Bobby Gillespie Presents Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down

Sometimes, a title really does tell you everything you need to know. A case in point is Bobby Gillespie Presents Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down, a 2015 Ace compilation that finds the Primal Scream leader assembling a comedown mixtape. He takes his title from the Kris Kristofferson progressive country classic, with the original acting as the spiritual anchor for the remaining 19 songs. Most of these tunes date from the late '60s or early '70s -- Gillespie's own "Darklands" is the notable ringer, but Jerry Lee Lewis' closing "Over the Rainbow" is the next newest, pulled from a 1980 LP -- and Gillespie has an ear for a distinctly warped sensibility that lays halfway between a hangover and a trip that's lasted two hours too long. His elongated sequencing helps, opening with a 13th Floor Elevators fanfare that gives way to a triptych of Beach Boys, the repetition suggesting enervation, and that listlessness is underscored by a series of songs where the tempo always seems to drag. This isn't a bug, it's a feature: the entire compilation is about capturing the precise moment when it's impossible to discern hope from despair and, as such, it provides a sweetly melancholy comfort. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine