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Rock ‘n’ roll clichés–Riot City Blues is chock full of ’em: “What can a poor boy do?” “Shake some action…Get down to the real nitty gritty.” And those are just in the first two songs of this slamming paean to rock ‘n’ roll at its finest–circa late ’60s/early ’70s. You’ve got your Bowie & the Spiders (“Suicide Sally & Johnny Guitar” were born in Suffragette City), Doors (one can sing the line “Riders on the storm” to the raga-rock intro to “Little Death”), T-Rex (“We’re Gonna Boogie”), the New York Dolls (“Dolls [Sweet Rock and Roll]”) and a whole lotta Stones with a bigger bang than anything on their latest CD, if not in decades. Primal Scream, the Brit-rockers who could have been Oasis if they had a bit more focus, celebrate the creative kleptomania that fueled rock’s coolest touchstones on Riot City Blues and then, for good measure, deliver John Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth” à la the early Clash as a bonus track. Spin this delicious sucker–loud–and find yourself falling back in love–hard–with rock ‘n’ roll driven by the, ahem, primal scream that is its essence.
