The Jesus and Mary Chain albums poll

Psychocandy then Darklands for me + write in vote for Barbed Wire Kisses

This is me exactly, I love Barbed Wire Kisses. Darklands might be my actual favorite, it's hard to say, but there's just no way around Psychocandy. I was 16 and I'd lie on the floor of my bedroom and put it on as loud as I could get away with. I thought it was amazing. (My freshman year college roommate was a super straitlaced guy with a clutch of Amy Grant albums, and he refused to believe me that the album was supposed to sound like that. He assumed they were just incompetent musicians lol.)

I only know the first two (and the EP between); Psychocandy by a mile.

The next few albums that followed all had something to them one way or another but only Psychocandy has "My Little Underground" on it so there ya go.

Of course, psychocandy. Maybe should have excluded it...

Psychocandy era live however was one of the worst gigs I ever saw.

― stirmonster, Tuesday, October 29, 2024 11:57 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

No no no noo noo noo...
Hammersmith Palais, May 8 1986, a brilliant gig.

Just looked it up, support was Sonic Youth, Pink Industry and The Servants (missed Servants, sorry guys)

J&MC 45 mins, I believe it is was the first gig where they kept it together and did it right.

Oh, and I got to see John Peel in the audience, and met three of New Order. So yeah, maybe best gig ever....

But, even if it had been just the headliner for that 45 mins, still great

I think Bobby had left by then and they were using a drum machine...?

If we're doing write-in votes, then I would pick the Complete Peel Sessions. I listen to it more than any of the studio albums. The Peel Session versions of the Psychocandy songs are all better than on the latter album.

Xpost think it was James pinker, but there was definitely a real drummer

The most recent album is not shite

(Had third thoughts...)

Just looked it up, support was Sonic Youth, Pink Industry and The Servants

yes, that sounds excellent. when i saw them they could hardly stand up, started fighting the audience, didn't manage to play a single song all the way through, played for 12 minutes and literally got run out of town right after.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-jesus-and-mary-chain/1985/coasters-edinburgh-scotland-23c77c37.html

BWK was the big one for me — probably because that was the first one I heard. When Automatic came out I was like “where’s the feedback?” and never tried to keep up with them after that. Unfair? Probably. But there’s a lot of music in the world.

xpost "Jim Reid falls off stage" lol

My history with this band is hearing Reverence on the radio in probably 1995 and made a mental note to try to buy the album this is from. I didn't actually buy Honey's Dead until a couple of years later but did in the meantime stumble upon a used copy of Stoned & Dethroned which didn't sound at all like I was expecting, though I did listen to it quite a bit anyway and did appreciate parts of it. When I eventually found Honey's Dead I liked it, but not as much as I thought I would. Then when I started going online on music message boards I saw that Psychocandy is supposed to be the best Jesus & Mary Chain album, which I eventually bought and didn't get at all and that was the end for me with this band.

So, probably going to vote Honey's Dead here.

Just looked up stuff regarding that gig. Found the poster which says The Servants as third-billed but no Pink Industry, so I'm guessing there was a last minute replacement and there was no Servants.

Phil King of The Servants later joined the Mary Chain, iirc.

only saw the J&MC once in November 1992 (Spiritualized was the opener, the Fucked Up Inside set) and they were laughably bad, the edges and noisiness all polished off. But the main thing that stuck in my mind as ridiculous was their visuals/projections - spinning clipart of a star, a gun, a heart etc. - which, especially compared to Spiritualized, felt very lazy.

Psychocandy is amazing but voted Darklands, would also have considered voting for BWK. Have a soft spot for the overly long Stoned and Dethroned and its weary, hungover vibe.

Write in ballot for Barbed Wire Kisses. A compilation, yes, but so good. Like VU, the odds and ends assembled here make for a more accurate and more FUN listen than the more dour and scowling "real" albums.

I also saw them in '92 -- Lollapalooza! And like Shakey said they were awful, just indifferent if not sloppy, and I wasn't much of a fan yet. I suspected that booze and being on so early in the bill affected their mood, and the Reid memoir confirmed it.

psychocandy the work of my hero john loder. john loder the very very rich man's steve albini. albini tried to be loder but he never got there. probably my fave brit producer/engineer of all time. (partly because i have no idea who produced a lot of the 60s freakbeat that i love. and shel talmy is disqalified. have no idea who produced the first small faces album for instance. having said that, still, if i were a recording engineer i would want to be john loder.)

