LogFAQs > #956719050

68. Primal Scream Higher Than the Sun (1991)
from the album Screamadelica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpvccejvVng

Key lyrics:
Hallucinogens can open me or untie me

Most bands try to be clever while talking about drug use, leading to a world where any song that might be about drugs is assumed as such. Higher Than the Sun cuts straight to the point, directly referencing hallucinogens before Bobby Gillespie rambles about spiritual enlightenment. This track takes itself so seriously that it could have been laughable, but Primal Scream bring the sonic elements to back up its grandiose claims. Even today, there are few songs that sound anything like this. Higher Than the Sun blends together psychedelia, ambient, and downtempo electronic to make something distinct among its many parts. It opens with a series of slow explosions and expands into a collage of stray sounds, chanted woos sounding like tripped out owls which cast the whole experience as a trek through a neon forest.

The effect this song has had on me is hard to describe. I have never done drugs nor do I care to try, but the pure sonic ambience of this track pulls me in like nothing else. Though I dont have synesthesia, this song manages to bring to mind a specific and hallucinatory array of colors. I can count the number of songs that have consistently had this effect on one hand, so Higher Than the Sun belongs to an elite group. As such, this is one of those cases where I have no idea whether this song speaks to anyone else in the way it does me. Whatever the case, the mesmerizing soundscape on display here is essential.

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My top 100 games (with write-ups): https://foolfantastic.com/top-100-video-games-project/