I was drawn in to this album early on - the sinusoidal bass line of “Kill All Hippies,” the hyper-fuzz guitar of “Accelerator.” None of it is lyrically deep, but the sound takes you in, all single-syllable hooks like something that just barely got cut from the shortlist for an Apple commercial. Parts of the album go industrial, a sound that always gets my thumbs up.

But then it goes off the rails (“Pills”? Wtf?), and after some hyper-repetitive trance floor type songs you start to realize the conceptual depth of the lyrics is something like a stoner who heard a one liner that changed their life so much it must be repeated into infinity to get the point across. Or maybe it’s more like a tweaker talking to themselves on the street. As a result, this album’s instrumentals hold the most value for me.

I can’t say why, but I find Primal Scream kind of funny. Are they being ironic? Are they being serious? Is there a deeper meaning to the cyclical shroom-head lyrics? Are they trying to give us a stroke or is that just a side effect? I have no idea, and that’s part of the fun.

From the roundup Some Excellent Albums from 2000.