Jesus amp Mary Chain - Psychocandy (14 tracks) +Album Reviews

Hooks and Feedback

C. Gardner | Washington D.C., D.C. United States | 05/02/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Taking the best elements of 1960s bubblegum, pop, and surf music (and even 50s rockabilly at times) and processing them through the most jaded sensibility imaginable, "Psychocandy" is a pivotal album in post-punk history. Classic. Sounds like the sound engineer was either asleep, tied up in the back room, or on the nod from horse, because every song is drenched in reverb and the knobs are stuck on ten. The guitars keen like bagpipes, squeal like tires, change into Coltrane-like lines then dissolve in clouds of white noise. Made in 1985, it still sounds fresh, and you can see the influence of this album through many bands, from the Butthole Surfers to My Bloody Valentine to Nirvana and Pavement and the new bands of the 1980s revival like Interpol."

Brooding Beauty

Pieter | Johannesburg | 01/18/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Inspired by The Velvet Underground and perhaps also The Cure, The J&M Chain made feedback and distortion an integral part of their wall of sound, creating a unique and distinctive niche in rock music. It was in the way they did it - the distortion never sounds intrusive or discordant but complements the detached vocals for a cohesive music of eerie beauty. In this crucial way the music differs from most of the output of the industrial genre, in that it has a flowing, hypnotic quality. My favorite tracks on this seminal album include Just Like Honey, The Living End, The Hardest Walk, Sowing Seeds, My Little Underground and the sublime You Trip Me Up, a poignant blend of the tender and the ominous. Psychocandy is a successful experiment in blending feedback with melody, creating atmospheric but always tuneful soundscapes that linger in the mind."

One of my favorites for 20 years and running

S. A. Mathis | Panama City, FL United States | 01/19/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, so here's another review for the earlier reviewer who was surprised that only 2 other people have reviewed this album thus far.

Psychocandy is by far my favorite album by the J&MC. By far. The only thing that ever came close for me was the B-sides collected in Barbed Wire Kisses. I followed the J&MC's career throughout the '90s but was dismayed that nothing else really captured the unique sound of this album. They hit on something truly fascinating and then seemed to move on towards more mediocre endeavors.

That said, Psychocandy is undeniably amazing. Equal parts Ramones, Velvet Underground at their trippiest and Tommy James & the Shondells, even a bit Beach Boys at times, Psychocandy is like very little else I've heard.

I first bought a cassette of this album the month it was released in the US, mid-80s sometime, following a blurb in Time Magazine and a story in the local news about a Scottish band that was starting riots wherever they performed.

Since finally getting it (I had to wait for two weeks for the store to get it in; ah, pre-internet!) I have listened to it repeatedly like no other album from that era, except "maybe" Sonic Youth's Bad Moon Rising. J&MC set a mark for all the ethereal, noisy groups that followed from Lush to My Bloody Valentine to the Catherine Wheel and on. In my opinion, it is a mark that has yet to be exceeded.

It wasn't until I heard the song "Just Like Honey" (IIRC) in the movie, Lost in Translation, that I realized just how warped and used my old cassette was. So I came here to pick up a copy to find that they are now only available via import. That's a crime. This is truly one of the defining albums of the '80s. It deserves to be recognized as such."

Just like honey indeed

Richard McGeough | Hong Kong | 11/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Barbara Ellen (British journo) once said that there was a time when she couldn't possibly imagine settling down to married life with a partner who didn't own a copy of this zeitgeist-defining album.

Barbara, I used to feel much the same. I don't know about you, but in the end I didn't live up to my youthful pledge. But - oh god - do you remember the first time you heard this, and somehow you just knew that life in some small way had changed forever? It's almost twenty years since this wonderful, wonderful album marked one of the high points of the British 80s underground scene. No, it's not perfect: Taste the Floor and It's So Hard simply can't hold their own against the staggering, towering genius of songs like You Trip Me Up, Taste of Cindy, The Hardest Walk and Just Like Honey. And believe me I don't use the 'G' word lightly. Over 40-odd minutes, the Mary Chain drive a chainsaw into your skull with painstakingly built-up layers of alternately screeching and fuzzy feedback, with the reverb turned up to 11.

Sounds like a nightmare? Perhaps it would be if not for the fact that the songs that lie buried deep beneath are often things of 60s-girl group tinged melodic beauty. It's not too difficult to imagine You Trip Me Up or Just Like Honey sung by the Crystals or the Shrangri-las.

There are some albums that simply defy every test that time can throw at them. This is one of them. It sounds as jaw-droppingly enormous today as it did in 1985. Were it a party guest, it's of the kind that turns up as an unwelcome gatecrasher, lumbers in, dances on the tables and gets off with the best-looking girl.

This is Something Special. I couldn't believe only two other people have reviewed it. This is one of those few, rare albums that really, honestly, truly MATTER."

Evil bubblegum from Scotland

H. Antonian | Canada | 09/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Psychocandy is the last truly great and dangerous sounding rock and roll album. It is also probably the last real punk album ever made. The Reid brothers make johnny rotten and sid vicious look like the Olson twins. If you want to hear something raw and totally cathartic; something that manages to sound evil and pretty at the same time, buy this album. Somewhere underneath all that white noise there are some great catchy pop tunes, so give it a few listens. Just don't listen too loud on headphones or else you too will say the jesus and mary chain made me deaf and it was worth it."

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