The Primitives

Everything’s Shining Bright The Lazy Recordings 1985-1987
(Cherry Red CDBRED 560)

A fitting, comprehensive double CD companion to ‘Lovely’, Cherry Red’s re-release of the Coventry band’s ‘hit’ material, ‘Everything’s Shining Bright’ has The Primitives how many prefer them, however; at their fuzzy, distorted best.
As the blonde band most likely, and fronted by Tracie Cattell (think; a young June Whitfield on sugar mice) with her sweet voice winding languorously around the shambolic, pedal-to-the-metal guitars and tidy, collected drums, it’s easy to hear what grabbed the attention of the mighty RCA records.
‘Thru The Flowers’ is a distorted delight, with a beautiful guitar interlude in the middle. ‘Across My Shoulder’ marks an early appearance of the whining feedback and grinding guitars that featured on so many records of the period, although rarely in a pure pop context like this one.
‘She Don’t Need You’ is another that hits the ground running, with a deft winding vocal and a jarring dead halt. I always cared for the tin-can echo of ‘Really Stupid’ a classic, mocking thrash of a song that made even indie fans want to shake a shoe to it. A bit.
‘We Found A Way To The Sun’s lively, romantic opening chords and syrupy lyrics are an obvious tribute to the New York band everyone referenced in those far off days. The welcome use of Eastern rhythms informs ‘Where The Wind Blows’, a jangly number with a characteristic vocal from Tracie.A personal favourite, the country-tinged ‘Stop Killing Me’ is a high spot, closely followed by the psychobilly workout, ‘Buzz Buzz Buzz’.
The slow, relaxed guitar arpeggio of ‘Laughing Up My Sleeve’ and ‘Ocean Blue’s pleasing impact percussion recalls the New York band once more, this time in romantic mood. The slightly faster treatment of the guitar-heavy ‘Shadow’ does the song many favours, and the echoey voice and winding, magical beat has a suggestion of danger to it.
A new(er) version of ‘Thru The Flowers’ graces this CD; a sweeter, countrified voice and twangy guitars blended with some pizzicato strings works well, without over-egging the pudding. ‘Everything’s Shining Bright’ peps up the shaking rockabilly beat and romantic vocal, to good effect.
The inclusion of some demo material reveals their rawness; ‘Nothing Left’, with the vocal rarely getting to the sweet spot, and lacking punch; ‘Really Stupid’ is gloriously fuzzy, and even though the vocal has the same weakness, there’s a hint of quality in it. Live demos follow but add little to the story, and our first CD ends with a soft, warm vocal and the lively twang of another version of ‘Nothing Left’.
The second CD is a mixed bag of unreleased sessions and a live set at the ICA, both from 1987, which show what can happen when a band aim to be shambolic. Aside from an affecting ‘Nothing Left’ , a lively ‘Out Of Reach’ and the slow, well executed ‘Don’t Want Anything To Change’ , the latter of which hints at a possible future direction that never happened, the extras here add little to the story of one of the 80’s finest pop bands. The band’s trademark fuzzy sound and Tracie’s sweet voice are a little lost bouncing around the ICA’s hard white walls. Most songs sound rushed, as if the place was about to be closed down by the authorities, which I suppose was a possibility, given some of the artwork which graced its walls at the time. Turn up the volume, bass and treble fully and enjoy. BUY HERE!