The Primevals formed in Glasgow in 1983, but their heart lies in Detroit back in the days the city thrived on the motoring industry, Motown Records and the MC5’s gritty garage rock.
Disinhibitor is a love letter to the American dream, the speed-addled Stoogeisms of American Road Trip offering a frantic slice of nostalgia for wicked gum-popping teens and nights spent in the diner, while Black Cloud Coming has a Jets vs Sharks finger-clicking vibe.
It all goes a bit too far with Christmas Ghetto Lights, a Springsteen pastiche that must be tongue-in-cheek (one would dearly hope), or the self-indulgent jazz interlude of There Is No Other Life And This Is It…, but when they get it right, as on the edgy, swamp-flavoured Cramps-like Venus Discovered, The Primevals’ obvious love and deep understanding of old fashioned, uncomplicated rock‘n’roll is rather sweet.
