The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy

1985, 2006 RHINO / WEA R2 436348

All songs written and composed by Jim and William Reid

1. Just Like Honey
2. The Living Dead
3. Taste The Floor
4. The Hardest Walk
5. Cut Dead
6. In A Hole
7. Taste Of Cindy
8. Never Understand
9. Inside Me
10. Sowing Seeds
11. My Little Underground
12. You Trip Me Up
13. Something's Wrong
14. It's So Hard

Album Credits

Performance Credits:

The Jesus and Mary Chain Primary Artist Bobby Gillespie Drums, Snare Drums Douglas Hart Bass,Bass Guitar Jim Reid Guitar, Vocals, Guitar (Baritone) William Reid Guitar, Vocals, Guitar (Baritone)

Technical Credits:

The Jesus and Mary Chain Producer Greg Allen Art Direction Dan Hersch Mastering Bill Inglot Mastering John Loder Engineer Kieron Tyler Liner Notes

Quote: An interesting variation on the psychedelic revival of the 1980s came out of Scotland when Jesus And Mary Chain coined "feedback-pop". The idea was quite simple and certainly not new: take the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat and add a catchy melody, or take Phil Spector's "wall of sound" and add a layer of guitar noise. Massive distortions, coupled with nihilistic ethos borrowed from the Sex Pistols, bestowed on Psychocandy (1985) a funereal mood. - Piero Scaruffi -

Quote: Arguably Psychocandy is an album with one trick and one trick alone -- Beach Boys melodies meet Velvet Underground feedback and beats, all cranked up to ten and beyond, along with plenty of echo. However, what a trick it is. Following up on the promise of the earliest singles, the Jesus and Mary Chain with Psychocandy arguably created a movement without meaning to, one that itself caused echoes in everything from bliss-out shoegaze to snotty Britpop and back again. The best tracks were without question those singles, anti-pop yet pure pop at the same time: "Just Like Honey," starting off like the Ronettes heard in a canyon and weirdly beautiful with its bells, "You Trip Me Up" and its slinking sense of cool, and most especially "Never Understand." Storming down like a rumble of bricks wrapped in cotton candy and getting more and more frenetic at the end, when there's nothing but howls and screaming noise, it's one hell of a track. However, at least in terms of sheer sonic violence and mayhem, most of the other cuts were pretty hard to beat, as sprawling, amped-up messes like "The Living End" (which later inspired both a band and a movie title) and "In a Hole." "My Little Underground" is actually the secret gem on the album, with a great snarling guitar start, an almost easygoing melody and a great stuttering chorus -- not quite the Who but not quite anything else. What the Reids sing about -- entirely interchangeable combinations regarding girls, sex, drugs, speed, and boredom in more or less equal measure -- is nothing compared to the perfectly disaffected way those sentiments are delivered. Bobby Gillespie's "hit the drums and then hit them again" style makes Moe Tucker seem like Neil Peart, but arguably in terms of sheer economy he doesn't need to do any more. Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

From Amazon:

Quote: Jess (Beaumont, TX USA) I wasn't old enough to hear the original verison of this album on vinyl so I've always been stuck with the "muddy" sounding original CD version. I'm always a little skeptical about the so-called digitally remastered albums but it seems they took their time on Psychocandy. The album sounds blisteringly better than the older version. I would recomend it to anyone who has listened to the older CD versions, it is great.

"Some Candy Talking" is not included on this CD release to conform to the original playlist.

Scans have not been descreened

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychocandy