Album: Darklands
Artist: The Jesus & Mary Chain
Artist: The Jesus & Mary Chain
Born: East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire
Released: August 1987
Genre: Garage Psychedelia
Influenced: Primal Scream, Stone Roses, Ride, Spiritualized, The Walkmen, Glasvegas
While not as sonically revolutionary as their debut album, Psychocandy, over the years Darklands has become my favourite The Jesus & Mary Chain album. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most perfect 80s albums, the best possible example of how pop's most derided decade still produced a few moments of genius. Two brothers, Jim & William Reid, living in a satellite town near Glasgow, channelled the spirit of the Velvet Underground to create their own unique brand of musical light (melodic hooks) and shade (guitar feedback). TJMC, perhaps more than any other group, would inspire the emerging genre of shoegaze, a noisy but warm gothic sludge that owed some debt to The Cure (the haircuts were also very Robert Smith), but also 60s pop (notably the Shangri-Las and the Beach Boys). Alan McGee, later of Creation Records and Oasis fame, was the guy that discovered them after being passed a demo tape by Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie, who joined the band for Psychocandy but left again before the release of Darklands, being replaced by a drum machine. Much of the deafening feedback of their debut album was also dropped, a transition first signalled on 1986 single, Some Candy Talking, and now you could hear the lyrics. Inevitably, this upset some die hard fans, but I admire the group for forging a new path and for writing even better songs. The first taste of the new album came in 1987 with single April Skies, a surly love song ("I take my aim and I fake my words / I'm just your long time curse") that retained the group's rebel spirit and effortless cool, but ditched the noise.
Happy When It Rains was another great single from the record, peaking at No.25 in the UK and explored a similar emotional mood ("You were the darkest sky / but your lips spoke gold and honey") to April Skies. In the Britpop 90s, Garbage were inspired by the song to release a similarly titled track, Only Happy When It Rains, which takes a swipe at the angst-ridden lyrics of their indie rock peers. Easily the most glum of the tracks on Darklands is Nine Million Rainy Days, its funereal pace a very obvious departure from Psychocandy, but the song is still majestic in its own way (and there's a very obvious tribute to the Rolling Stones' Sympathy For The Devil in the chorus). The opening title track and Deep One Perfect Morning are also leisurely pop gems, while Cherry Came Too and About You have an upbeat feel that is all the more powerful for being uncharacteristic territory for the band. For anything that TJMC might have lost in terms of musical innovation on Darklands, they more than gained in terms of melodic hooks and songwriting.
While not as sonically revolutionary as their debut album, Psychocandy, over the years Darklands has become my favourite The Jesus & Mary Chain album. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most perfect 80s albums, the best possible example of how pop's most derided decade still produced a few moments of genius. Two brothers, Jim & William Reid, living in a satellite town near Glasgow, channelled the spirit of the Velvet Underground to create their own unique brand of musical light (melodic hooks) and shade (guitar feedback). TJMC, perhaps more than any other group, would inspire the emerging genre of shoegaze, a noisy but warm gothic sludge that owed some debt to The Cure (the haircuts were also very Robert Smith), but also 60s pop (notably the Shangri-Las and the Beach Boys). Alan McGee, later of Creation Records and Oasis fame, was the guy that discovered them after being passed a demo tape by Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie, who joined the band for Psychocandy but left again before the release of Darklands, being replaced by a drum machine. Much of the deafening feedback of their debut album was also dropped, a transition first signalled on 1986 single, Some Candy Talking, and now you could hear the lyrics. Inevitably, this upset some die hard fans, but I admire the group for forging a new path and for writing even better songs. The first taste of the new album came in 1987 with single April Skies, a surly love song ("I take my aim and I fake my words / I'm just your long time curse") that retained the group's rebel spirit and effortless cool, but ditched the noise.
Happy When It Rains was another great single from the record, peaking at No.25 in the UK and explored a similar emotional mood ("You were the darkest sky / but your lips spoke gold and honey") to April Skies. In the Britpop 90s, Garbage were inspired by the song to release a similarly titled track, Only Happy When It Rains, which takes a swipe at the angst-ridden lyrics of their indie rock peers. Easily the most glum of the tracks on Darklands is Nine Million Rainy Days, its funereal pace a very obvious departure from Psychocandy, but the song is still majestic in its own way (and there's a very obvious tribute to the Rolling Stones' Sympathy For The Devil in the chorus). The opening title track and Deep One Perfect Morning are also leisurely pop gems, while Cherry Came Too and About You have an upbeat feel that is all the more powerful for being uncharacteristic territory for the band. For anything that TJMC might have lost in terms of musical innovation on Darklands, they more than gained in terms of melodic hooks and songwriting.
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