Riot City Blues

Riot City Blues
Riot City Blues
Studio album by Primal Scream
Released	5 June 2006
Studio	Olympic Studios, London; The Bunker, London
Genre	Garage rock; blues rock; roots rock;
Length	41:28
Label	Columbia
Producer	Youth
Primal Scream chronology
Singles from Riot City Blues
	"Country Girl"; Released: 22 May 2006; "Dolls (Sweet Rock and Roll)"; Released: 7 August 2006; "Sometimes I Feel So Lonely"; Released: 18 December 2006;

Riot City Blues is the eighth studio album by Scottish rock band Primal Scream, released on 5 June 2006 by Columbia Records.^[1] It peaked at number 5 on the UK Albums Chart.^[2] With this album, the band left behind the electronic elements they had used on their previous albums XTRMNTR (2000) and Evil Heat (2003), returning to more traditional rock and roll.^{[citation needed]} The album features guest appearances from Will Sergeant, Warren Ellis, and Alison Mosshart, and was the last album to feature guitarist Robert "Throb" Young, who departed before the album's UK tour for personal reasons.

The album's first single "Country Girl" became the band's highest charting in their career. "Dolls (Sweet Rock and Roll)" and "Sometimes I Feel So Lonely" were also released as singles.

Composition

Riot City Blues is Primal Scream's second garage blues album, following Give Out but Don't Give Up (1994),^[3] and is also considered to be an album of "refried" roots rock.^[4] Music critic Tom Breihan consideres it to be bassist Mani's second "retro-rock" album, after the Stone Roses' Second Coming (1994).^[3]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	59/100^[5]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[6]
ARTISTdirect	^[7]
The Guardian	^[8]
Pitchfork	2.3/10^[9]
Q	^[10]
Rolling Stone	^[11]

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 59, based on 19 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[5]

The album was released to varying reviews. A particularly scathing review by Pitchfork claimed that the album was "flat and dead. It's as if Primal Scream have run completely out of ideas and so they've reverted to the detestable fallbacks of honking harmonicas and bar-band choogles, acting like college freshmen who just discovered blues." While The Guardian said "...Primal Scream are the kind of band that would probably snap there's no such thing as a guilty pleasure, only good music and bad music. But their eighth album undermines that claim. On the one hand, it is conservatism dressed up as rebellion, derivative, self-parodic and very, very, stupid. On the other, it boasts an energy and a shamelessness that demands you abandon your vast array of reservations. No mean feat."

Riot City Blues was listed among the ten worst Scottish albums ever made in a 2007 online poll of music fans.^[12]^[13]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Primal Scream

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Country Girl"	4:31
2.	"Nitty Gritty"	3:38
3.	"Suicide Sally & Johnny Guitar"	3:14
4.	"When the Bomb Drops"	4:34
5.	"Little Death"	6:22
6.	"The 99th Floor"	3:50
7.	"We're Gonna Boogie"	2:52
8.	"Dolls (Sweet Rock and Roll)"	3:58
9.	"Hell's Comin' Down"	3:27
10.	"Sometimes I Feel So Lonely"	5:06

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.

Primal Scream

Bobby Gillespie – vocals
Andrew Innes – guitar, mandolin, banjo, synthesizer
Martin Duffy – piano, organ, harmonium, harmonica
Robert Young – guitars, harmonica
Gary "Mani" Mounfield – bass guitar
Darrin Mooney – drums, percussion

Additional musicians

Alison Mosshart – additional vocals (3, 8)
Will Sergeant – guitar (4, 5)
Chris Allen – hurdy-gurdy (5)
Warren Ellis – violin (9)
Juliet Roberts – backing vocals (1, 2, 5, 10)
Sharlene Hector – backing vocals (1, 2, 5, 10)
Sylvia Mason-James – backing vocals (1, 2, 5, 10)
John Gibbons – backing vocals (1, 2, 5, 10)
Richard Beale – French horn (10)
Tim Bran – programming

Technical

Ryan Castle, Greg Gordon – engineer
Clive Goddard – recording

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2006)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)^[14]	54
French Albums (SNEP)^[15]	74
Irish Albums (IRMA)^[16]	14
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)^[17]	15
Scottish Albums (OCC)^[18]	2
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)^[19]	81
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)^[20]	18
UK Albums (OCC)^[2]	5

Year-end charts

Chart (2006)	Position
UK Albums (OCC)^[21]	153

References

^ "Riot City Blues - Primal Scream | Releases | AllMusic". AllMusic.
^ ^a ^b "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
^ ^a ^b Briehan, Tom (6 June 2006). "Riot City Blues Primal Scream". Pitchfork. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
^ Berman, Stuart (8 May 2013). "Primal Scream: More Light". Pitchfork. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
^ ^a ^b "Riot City Blues by Primal Scream". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
^ AllMusic
^ ARTISTdirect
^ The Guardian
^ Pitchfork
^ Q (July 2006. page 110)
^ Rolling Stone
^ "Texas Album is 'Worst Scottish Record'". Daily Record. 23 October 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
^ "Texas top chart.. of bad CDs". TheFreeLibrary.com. Mirror. 23 October 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
^ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 224.
^ "Lescharts.com – Primal Scream – Riot City Blues". Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
^ "Irish-charts.com – Discography Primal Scream". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Primal Scream – Riot City Blues". Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
^ "Spanishcharts.com – Primal Scream – Riot City Blues". Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
^ "Swedishcharts.com – Primal Scream – Riot City Blues". Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
^ "2006 UK Albums Chart" (PDF). ChartsPlus. Retrieved 8 April 2021.

External links

Riot City Blues at Discogs (list of releases)

[1] "Riot City Blues - Primal Scream | Releases | AllMusic". AllMusic.

[UKchart-2] "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 4 March 2020.

[Breihan-3] Briehan, Tom (6 June 2006). "Riot City Blues Primal Scream". Pitchfork. Retrieved 22 January 2025.

[4] Berman, Stuart (8 May 2013). "Primal Scream: More Light". Pitchfork. Retrieved 8 May 2013.

[metacritic-5] "Riot City Blues by Primal Scream". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 3 October 2016.

[6] AllMusic

[7] ARTISTdirect

[8] The Guardian

[9] Pitchfork

[10] Q (July 2006. page 110)

[11] Rolling Stone

[12] "Texas Album is 'Worst Scottish Record'". Daily Record. 23 October 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2018.

[13] "Texas top chart.. of bad CDs". TheFreeLibrary.com. Mirror. 23 October 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2018.

[14] Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 224.

[ac_France_Primal_Scream-15] "Lescharts.com – Primal Scream – Riot City Blues". Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 March 2020.

[ac_Ireland2_Primal_Scream-16] "Irish-charts.com – Discography Primal Scream". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 April 2021.

[ac_Norway_Primal_Scream-17] "Norwegiancharts.com – Primal Scream – Riot City Blues". Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 March 2020.

[ac_Scotland_-18] "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 8 April 2021.

[ac_Spain_Primal_Scream-19] "Spanishcharts.com – Primal Scream – Riot City Blues". Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 March 2020.

[ac_Sweden_Primal_Scream-20] "Swedishcharts.com – Primal Scream – Riot City Blues". Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 March 2020.

[21] "2006 UK Albums Chart" (PDF). ChartsPlus. Retrieved 8 April 2021.

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