Psychocandy

by The Jesus and Mary Chain

Overview

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

Product Details

Release Date:	01/20/2004
Label:	Rhino
UPC:	0081227805913

Tracks

1. Just Like Honey
2. The Living End
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
Jim Reid   Guitar,Vocals
William Reid   Guitar,Vocals
Douglas Hart   Bass
Laurence   Vocals (Background)
Karen Parker   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

The Jesus and Mary Chain   Producer,Composer
Syd Barrett   Composer
Vic Godard   Composer
John Loder   Engineer,Producer
Jim Reid   Composer,Producer
William Reid   Composer,Producer
Vic Goddard   Composer