I feel so quick in my leather boots: poll of PSYCHOCANDY by THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN

it's so hard :(

(that's not a vote btw)

I HATE YOU.

I told you not to do this.

Now what am I gonna do? I don't have enough socks to vote for them all!

puns I thought about including in the title and deleted:

THE HARDEST POLL
IN A POLL
POLLING SEEDS
THE LIVING POLL

love this album

taste the floor or the hardest walk

In a Hole.

It always seemed like the pettiest, most mean-spirited, sleaziest song of theirs. No hint of beauty or splendour. It encapsulated the aura of early Mary Chain better than any of the singles, or any of the ballads.

I'll need to relisten. I got the JAMC albums in what I gather is a strange order for ILM: first Automatic, then Barbed Wire Kisses, Honey's Dead, Darklands, & only then Psychocandy. So for me Psychocandy is a kinda mid-career album. If I don't relisten I'm just going to vote for "Just Like Honey" & I want to be sure before being the obvious child.

xp what! let's be honest, if upside down were on this album it would walk the rest

Actually, it's not so difficult. It's "Something Wrong" and it always has been. For the lazy drumbeat and the three-dimensional slabs of the guitar lead.

But Never Understand and My Little Underground and... oh fuck, the whole album is so special to me in so many ways.

Gut says one of Just Like Honey, Hardest Walk, Taste The Floor, Taste of Cindy, Never Understand, You Trip Me Up. Or maybe Sowing Seeds. Or Cut Dead. Yeah Cut Dead. Oh I don't know.

Some Candy Talking disqualified as it wasn't on the original album.

...and those things that *sound* like strings but are probably actually more shards of glittering orchestral feedback or what at the end of Something's Wrong.

Some Candy Talking disqualified as it wasn't on the original album.

― pissky in the jar (onimo), Tuesday, September 14, 2010 11:22 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

egads - I followed the tracklisting from my itunes which I thought I had ripped from my rhino remaster of psychocandy, which according to amazon doesn't have some candy talking on it - but look there it is.

curious & curiouser

oh well, it'll be an excuse to have a 'purer' poll in a couple of years so we can rehash all the same arguments all over again

Something's Wrong might be a winner actually. Playing it in my head right now and it's clearly the down and dirty version of the Darklands poll winner 'Happy When It Rains'.

xp iirc Some Candy Talking was added when the CD came out in '86 but wasn't on the '85 vinyl.

yeah I noticed that on the wiki page but I assumed the reissues were more faithful? idk

I used to have the 12" version of "Upside Down" you know.

Any road up, went for "It's so hard" because.

I see in HMV, there's a 'budget' box set of the first five albums, £13 to you guvnur.

Some Candy Talking on Psychocandy is just RONG. It totally disrupts the flow of the two sides of the album.

It is wrong. Yes.

I see in HMV, there's a 'budget' box set of the first five albums, £13 to you guvnur.

(HMV owned) Fopp had it for £10 recently, dunno if that's still the case.

xp KDT otm

everybody just pretend it isn't there and watch this instead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2bzrCCKDwc

Yr right, it was Fopp.

My one piece of published writing: A J&MC article in Record Collector.

Also weird that Something's Wrong is the longest song on the album. Nothing outstays its welcome at all. So concise, so perfect.

Though It's So Hard is such a weird, ugly, twisted song to end on. But that was probably the point.

Oh wait, In A Hole just came on.

GOD SPITS ON MY SOUL, THERE'S SOMETHING DEAD IN MY HOLE, HOW COULD SOMETHING CRAWL WITHIN MY RUBBER HOLY BAKED BEAN TIN IT'S GOD TO ME IT'S GOD TO ME, IT IS HEART AND SOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLL OAIWERKLASLK LKSADJFLKASDJFLKLK ALKJALKSDFJ LASKDJFLKSDFJ (random Jim screaming rendered in keyboard squee)

If I go bald in my old age, I blame this record for the abuse to my follicles.

"Cut dead, Jim's messed up boy
Dut n'dut n'dut n'dut n'dut ..."

is how Frank Sinatra would have sung it too...

I just went on last.fm to see how often some of these were played and spotted an ILxor scrobbling Something's Wrong :)

Taste of Cindy -> Never Understand = I have never in my life leapt up so quickly to turn a record over.

The Living End, all the way

I just went on last.fm to see how often some of these were played and spotted an ILxor scrobbling Something's Wrong :)

PWND.

That would be me, yes.

Picky detail ahoy:

"Taste of Cindy" came out on a magazine freebie e.p. some time before the album.

It has a split second intake of breath before the song starts.

It's the one thing I would complain about the album: That split second was like the one in "I heard her call my name" and it's MISSING!!!

Argh spotify ads, I hate you. You have interrupted my Jim Reid screaming pleasure.

side note: have any other dudes in history pulled off the carrot top haircut so successfully?

