Music > Album Reviews

The Jesus And Mary Chain - Damage And Joy

22/03/17

In their early years, JAMC released some of the most thrilling, visceral music ever. In the ten years between the release of third album Automatic and disbanding in 1999 in a fug of sibling rivalry, bad drugs and bad attitudes, the Reids released a series of ever less exciting LPs. With hindsight, those later albums were far from bad, just not as brilliant as the earlier work. Having reformed a decade ago, this has taken a while and half of the tracks have been heard before in the Reids' post-JAMC work or on sibling Linda's Sister Vanilla album. So, it is with some trepidation that I approach this comeback LP. I needn't have worried. The Mary Chain always combined seemingly disparate sounds. Velvets/Stooges proto-punk met Shangri-Las harmonies, acoustic strumming mixed with no-wave distortion and feedback, krautrock rhythms and rockabilly riffing. All this - and more - are here. Opener Amputation even has a touch of spacerock synth and the duets with Isobel Campbell and Linda Reid are delightful. So, does this match the classic Mary Chain of Psychocandy? No, it doesn't. If anything, it is better. There may be nothing as electrifying as Upside Down but, taken as whole, this is possibly the best album JAMC have released.

10/10