primal Scream have unveiled details of their new album, Come Ahead, set for release on November 8th, 2024.
Producer David Holmes, who has previously worked with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Primal Scream’s 2013 album, More Light, was at the helm for the project alongside frontman Bobby Gillespie and guitarist Andrew Innes.
When Gillespie initially began working on the project in 2022, he was still yet to decipher whether it would become Primal Scream’s 12th album or perhaps be a solo venture. Although they’ve continued to play festivals over the last three years, the frontman was unsure whether they’d make another record, until these set of songs jumped out of him.
To tease the forthcoming release, Primal Scream have shared the funky rallying cry, ‘Love Insurrection’, a track that finds Gillespie calling for people to unite amid the darkness currently surrounding the world.
In a statement, the frontman said of the new album: “I’m very excited about this album in a way that you would be making your first record. If there was an overall theme to Come Ahead it might be one of conflict, whether inner or outer. There is also a thread of compassion running through the album.”
Gillespie also explained the title is a “Glaswegian term”, which means, “If someone threatens to fight you, you say, ‘come ahead!’ It’s redolent of the indomitable spirit of the Glaswegian, and the album itself shares that aggressive attitude and confidence. They have a word for this up there, gallus. Come Ahead’s quite a cheeky title too.”
The album is stated to be an extremely personal with Gillespie paying tribute to his late father, Robert Gillespie Senior, on the artwork. Turner Prize-nominated Jim Lambie used an old image to create the cover, and Gillespie Senior’s dedication to social justice is said to be a theme that infects the record.
“There is a message of hope in the record but it’s tempered with an acceptance of the worst side of human nature,” the Primal Scream frontman said of the album’s overall message.
While a headline tour will likely follow in due course, Primal Scream are set to return to the road for the first time in 2024 later this year for a run of arena shows with Alice Cooper.
Come Ahead also marks the first Primal Scream album since the tragic death of longtime keyboardist, Martin Duffy, in 2022. Duffy died following a fall in his home in Brighton which caused him to suffer a traumatic brain injury.
During the inquest into his death, Duffy’s son, Louie, condemned Primal Scream for changing his role to session musician in 2011, which he claimed put his father in a troublesome financial situation when the pandemic stopped him from earning money by playing live and led to issues with alcoholism.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.