I really love those chimey jangly lofi demos from 83 (?), “up too high” and the demo of “on the wall”. so dreamy and melancholic.

Omg lol Nitsuh:

Obviously the drummer for such a group couldn’t sit behind a big kit looking like he knew what he was doing, so the JAMC stood Bobby Gillespie (yes, that one) up behind only two drums-- a floor tom and a snare-- and had him bash away like he was pissed off at them but either too bored or too drunk to finish them off. A similar approach was taken to bass guitar and vocals.

If the band had applied these tactics to knotty, difficult music, you would never have heard of them, and Dominique Leone would be reviewing these reissues.

Also, their live album (from Barrowlands) is awesome

Looking at the singles results from 2008--I definitely would have voted "Never Understand."

quite surprised by the affection for Barbed Wire Kisses!

why though it has so much great stuff on it.

It does, just surprised it might match Psychocandy in votes.

I’m surprised because my memory of the one time I listened to it was that it was terrible

They got mad that nobody appreciated their beautiful songs because of the Psychocandy ~vibe~ and dialed it way down, and that's why Psychocandy wins. Other albums have high points and low points but every track on Psychocandy sounds like Psychocandy and that's the good stuff.

This thread has occasioned me to pull out the Power of Negative Thinking box set for the first time in ages, and marvel again at the demo version of "On The Wall."

i need that. i never got a copy. i need that complete peel sessions cd as well. you'd think someone would have brought them in for me to buy at the store but they really haven't. and the negative thinking set is too high used online for me.

i've had the Hate Rock 'n' Roll comp in my car for the last month and this always makes me laugh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEc0q8FH6eQ

I have an advance copy of the Power box that I got from Rhino when it first came out. No booklet or anything, just 4 CDs in one of those fat jewel cases. I don't think I've ever listened to the whole thing.

I love stoned and dethroned but listening back for the first time in a while recently and it should be a much shorter album

So honeys dead, because I had a big poster of the cover on my wall growing up

i like everything up to and including munki. i think i have avoided the 21st century stuff because i was afraid that it was going to remind me of the soup dragons or something. just a gradual loss of power.

Same here. Munki was excellent all the way through. I love how their sister sings lead on "Moe Tucker", and how another song is named "Supertramp", yet is seemingly neither about the band nor a tramp who may be super.

And on the topic of JAMC live, I saw them on the "Rollercoaster" tour with Curve and Spiritualized, and thought they were great! Better than when I saw them touring for Automatic.

Psychocandy is already wayyy dialled down compared to their breakout singles, but it's true that Darklands is an even easier listen. Honey's Dead is so crazy to listen to, I don't remember liking it but I'll give it another shot...

Honey's Dead is good!

Really? I just remember it being the tinniest imaginable version of Madchester baggy. I will listen again tomorrow

So many great/dumb couplets on Munki:

I love Beatle John
she loves Beatle Paul
we don't hate the rest
we can love them all

Honey's Dead does have some of those Madchester drum sounds but i like it a lot anyway. i like songs like "Reverence". "Far Gone And Out". i like the whole thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL6CRZAgKgM

Their covers are always great, from Vegetable Man through Little Red Rooster, Alphabet St (lol).

I think those first five are all good, plus Barbed Wire Kisses of course, and YES to their covers. (They also remixed "Birthday" by Sugarcubes, which basically makes it into a cover).

But for me it has to be Psychocandy, most of all for the songs. On pretty much any other one of their records there's a couple weaker tracks, or a song that's basically a rewrite of another one on the album. And especially in the drum machine era, the songs simply often go on for too long. ("April Skies," despite being a masterpiece, would be even better with 20 second shaved off). Psychocandy for me is just the one where it maintains a mood, but has enough variety - Ronettes, Velvets, Beach Boys, Motown - that it feels like each of the songs is an important event listening front to back.

"Head On" is so much fun to karaoke.

went Darklands. fell in love with it at a very memorable time in my life. it was also 1 of 6 cd's permanently stuck in my car when the disc changer broke. has to count for something.

I know Automatic isn't their best album, but it's the one I've listened to the most and the one I reach for.

Munki is excellent. For some reason I remember a much bigger gap between it and S&D. I guess four years was a while after having a pretty big hit.

Listening to Munki now and honestly it sounds like a Primal Scream album to me. (Not meant as a compliment.) Also, 17 tracks? 69 minutes? Fuuuuuck off.

I don't think I've ever listened to a full album post stoned & dethroned

the last time i played stoned & dethroned i went into a coma. totally passed out. that album is like a knock-out drop. so much mellow. also 17 tracks. speaking of 17 track J&MC albums.

