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I didn’t get them as a band until Honey’s Dead, which is still my absolute favorite

"Far Gone and Out" is a marvelous single.

As is “Reverence”

“rollercoaster” too

Automatic

Psychocandy is one of the most overrated "classic" albums ever. Their next three are all better. Haven't heard the two post-reunion albums, although I did see them live post-reunion, pre-new albums and they were a blast.

Automatic is my pick. It's such a great, feel it in your guts, thrills and singalongs rock and roll album.

I won't keep knocking Psychocandy, clearly one of those Ya Had to Be There albums, but, yeah, I listen to Darklands and Automatic way more, and 21 Singles best of all.

Psychocandy then Darklands for me + write in vote for Barbed Wire Kisses. I like it most when they sound like a Scottish band hoovering up ideas from pop history and spewing them out in their own style.

Automatic is horribly hollow and American sounding, can't stand it.

You people would say that.

The first thing I heard was Barbed Wire Kisses and at the time I thought it was one of the worst things I’d ever heard

Ya Ha To Be There but if you WERE... well, I voted Darklands, it's the one I truly imprinted on, but much as I like "Far Gone and Out" I just can't see anything post-Automatic as anything but a footnote to what I consider their real output -- "Reverence" in particular feels like an imitation J&MC song to me. "Barbed Wire Kisses" not really an album and thus not on here but "Everything's Alright When You're Down" really one of their highights.

If everybody had an ocean WALL OF NOISE across the usa BIGGER WALL OF NOISE

you people speak madness! psychocandy or go home! i mean for pete's sake...

overrated, i'll give you overrated...right in the snoot!

Anyone that thinks it overrated needs the severe malky!

I wasn’t there, this is Psychocandy hands down.

I wasn't there, 21 Singles.

Psychocandy is the most important one but I like Darklands the best. They proved that they were at least a two trick pony with that album.

Psychocandy is massively underrated. So great that there was just no point listening to another JAMC album again. Even if it had been a one track album with just The Hardest Walk on it it would have got my vote. Psychocandy era live however was one of the worst gigs I ever saw.

psychocandy, i like the feedback, give me more of that

Challop: "Just Like Honey" is not in the top half of the songs on Psychocandy

I don’t necessarily disagree but it’s a really killer opener

Psychocandy is better than BWK, definitely

My take remains that they should have announced their breakup the day Psychocandy was released; it's not only a great album, but a beautiful gesture that could only have been improved by their immediately ceasing to exist.

That said, it's fun to listen to Automatic and Honey's Dead in the car, the former more than the latter. And if Barbed Wire Kisses was an option I'd seriously consider voting for it.

That new album is fucking awful.

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 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.

first JAMC thing I bought was Far Gone And Out, loved that so I bought the Reverence single as well, and Automatic because I don't think Honey's Dead was out yet or at least wasn't in the tiny record shops we had where I grew up. got Barbed Wire Kisses and Honey's Dead later in the year, and I think then Darklands, so I was actually kinda late to listening to Psychocandy, which for some reason I never saw in the shop until I went to uni somewhere with slightly better record shops.

I do rate the first 3 + BWK a lot higher than their later stuff but Honey's Dead and Munki have lots of good stuff too. never liked Stoned & Dethroned outside of a few songs. I didn't like the new album much at all. I saw them live not long before it came out but they didn't play a single song off it

first JAMC i bought was Never Understand (having missed the first single entirely, depsite listening to all the right shows).

checking my phone, which is the most listend to stuff, i have have Psychocandy, Darklands, Honey's Dead, Barbed Wire Kisses on it and the Japanese version of Sound of Speed (which was different from the UK version by a couple of tracks). and the new one.

but this thread is making me want to listen to the others again.

I was kind of enjoying Glasgow Eyes as, uh, a Primal Scream album until it got to the "I've been rolling with the Stones" song and then I had to turn it off and never listen to it again.

I know lyrics are not their strong suit but sometimes they simply bottom out:

Little skinny girl, she's doing it for the first time
Little skinny girl, she's doing it, and it feels fine
She's taking hold, and I'm holding on
Holding on and my sense is gone
I got it, you got it, she's got it

They picked up where your precious Echo left off and you’re sitting around complaining about no more Echo albums. I can’t believe you don’t own this fucking record.

Funnily enough my years picked up on that lyric as I was listening to Honey's Dead this morning.

I loved Psychocandy and Barbed Wire Kisses (I used to have a cassette of it; back then I wanted to hear 'Upside Down').

I think I heard some other singles from Darklands and Cracking up and thought it was a loss of nerve after all the fuzz. So never bothered to dig too much into it.

Due to this thread I listened to Darklands, Automatic and Honey's Dead and I'm grateful because the latter is really almost as good as Psychocandy. The guitars and feedback are nearly on that level with better drums (Madchester is a really good shout, Scott otm!)

Shame that they did lose the faith with the noise after Psychocandy, though. They aren't great songwriters though Darklands and Automatic are better than virtually any Britpop.

Voted for Honey's Dead.

Darklands felt very dull after Psychocandy; I played it maybe half a dozen times. This band had been my life at the age of 15/16, and they were turning into a proper respectable alt-rock band.

Agree that later stuff is often indistinguishable from Primal Scream. Jim and Bobby use a similar cod-American singing voice.

