Utopian Ashes

Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie teams up with solo artist and Savages vocalist Jehnny Beth for the collaborative album Utopian Ashes. The 10-track collection explores the loss, miscommunication and emotional inarticulacy that a married couple experience as they realize that their relationship is breaking down. The LP draws on the tradition of country soul classics, such as Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris's Grievous Angel and George Jones and Tammy Wynette's We Go Together, to deal with the heavy realities of love turning sour. It's an album for people who have dealt with the inevitable sadness that comes with age and acknowledged the realities of life. There is no sweetening of the pill, but it does achieve what should be the goal of all good art: to make us feel less alone. And while it's not autobiographical, it channels heartfelt truth from the songwriters' own experiences. The album also features Johnny Hostile (bass) alongside Primal Scream trio Andrew Innes (guitar), Martin Duffy (piano) and Darrin Mooney (drums).