The Jesus and Mary Chain were sonic terrorists with an ear out for the sunniest melodies. Their songs inspired a generation of alternative rock bands and encouraged them to think outside the box.
“Psychocandy” defined a generation and sparked legions of imitators. But The Jesus and Mary Chain defied expectations, enjoyed a long career, and continued producing great tunes.
Today I look at the shining achievements of these legendary Scottish noise rockers. Here are The Jesus and Mary Chain’s ten best songs.
“Never Understand”
In a time when getting good records required considerable effort, The Jesus and Mary Chain had the perfect collection. How do we know? They wore their influences on their sleeve, daring anyone to sound and look cooler than they did.
“Never Understand” is a powerful mix of Beach Boys-styled melodies and Lou Reed feedback freakouts. It’s hard to tell whose winning out. But the band’s commitment to both the beauty and ugliness of their sound makes this amazing.
Other songs from “Psychocandy” earned more attention, sure. However, “Never Understand” and further deeper cuts proved that there was more to this Scottish group than a great look and a fantastic set of influences.
“You Trip Me Up”
White noise was what bands with bands poor equipment produced, or Loud Reed in an attempt to get out of a recording contract. The Jesus and Mary Chain used it deliberately. They reserved the same kind of space inside a song for noise as they did for the vocals or the minimalist drums.
“You Trip Me Up” was one of the finest examples of this strategy. It’s a damaged Phil Spectoresque kind of sound. It’s a gorgeous 50s-styled piece of songwriting attacked by shards of noise and informed by modern street lingo.
And it fit in with manager Alan McGee and Creation Records’ vision for the band as uncompromising, shoegaze revolutionaries.
“You Trip Me Up” doesn’t merely work as a stunt. It’s a terribly exciting song that clocks at just under three minutes.
Of course, few believed that William and Jim Reid, Douglas Hart, and Bobby Gillespie (future singer of Primal Scream), could sustain this kind of manic energy for long. The band, however, has displayed unexpected survival skills over the years.
“Darklands” (1989)
“Psychocandy” looked set to become a revolutionary manifesto and The Jesus and Mary Chain’s sole recording material. But the band was just as willing to confound newfound fans as they’d done with their detractors.
The album “Darklands” relied little on the tricks that had made them indie rock darlings. The feedback was, for the most part, gone. More carefully structured and quieter songs are introduced. William Reid’s songwriting had grown terrifically. “April Skies” was another example of this.
The title track is one of the album’s defining moments, a bittersweet, 60s-inspired tune with lyrics as soulful as a church hymn.
“Some Candy Talking”
Just like Phil Spector’s productions, The Jesus and Mary Chain knew how to introduce a song. They do it with the least amount of musical chatter. A tambourine and a few guitar lines will do.
Once, however, the song’s hook is revealed, the band sound as massive as a one-hundred-piece orchestra.
“Some Candy Talking” exemplifies the band’s growing confidence as writers. It was banned by the BBC for supposed narcotic references. And it continued emphasizing The Jesus and Mary Chain’s reputation as Sex Pistols-like rock n’ roll saboteurs.
Like their heroes, The Velvet Underground, drummer Bobby Gillespie had employed a distinctive, unorthodox drumming style. This would, however, be one of his final contributions to the group who would turn to drum machines as studio replacements.
“Some Candy Talking” wouldn’t be released as a single but, nonetheless, would become The Jesus and Mary Chain’s biggest underground hit and one of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s best and most famous songs.
“Happy When It Rains”
The Reid brothers may have been portrayed as modern misanthropes who completely disregard how the music world works.
At their best, however, best The Jesus and Mary Chain are propelled by entirely genuine enthusiasm. This translated to the kind of fan excitement that few bands have been able to harness.
“Happy When It Rains” shows the band’s passion for 1960s guitar singles. Just like J&MC’s music, those were short, memorable, and demanded to be played repeatedly.
What “Happy When It Rains” is not just a pastel of their influences. The band members’ genuine animosity for the world as well as their truthful passion for music, are apparent.
The band’s fingerprints are all over their recordings. While they’ve been compared to bands like The Velvet Underground by many, including Jack Black in a memorable scene of “High Fidelity”, nobody could’ve written:” Happy When It Rains.”
