The Jesus and Mary Chain
Darklands


4.5
superb

Review

by STOP SHOUTING! USER (28 Reviews)
April 7th, 2009 | 68 replies


Release Date: 1987 | Tracklist

Review Summary: "We looked so good. We tried so hard. We lived our lives in black."

With their shambolic fifteen minute live sets, playing with their backs to the audience, stage(d) riots, clichéd shades and leather jackets, The Jesus and Mary Chain were the archetype of indie cool in the mid to late 80s. Their seminal debut album Psychocandy, flinging together the sounds of The Beach Boys, The Velvet Underground and The Sex Pistols, was voted no.1 in the NME end of year poll. Though the album had some awesome tracks, such as Just Like Honey and Never Understand, the ferocious guitar feedback coupled with some briefly sketched songs meant the second side especially didn’t lend itself to repeated listening.

However, their breakthrough top ten hit Some Candy Talking introduced the themes that were to dominate their follow up album, sex and drugs: “I’m going down to the place tonight, a dark and hungry place, where all the stars shine in the sky, can’t outshine your sparkling eyes.” The influence of The Rolling Stones had supplanted The Sex Pistols. The songs were much more complete, the feedback was dropped, as was the drummer, one Bobby Gillespie, who went on to front Primal Scream.

In particular, this album is about infatuation. Every song is infused with a desperate yearning for someone who is out of reach: “I have ached for you, I have nothing left to give” (Nine Million Rainy Days). This leads to a kind of existential despair: “Life means nothing. All things end in nothing" (Darklands). But if life has become meaningless, there is still some kind of beauty and purity that can be achieved by going down so deep and so low, by plumbing the depths: “I’m sitting here warming to the coldness of things” Jim Reid muses in Deep One Perfect Morning.

This gothic romanticism reaches a crescendo with the album’s lynchpin, the brooding Nine Million Rainy Days, stealing from The Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil: “Nine million rainy days have swept across my eyes thinking of you, and this room becomes a shrine thinking of you, and as far as I can tell, I’m being dragged from here to hell.” He feels as if he is sacrificing himself, like a form of martyrdom: “I would shed my skin for you, would break my back for you” on the stomping, almost jaunty Happy When It Rains, a UK hit single.

Sexual and drug related imagery are used interchangeably throughout. Just as the desire for someone he can’t have is corrupting the soul, so the need for drugs is corrupting the body. The sex in these songs is always forbidden and dangerous: “making love on the edge of a knife” while the guitars swirl on another UK hit single, the breathless April Skies; “barbed wire kisses” and female masturbation “scratching like a grain of sand, a trigger itch in the killer’s hand” on the urgent Beach Boys flavoured Cherry Came 2.

With the last few songs there is at last a sense of redemption, of making it through to the other side. The masterful On The Wall implies that only time itself can heal the pain. “There’s something warm about the rain, there’s something warm in everything, there’s something warm and good about you”, he croons in relief in About You, accompanied only by an acoustic guitar and tambourine.

With this album, JAMC seemed on top of the world. The controversy and promise of their first album had been converted into critical acclaim and commercial success, with this second album producing two of their three hit singles. They had also spawned the new Shoegaze movement, with bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr trailing in their wake. Strangely, this was as good as it got. None of their future records achieved any kind of airplay and they seemed to drop like a stone from the public radar. The transatlantic sound of their third album, more amphetamine fuelled than the heroin feel of this album, alienated their UK fanbase, who had in any case moved on to Madchester (Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses) and the Rave scene.



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user ratings (505)
4
excellent


Comments:Add a Comment 
AliW1993
April 7th 2009


7511 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Pretty good review, especially for a first. I've been trying to get into JAMC, but tbh I think the feedback just sounds awful, maybe I'd prefer this.

STOP SHOUTING!
April 7th 2009


791 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Cheers Ali. I agree with you on the feedback on Psychocandy, although it does work on some tracks such as "Never Understand."

kitsch
April 8th 2009


5117 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

anyone who doesnt like feedback is obviously not indie enough to listen to the album in the first place.





good review, this band is awesome.

Merkaba33
April 8th 2009


703 Comments


Yeah I didn't like Psychocandy much. I might still check this out though.

BallsToTheWall
April 8th 2009


51550 Comments


I've heard this band mentioned quite a few times. I will go check this out tomorrow. Nice review sir.

AggravatedYeti
April 8th 2009


7683 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

I've gotta listen to this again

limit spins on my friends vinyl. I'll go buy it...*grumble*

nice review tho -- pos.

STOP SHOUTING!
April 11th 2009


791 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Merkaba, if you like the slower songs on Psychocandy like Taste of Cindy, Just Like Honey, Some Candy Talking, you will like this.

LotteMae
August 13th 2010


3 Comments


I love Darklands. My English teacher got me into it when I was a wee boy.

Has anyone seen this? It's super cool:

http://www.gazoomy.com/search.aspx?theme=Jesus%20And%20Mary%20Chain

rcalixto
August 16th 2010


1 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

melhor album do jmc , maravilhoso

foxblood
December 5th 2012


11222 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

probably the best band ever

foxblood
February 19th 2013


11222 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

been thinking about 5'ing this

PunchforPunch
May 2nd 2013


7085 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

I WANNA MOVE I WANNA GOOOO

qiblas
November 22nd 2013


458 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

My first and favorite JAMC album

joesmoe4000
June 10th 2014


679 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

One of the most Underrated Albums Ever.

nylertickel2
October 21st 2015


262 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Better then Psychocandy

Ocean of Noise
January 9th 2016


10971 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

This album is so chill. Really good stuff.

heck
January 19th 2016


7197 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Better than Psychocandy [2]

Mystletainn
January 19th 2016


4049 Comments


nah

joesmoe4000
January 20th 2016


679 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Better than Psychocandy [3]

heck
January 20th 2016


7197 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

I love them all and they're really close but this one has just stuck with me more tbh



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