CULT RECORD:JESUS AND MARY CHAIN:"PSYCHOCANDY"(1985)

For all its famous feedback, the Jesus and Mary Chain had little to do with the Stooges or the MC5.Instead, the J&MC refigured Depeche Mode as a noise-rock band, converting the software of moody, sullen synth-pop to their guitars. On Psychocandy, William Reid's feedback rumbles in a swirl of smoke and sulfur, while his brother Jim mumbles through the distortion about sex'n'death epiphanies he never bothers to convince you he's actually experienced.The drummer pats his tom-tom every few seconds, with every note echoing in the kind of reverb and delay usually available only in your local cathedral. From their pseudo-blasphemous name to their pseudo-Velvets shades, these underfed pretty-boy Scots reduced the pretensions of Goth and pigfuck into user-friendly show biz. And no matter how jaded they pretend to be on "Never Understand," "My Little Underground," and "The Hardest Work," you can hear their delight that they're getting away with it. Every single song has its own scrumptious melody, but the chewiest is "Just Like Honey," with Jim Reid's mufled sigh buried under the drum hook from the Ronettes' "Be My Baby".Nobody ever put their hearts into boredom like these lads.

Posted in: alternative,Cult,Music,rock