None of them were ginger?

I used to borrow my dad's car at weekends, and one time I was looking for the cassette of this.

I eventually found it, on the back parcel shelf.

He could have just placed it in the glove compartment, but no.

(Yeah, I know, very unusual to have 4 spotty scots lads in a room and none of them be ginger, but none of them were.)

People these days are too lazy to wait till an album finishes - the popularity of the Psychocandy tracks reads like the track listing. Just Like Honey dwarfs everything else by miles though.

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Jesus+and+Mary+Chain/+tracks

I meant more of the 'sprouting from the top of the head, short on the sides' look xxxp

you know...like how a carrot looks when it's in the ground

onimo, could be the lost in translation OST skewing things iirc.

voted NEVER UNDERSTAND fwiw

That's more pineapple than carrot.

(But that said, Daniel Ash was the one and only Pineapple God and there will never be another. But his was special because it was a pineapple mullet)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YSqKnJvl0Eo/R_I3i4BduJI/AAAAAAAAArU/AwqfYDQg1V0/s400/jesus-mary-chain.jpg

who you callin a fuckin carrot top?

xp good point Steve (fucking loved that song kicking in in Lost in Translation in the cinema)

I honestly cannot choose. what a mighty album, great from start to finish.

This thread could really do with some more pictures, TBH

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hg-IOKPUrlY/S603k-YuomI/AAAAAAAAASI/JESX_FFMihk/s1600/The%2BJesus%2Band%2BMary%2BChain.jpg

aaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww

I cannot believe they actually got them to pose so sweetly for long enough to take a picture before they went back to pulling each others' hair out.

"The Hardest Walk" for me, but there's not really a bad song in the bunch.

I actually don't like this album much. I lose interest after Taste the Floor, which is really good & what I'm voting for.

After listening to Never Understand just now, I like how it kind of reminds me of Surfer Rosa, so that's cool.

Bobby Gillespie's haircut in the Never Understand vid is the single best thing he has ever been involved with in more than 25 years in music.

True.

No, actually, it's only the second best thing, after his trousers in the Just Like Honey video.

they were all released together afaik, sept 2011. amazon.co.uk has copies of HD.

http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/05/the-jesus-and-mary-chain-to-perform-psychocandy-in-full-during-upcoming-tour/

good news, nostalgic pensioners!

this actually sounds really awesome

only going to go if they have meat whiplash as support

And Doug and Bobby back in the band..

And, heck, Murray too for old times sake..

Do I have to drink a litre of Merrydown in the queue outside the Barras to complete the full nostalgia package?

that would be fun but i would like to hear more than just this album.

Lead singer Jim Reid said in a statement (via NME), “Psychocandy was meant to be a kick in the teeth to all of those who stood in our way at the time, which was practically the whole music industry. In 1985 there were a great many people who predicted no more than a six month life span for The Mary Chain. to celebrate the approaching 30th anniversary of the album, we would like to perform it in its entirety. We will also perform key songs from that period that did not feature on the album.”

Wish/Grant

You do realise they would play for 30 to 45 mins back then?

And that was when things were going well...

Do I have to drink a litre of Merrydown in the queue outside the Barras to complete the full nostalgia package?

I have decided this will be done. Silver top, none of yer sweet gold top shite.

Looks like it sold out in minutes. Weird how doing fuck all and/or being rubbish for decades makes you more popular.

iirc the last round of london gigs got merged together, 2 dates collapsed into 1, which i assumed was due to low ticket sales at the time.

just had a look and they were no tickets available. but GetMeIn could 'get me in' for ~£50 (half the glasgow price)

Was "Just Like Honey" a well known alternative rock hipster signifier before Lost in Translation or did it become so after? Danish national "alternative music" station P6 must play it a couple times a week and it seems like such a hollow gesture.

They also have stuff like "Lust for Life" on repeat, which it's a great song but maybe should not be applied every day I dunno.

It depends on which side of the pond you are. UK, well before. USA .. someone?

it was pretty known (number 2 in the Festive Fifty, got to number 45 in the charts etc) but not mega known. the film definitely put it on the radar of your Gen Y types.

i saw the Psychocandy gig at The Roundhouse last week; incredible sound and Miki of Lush fame was on backing vox for ..Honey once again.

Eye-opening pics in this thread. I had no idea these guys had such terrible 80s hair.

I was just going to ask if anyone had seen them on the current tour. I saw one of 2007 reunion shows and was pretty disappointed, but I'd give them another chance if the reports are good.

Gonna see them on Friday.

Seeing them this evening!

I will Never Understand, what the appeal of this song is.

It is a good song, but 2nd on the list?

Please enlighten me...

great revive

I like it but I find it almost indistinguishable from "My Little Underground" and I'm not sure why one has so much more canonical shine than the other.

