Performer Notes
- Jesus & Mary Chain includes: William Reid, Jim Reid (vocals, guitar); Douglas Hart (bass).
- Personnel: William Reid, Jim Reid (vocals, guitar, baritone guitar); Douglas Hart (bass guitar); Bobby Gillespie (drums, snare drum).
- Liner Note Author: Kieron Tyler.
- Recording information: Southern studios.
- Photographers: Ronald McIntosh; Chris Clunn; Mike Laye; Stuart Cassidy; Bleddyn Butcher; Alastair Indge; Mike Cave.
- A love of classic pop songs and sonic terrorism conspire on this euphoric collection. Fuzz guitar, distortion and feedback drench almost every track, but beneath this assertive noise lies a gift for melody inspired by the Beach Boys and girl-group genre. The contrast is beguiling and if the constituent parts are not original, the audacity of such a combination is. Understated voices and nihilistic lyrics belie the intensity forged within. Created by passionate adherents of pop culture, PSYCHOCANDY is one of the 1980s' landmark releases, inspiring some to follow a similar course, while others took similar influences to forge a quite different perspective.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.74) - 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "[B]oth catchy and terrifying, sounding like the Beach Boys had let out their inner Charles Manson."
Spin (p.110) - "[With] bubblegum hooks...blasts of guitar noise...[and] buried mumbling singing...this is the root integer of shoegaze."
Spin (p.79) - "[With] sticky-sweet, hang-ten Beach Boys hooks...[and] a dense pudding of Velvets-via-Joy Division feedback and distortion on top..."
Spin (5/01, p.112) - Ranked #45 in Spin's "50 Most Essential Punk Records" - "...These diffidently tuneful jokers declared noise, timbre, and texture the new coins of the realm..."
Q (p.122) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[The album] still feels seismic....The Mary Chain brought and extremity of intent and emotion that was unprecedented."
Q (7/01, p.86) - Included in Q's "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time".
Q (6/00, p.63) - Ranked #88 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums" - "...Mixes the Velvets, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, and Phil Spector to produce a morbid drill of a record....A fan letter to the darkest US rock...[it] is a bridge between 2 great British inventions, goth and punk..."
Alternative Press (8/01, p.112) - Included in AP's "10 Essential '80s Albums".
Alternative Press (7/95, p.78) - Ranked #10 in AP's list of the 'Top 99 Of '85-'95' - "...JAMC's debut LP radically updated the Velvets, Beach Boys and Ramones, dousing honeyed melodies with scouring blankets of feedback....Fantastic tunes under tons of feedback..."
CMJ (3/6/00, p.29) - "...haunting and unique songs...[whose] radiance is buried under an impenetrable blanket of piercing white noise..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.111) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "Twenty-one years later, PSYCHOCANDY still has grime under its nails, an irresistible feedback urchin raised by rock'n'roll wolves."
NME (Magazine) (9/25/93, p.18) - Ranked #6 in NME's list of The 50 Greatest Albums Of The '80s - "...[PSYCHOCANDY drenches] the sweetest pop tunes in the most hideous racket..."
NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #27 in NME's list of the 'Greatest Albums Of All Time.'
Record Collector (magazine) (p.87) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[A] brash statement that guitars should be louder than vocals and that texture of sound was as important as the tunes embedded within."
