The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
Blanco y Negro
November 18th, 1985
The Jesus & Mary Chain's soul-stirring debut Psychocandy turns 40. Noise Pop would find life at the hands of The J&MC. "Listen to the girl as she takes on half the world."
With Psychocandy The J&MC ushered in a new age of noise: 60's sentiments embellished with an 80's swagger. The too-cool-for-school kids got their hands on some mind-melting sonic distorters. Simplistic rhythms and fairly basic lyrics give the album a youthful demeanour. An air of innocence swirls inside the masochistic uncaring. Endlesss Summer nights and melancholia erring on the side of sadness. Intangible weight from every direction, yet a reason for said pressure is yet to make itself known. The world is a heavy-spherical-downer. All-encompassing. Undermining. Slacker sonics. Life has been heavy, and remains so.
Off the back of a Spectoresque beat "Just Like Honey" opens Psychocandy. The hushed and somewhat lazily slung together vocal performance rings monotone as the instrumental rings caustic-glorious: reverb heavy drums and sharp-as-a-tack guitars glisten in Godly filth. The track sonically oozes despondence, detachment. Ironically enough it begs for attachment; something to hold onto. The raucous riffery of The Stooges meets the sensibilities of a Gothic Rock veneer: always raining, always raining, always raining.
Psychotic candy and teenage angst: a pretty volatile combination. One searching for meaning and one destroying it.
The J&MC took the Velvet Underground's distorted elements and made them the main feature. Tinnitus is never too far from Psychocandy. The J&MC ride waves of distortion like the Silver Surfer. The guitar tones screech out at you for the entire runtime. Brain-tickling distortion. Ear-piercing feedback. Toe-curling sonics. Honey dripping beehiiiives and blood dripping audio sensors. Angle grinders mic'd up. The hardest walk that you'll ever walk is the one from A to B. The rest is pretty smooth sailing, though not without its moments. Brief spells of bliss followed by harsh bouts of much needed existential suffering. Silver linings and gargantuan clouds.
"The Sun comes up another day begins and I don't even worry 'bout the state I'm in".
Play this for your cat. Through all the confusion it'll hate you more than it already does.