LOL @ Bobby being the boring sensible one.

i listened to this the other day. nice shout-out to billie eilish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OmkaD7JYA

Not that I think they deserved votes, but the results make the two recent albums seem much worse than they are. I particularly liked Damage & Joy and would personally have ranked it above Munki.

the new one is pretty bad imo

something like this for me:

Psychocandy
Automatic
Darklands
Honey's Dead
Munki
Damage and Joy
Stoned & Dethroned
Glasgow Eyes

I'm trying to get excited about tomorrow night's show but it's so hard.

Just found my "Stoned and Dethroned" red shirt and probably won't wear it.

I'm trying to get excited about tomorrow night's show but it's so hard.

Just make a point to start a riot after the third or fourth song.

threw munki and automatic onto phone for randomised listening and keep hearing songs i don't actually know, but which are obviously jamc. birthday, for instance.

― koogs, Tuesday, 5 November 2024 22:19 bookmarkflaglink

I really like Birthday fwiw. I might move Munki above Honey's Dead in my ranking above

Elvis, check your email

Perfume is another nice track from munki i had forgotten about, if i ever knew. laid back, dub Mary Chain. and Black as well, sounds like teenage fanclub.

3x4 track EPS from that album, i should give those a listen too

Bee OK, just messaged you

ilXor meet up did happen and I met Elvis Telecom last night after the show. We talked about old gigs and first times, conversation could have went on for hours actually. Security had a different idea and cut the meet up way too early. It was a pleasure and happy that we meet.

What cracked me up most is that what happened was exactly what I expected to happen.

Aw that’s great!!

ilx people are awesome people to talk to in real life! i don't know what its like for other online communities but i immediately feel at ease when i hang with an ilxor. i end up blabbing a lot. its like i finally get to talk to someone who gets stuff that other people i know don't get. if you know what i mean.

ILXors in being awesome non-shocker. Excellent to meet Bee OK after almost 40 years of going to the same gigs around LA - we could have kept the conversation going until sunrise. I warned Ms. T to expect a firehose of remembered gigs and

JAMC was good, if surprising to see them now as a super-tight band knocking out one song after another. Really wanted to hear "Sidewalking" though.

"and we exceeded even that" at the end of that sentence.

I'm a little late to the party, but i just got this discount box set of the first 5 albums, so i've been doing chronological run through.

The poll results suggested there was going to be a steep drop off in quality, so I've had the benefit lowered expectations for each successive release. Which means i've really been enjoying the later albums. To my ear, they peaked with either Automatic or Honey's Dead, but Stoned and Dethroned is really solid.

I can see why Psychocandy is the famous one -- there seems to have been a stylistic rigor where they wanted to mark out a space no one had claimed before. But I also think it's no coincidence that the most famous songs from that album are the ones that don't sound like tinnitus. Also, I kept noticing how limited the drumming is on that first album (and this was before I remembered it was Boabby on drums) -- it re-uses the same 2 drum patterns across the whole album.

Also, I had no idea, until i read the allmusic blurbs, that both brothers sing. Is there an ILM thread for bands that have 2 singers that sound so alike you never noticed? (this also happened to me with the Cars)

the most famous songs from that album are the ones that don't sound like tinnitus

apart from Just Like Honey, is this true? dunno what songs are most famous these days tbh. the other 2 singles are noisy as fuck

Is there an ILM thread for bands that have 2 singers that sound so alike you never noticed?

Dead Can Dance? Just kidding... seriously though, Devo. Had no idea 100% of the songs weren't Mark singing.

xp: yeah that post reads as a very basic (sorry) take/classic underrating Psychocandy if anything.

"The Hardest Walk"? "Never Understand"? "Cut Dead"?

c'mon!

I don't know if I know which Bee Gee is which when they sing, does that count? xpost

"The Hardest Walk"? "Never Understand"? "Cut Dead"?

c'mon!

100%

also, You Trip Me Up too. total (beautiful) tinnitus.

there’s isn’t a single moment on psychocandy that doesn’t completely rule

i've had the psychocandy cd in my car for weeks now and that album should win every award just for song intros alone. every single song starts out so damn cool. that first phil spector 5 or 10 seconds. that *"crack of dawn..." alone is worth more than most 1985 records in their entirety.
this album was released around the same time as Strength by The Alarm just for some U.K. comparison...Brothers in Arms...

(to be fair, also bad moon rising, hell awaits, and king of rock...)