Oh wait I've said this like twice in this thread already

Some eephus talking

Not gonna lie. Some eephus talking make me laugh!!

happy 40th

Indeed.

Plus, something from me...soon.

I saw them one year ago this month and met a fellow ILXor. Fun night.

Hard to believe this is 40 years old.

Apparently the new Life of the Record podcast episode about this album is great.

Stoked for whatever it is Ned.

My answer to Brief Candles above re: Never Understand -- the piercing feedback descending into a wash of distortion that almost fully obliterates the song itself was a wonder to behold the first time I heard it. Agree that it is very close to MLU but this is the song that stayed with me. It quite literally sounds like something is wrong and I love it.

It's lovely to play for the unsuspecting - turn it up and watch their faces. Processing the noise and the hook at the same time has broken stronger ones than me.

Nothing ever sounded loud after this album. I don't know how they did it (the formula and mix, not the guitars and drums).

Xpost yes, that podcast is pretty much just William and Jim talking through each track.

Revelations galore!

Jim 'confesses' to his writing technique being "try to write a song like xxx by xxx, fail, end up with something new. He mentions the source of "Never Understand", but gets coy about "Something Wrong" (I think I know what it is from the clues though)

Vivid memories for me of being 15 in 1985, catching a 30 sec clip of Never Understand on The Chart Show in February (?), buying it and becoming obsessed with this band. Taping a Peel session, finding Upside Down through mail order, then You Trip Me Up in the summer, Just Like Honey a few weeks later, Taste of Cindy given away with a magazine, and Psychocandy just before Christmas. The first Shop Assistants ep was in the mix as well, and All Fall Down by Primal Scream.

They are basically the Beatles to me these days (a good thing).

In a great year for albums this is up at the top.

Still remember somebody in the NME downplaying Psychocandy's glorious sound as a "noisette whirl" which was cute but gtf

This thread made me want to listen for the first time in forever today, but I went in a different direction. Still classic and the only JAMC album I give a fuck about tho

Stoked for whatever it is Ned.

Well you can be the judge. Here it is!

https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/jesus-and-mary-chain-psychocandy-review/

Finding a different way in to talking about them and the album was part of the challenge. A good one, I think.

great read

Thanks!

Yearning diffidence. The fish are drowning. Great piece Ned, really enjoyed and am on second playthrough of the evening.

Do Darklands next! (No rush though)

Ned, I so appreciate the Bowie angle. It also puts the rest the received angle that he was always a gentleman -- well, no, not when he felt threatened (i.e. Gary Numan).

I never got into them but very much enjoyed that Life of the Record podcast.

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

I was at this gig. Listening to it now - sounds like Les Rallizes Dénudés! Similar taste in leather trousers too.

Psychocandy cranked up on my Walkman side 2 TDK no Dolby on the school bus buzzing my eardrums giving me early onset tinnitus

Great piece Ned, really enjoyed and am on second playthrough of the evening.

Do Darklands next! (No rush though)

Ha, give me a couple years or something!

Ned, I so appreciate the Bowie angle. It also puts the rest the received angle that he was always a gentleman -- well, no, not when he felt threatened (i.e. Gary Numan).

Very much the comparison in my head I was thinking of. I wonder if it's to do with age as well as perceived place in the firmament -- at his commercial peak (on a notable upswing already in the height of Numan thanks to "Ashes To Ashes" number one at 'home' where Numan was absolutely everywhere in turn) through the 80s, by 1987 he could afford to be lordly but instead could get defensive. The Pixies switch was in concert with his Tin Machine move, of course, but also maybe was a reaction to realizing he'd be better off cultivating those in his wake, which paid off down the road. (I do find it funny that first Trent Reznor collaborates with Bowie in the mid-90s and then a few years later during The Fragile releases a Numan cover in turn...)

Psychocandy cranked up on my Walkman side 2 TDK no Dolby on the school bus buzzing my eardrums giving me early onset tinnitus

My man.

I could totally fill in with ‘th chain’ the way my hair looks today

Psychocandy cranked up on my Walkman side 2 TDK no Dolby on the school bus buzzing my eardrums giving me early onset tinnitus

My first listen to Psychocandy was on a tape copy I had borrowed from our local library - I still distinctly remember that uncertainty of “is something broken oh shit no i think it is meant to sound like this” - can remember exactly where i was, who i was, one of those moments when you feel your brain expanding

I recently got a killer collection of old cassettes with Psychocandy among them and gave it a spin on my Walkman after reading Ned’s fine article, sounded awesome… they were always a cassette band for me - Automatic practically lived in the tape deck of my old Leyland Marina

I feel they are one of those bands who were essential in the 1980s but I don’t get a sense that subsequent generations are that interested - maybe they will have their day again