“Sidewalking”
By the end of the 1980s, most bands signed to a major label had achieved more commercial success than The Jesus and Mary Chain. None were as cool. And the Scottish band knew it too.
On their 1989 album “Automatic” the band changed their sonic formula again. To their credit, they weren’t the ones to rely on an excellent trick for long.
The album features drum machine grooves, creepy surf guitar riffs, and snarling vocals projected over beautiful melodies.
“Sidewalking” is the most successful of these experiments. (It also appeared on B-sides compilation titled “Barbed Wire Kisses,” while “Head On” and “Blues from a Gun” were the lead singles off “Automatic”).
While the entire album is not as consistent as their first two outings, “Sidewalking” showed that few could match the Glasgow band when it came to rock singles.
“Frequency”
At the start of the 1990s, the legend of The Jesus and Mary Chain had been firmly established. And the band finally seemed at peace with it.
This meant that their cheekily titled 1992 album “Honey’s Dead” finds them embracing what they do best. They even get a live drummer, Monti, on some tracks.
This means that songs like “Almost Gold” and “Reverence” have a more rounded, balanced sound. There’s even a suggestion of serious craftsmanship here.
What had endeared the band to many was their snottiness, however. “Frequency” delivers upon that, combining unsettling lyrics with pretty melodies like the good ol’ days.
“Sometimes Always”
There’d always been a sense that The Jesus and Mary Chain simply did not want success. The public certainly felt that way. And while the band liked resisting the popularity that inevitably followed their first albums, they had little to prove by their 1994 release.
“Stoned & Dethroned” finds the band taking inspiration from folk and country, adding a new layer of melancholy to their sound.
“Sometimes Always” is the most rewarding offering and another great single. It’s sung as a duet with Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval.
Just as the band had always intentioned for their work, “Sometimes Always” feels like an unearthed classic. Consequently, it offered the band a renewed sense of appreciation from the modern alt-rock crowd.
“Snakedriver”
The Jesus and Mary Chain always believed themselves to be the villains of their own story and never bothered changing their resolve. The public immediately accepted it.
Even when delivering the sweetest Brian Willson-like melodies, Jim Reid’s vocals were filled with a refreshing rancorous sneer.
“Snakedriver” is a punk song in all but tempo and one of the most aggressive songs by The Jesus and Mary Chain from the second part of their careers.
Because of that, it was included in “The Crow Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.” This collection is the movie studio’s intense work aligning “The Crow” with the alt-rock audiences and includes songs by Stone Temple Pilots, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, Nine Inch Nails, and… Pantera.
A highlight in most bands’ catalogs, “Snakedriver” gets unfairly omitted from the conversation about The Jesus and Mary Chain’s greatest songs. It’s a shame because it captures the band’s essence just fine.
“Just Like Honey”
“Just Like Honey” sounds like the start or the end of something great. It sounds like a band reintroducing rock music to a world set on forgetting.
It’s no wonder Sofia Coppola would, years later, use it to end the movie “Lost in Translation.”
The Jesus and Mary Chain arrogantly look to deliver the experience of hearing a Phil Spector-produced record, or The Velvet Underground, for the first time. And unlike other rock n’ roll braggers, they succeed. Jim Reid was on the nose when he called it “a little miracle.”
“Just Like Honey” is a wonderful, desperate love song sung for no one. It’s a pretty piece of music being torn inside out by fuzz guitar pedals in real-time.
It was the standout track from their highly anticipated 1985 debut album “Psychocandy.” Ever since Creation Records had released “Upside Down,” their first single, there’d been a sense of intrigue about what the band could produce a full-length record.
It continues to be central to the band’s live setlist. It’s a song with which they routinely begin their encores.
Of course, it turned The Jesus and Mary Chain into the most talked about band in Great Britain. Naturally, this meant they also became one of the most heavily copied.
The media proclaimed that J&MC was doomed to inspire thousands of bands, never sell an album, and disband. Just like The Velvet Underground.
Instead, they’ve sold a few records, inspired many, and continued being active until today. The Jesus and Mary Chain always loved doing what they weren’t supposed to do.
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