“Teenager Lust” is an absolutely fantastic song

as a fan of the leather nun and red lorry yellow lorry i would have been fine with an entire album of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMMZyS1gAgI

i've never listened to a primal scream album but didn't JAMC do primal scream before primal scream?

i should also listen to Automatic again. i haven't heard it in years. i played it when it came out but then i didn't really play it much again.

i mean i did hear some primal scream way back when and it always sounded so corny to me and never really reminded me of JAMC. more like a Madchester Black Crowes or something which made me cringe really hard. any 80s stuff i heard by them left no impression. the late 90s stuff...i have no idea. i have a vague memory of it sounding like bad happy mondays.

which is saying something because the happy mondays already sound like a bad happy mondays to me.

i liked Automatic! listening now. it had tons of cool riffs. even the samples and beats were cool on this one. screamadelica, baby...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG0oLTxjBo8

You should listen to Primal Scream's XTRMNTR. It doesn't sound anything like the Jesus and Mary Chain. I wrote about it when it turned 20.

no thank you. just checking out vanishing point and it all sounds so lame. they were always years behind everything cool. in a world where the god-like blue lines existed for like 6 years they made that super-corny kowalski song. bleh. yeah, that's the difference for me. they were never cool and even lesser JAMC tracks sound cool to me.

Cmon this rules

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

xtrmntr really is their best album

okay, xtrmntr is their big beat/mo wax album. yeah, bleh. and that swastika eyes song is just a bad JAMC homage. i would still listen to stuff on mo wax. or warp. or chemical brothers even. i love the red snapper album from 2000. another problem is that british icon and legend bobby primal scream is a totally sucky vocalist. he's not charismatic or cool sounding at all. kinda like when i tried to listen to brian jonestown massacre once.

no, that mbv arkestra thing sucks. i loved this album around that time though. still own it on CD and play it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcblH3i4ggI

we need a Sand reunion. the people demand it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfppOtn3YR4

i wish there was a book with different musicians talking about how they felt about JAMC when they came out. i feel like they were definitely one of those bands. i don't know if i've ever read kevin shields or justin broadrick talk about them. i'm sure there were all kinds of people who were blown away by them. and not just shoegaze types.

Sonic Youth were big supporters, not surprisingly, despite the groups' obvious differences.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

glad this poll exists, i've really only heard psychocandy and darklands. barbed wire kisses contains some of their most supremely fucked material alongside some of their catchiest, it's really weird that it works at all. big revelation from hearing automatic for the first time is "between planets" is the best song ever written

Glasgow Eyes is going to win this, isn't it?

the first time is "between planets" is the best song ever written

The way I can sing "Head On" on top of those chords is one of the great things about JAMC, just like how 'April Skies' and "Happy When It Rains" are practically the same song.

First three are the only ones I listen to fairly regularly. Darklands is the one I'm most often in the mood for, and it gets played much more than the others, but had to vote Psychocandy as it still knocks me off my feet every time. I and I think most of my friends picked up Barbed Wire Kisses when it came out as Sidewalking was pretty big on the local college radio stations, and it sounded massive on the ridiculously large (and in retrospect probably pretty lousy) speakers that came with the Fisher component system I bought with my paper route money. I'll often put on their "Guitar Man" cover too.

A couple of months ago I was listening to Psychocandy while finishing up some yard work with the 2-stroke weed wacker. I noticed my kid trying to get my attention so I switched it off and pulled off my headphones, through which JAMC could still clearly be heard. The kid started to ask a question, paused, and said "Dad, your music sounds exactly like the trimmer."

I played "Sidewalking" on my college radio show during my one and only ill-fated year at college. I'd like to think I changed the lives of hundreds of children in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania that night.

Right around that time my family was on a road trip and flipping through the radio late at night somewhere in PA I heard the Screaming Blue Messiahs for the first time. Maybe that was you? Wouldn't say it changed my life but I did buy the cassette at the next record store I stopped into!

On the other side of the dorm wall was a guy who spent a month playing his Sidewalking 12" over and over, and it put me off this band for decades. Honey's Dead is certainly sounding much better right now than I figured possible for its ubiquity in used bins.

I wanted to listen to all of these again before voting but that didn't happen. Was too young for Psychocandy. Darklands is probably the correct answer but I got the most joy out of Automatic.

honey's dead is absolutely my fave of these

i also really love munki on first listen

love “moe tucker” off munki

Pleasantly surprised by the affection for "Sidewalking."

I'm on pins n' needles waiting for the results of this! And the other election.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

the way it should be. good work, everyone.

Stoned & Dethroned too high but looks good otherwise.

I’m surprised Automatic did better than Honey’s Dead.

I need to give Automatic a good loud listening. It's been a long time!

was 1990 the first time i saw them, which was the Automatic tour (with the telescopes at the town and country), and then twice, i think, on the rollercoaster tour (brixton). both tours quite multimedia from what i remember, the films projected behind them being a large part of the experience. Douglas Hart was big on the film side of things iirc.

but my heart lies with the earliest stuff, i was never entirely convinced by Automatic.

saw them December 11, 1985. Die Kreuzen opening, First Avenue. fantastic. 20ish minutes as advertised, not a word to the audience, William facing away, Jim rubbing his guitar on the mic stand. mohican at the edge of the stage next to me yelling "play some fucking rock and roll" and telling him this is fucking rock and roll. the Upside Down and Never Understand singles were the biggest things in my musical world.