The Jesus And Mary Chain
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN – Benchmark Debut LP ‘PSYCHOCANDY’ Came Out 40 Years Ago Today
Significant longplayers from the past
18 November 2025
Scottish post-punk pop heroes THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN (1983–1999, 2007–present),
formed by Jim and William Reid, released their benchmark debut LP PSYCHOCANDY on
18 November 1985, today 40 years ago.
Its combination of guitar feedback and noise with traditional pop melody and structure proved influential on the forthcoming shoegaze genre and alternative rock in general.
Critics have noted the influence of classic 1960s pop groups, such
as The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones, alongside the work of legends
like The Stooges, The Velvet Underground, and Suicide.
It peaked at #37 in the UK and became a long-time selling LP.
NME said: “A great searing citadel of beauty whose wall of noise,
once scaled, offers access to endless vistas of melody and emotion.”
Singles: Never Understand / You Trip Me Up / Just Like Honey
– NEVER UNDERSTAND –
– YOU TRIP ME UP –
– JUST LIKE HONEY –
ALBUM
BIG BLASTS FROM THE PAST – 10 Classic Albums Turning 40 In 2025
Back in time
24 December 2024
Band: NEW ORDER
Album: Low Life
Their 3rd one,
#7 in the UK.
Melody Maker said: “The album boasts the most articulate sound
since The Cocteaus’ Treasure, elevating depression to ecstasy.”
STREAM
Instagram – All Albums
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Band: THE POGUES
Album: Rum Sodomy & The Lash
2nd LP, #13 in the UK.
The album’s title is taken from a quotation attributed to Winston Churchill:
“Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.”
NME wrote: “A collection of free-ranging stuff to be sure. It’s never
sentimental, it’s rarely polite, and it’s certainly not ordinary.”
STREAM
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Linktree – All Albums
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Artist: TOM WAITS
Album: Rain Dogs
9th LP,
#188 in the US,
#29 in the UK.
The Village Voice wrote: “Waits worked out a unique and identifiable lounge-lizard
sound that suits his status as the poet of America’s non-nine-to-fivers.”
STREAM
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Instagram – All Albums
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Band: THE FALL
Album: This Nation’s Saving Grace
8th longplayer.
AllMusic: “This collection is ample proof of the pure confidence the group had
at this time. The Fall sound mysterious, down-to-earth, and hilarious all at the
same time.”
STREAM
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Instagram – All Albums
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Band: THE CURE
Album: The Head On The Door
6th one, #7 in the UK.
Pitchfork: “Their most focused
pop album. A tight, terrific package.”
STREAM
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Instagram – All Albums
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Artist: BRIAN ENO
Album: Thursday Afternoon
AllMusic: “Thursday Afternoon is an hour-long, uninterrupted ambient piece
created in Eno’s “holographic” compositional style, in which even the most brief
snippet of music is representative of the performance as a whole.”
STREAM
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Instagram – All Albums
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Band: TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS
Album: Southern Accents
Their 6th LP,
#7 in the US.
AllMusic: “An ambitious album, attempting to incorporate touches of soul,
psychedelia, and country into a loose concept about the modern South.”
STREAM
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Linktree – All Albums
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Band: THE CULT
Album: Love
Their second LP,
# in the UK.
AllMusic: “Considering the musical schizophrenia that would plague each
subsequent Cult release, Love just may be the band’s purest moment.”
STREAM
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Instagram – All Albums
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Band: THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
Album: Psychocandy
NME said: “A great searing citadel of beauty whose wall of noise,
once scaled, offers access to endless vistas of melody and emotion.”
STREAM
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Instagram – All Albums
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Band: HÜSKER DÜ
Album: Flip Your Wig
4th longplayer
#1 Indie charts UK
AllMusic: “Flip Your Wig would be a remarkable record on its own terms, but the fact that it followed New Day Rising by a matter of months and Zen Arcade by just over a year is simply astonishing.”
STREAM
JESUS AND THE MARY CHAIN Half JIM REID Names The Band That Inspired Him To Form A Band Himself
(photo by Turn Up The Volume)
No Jesus and The Mary Chain without the Ramones.
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN – Pysch Pop Legends Have Brand New Biography ‘NEVER UNDERSTOOD’ Out
8 September 2024
Legendary psych-pop brothers Reid who made indie history under their musical moniker THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN launched their 8th LP Glasgow Eyes last March, and have now a brand-new biography out, titled NEVER UNDERSTOOD.
Press info: “For 5 years after they’d swapped sought-after apprenticeships for life on
the dole, brothers William and Jim Reid sat up till the early hours in the front room of their parents’ East Kilbride council house, plotting their path to world domination over endless cups of tea, with the music turned down low so as not to wake their sleeping sister. They knew they couldn’t play in the same band because they’d argue too much, so they’d describe their dream ensembles to each other until finally they realised that these two perfect bands were actually the same band, and the name of that band was The Jesus
and Mary Chain“.
The rest was not silence, and picking up those conversations again more than 40 years later, William and Jim tell the full story of one of Britain‘s greatest guitar bands for the very first time – a wildly funny and improbably moving chronicle of brotherly strife, feedback, riots, drug and alcohol addiction, eternal outsiders and extreme shyness, that also somehow manages to be a love letter to the Scottish working-class family.”
Order info here.
JAMC: Instagram
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN – Scottish Bros Present A New Lazy Tune Titled ‘POP SEEDS’
New striking strokes
5 September 2024
Scottish post-punk bros Jim and William Reid aka THE JESUS
AND MARY CHAIN launched their 8th LP Glasgow Eyes
last March.
JAMC are still quite popular after all their years but
rather because of their past, than their present.
New single artwork
Pitchfork wrote:“What’s different about Glasgow Eyes is not the form but the tenor. As they advance into middle age, the tension between the Reid brothers has dissipated, giving Glasgow Eyes an unusually congenial spirit.”
Ahead of touring North America this fall they just dropped a new track
called POP SEEDS. A lazy psych pop tune, sounding familiar from the get-go.
TOUR North America
JAMC: Instagram
The JESUS AND MARY CHAIN Half WILLIAM REID Is A Big Melody Fan
31 July 2024
William loves to sing/hum/whistle along.
(photo: back cover of their ’21 Singles’ compilation)
No Expiration Date For THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN As They Prove With Flair On Their 8th Album ‘GLASGOW EYES’
23 March 2024
Scottish post-punk legends Jim and William Reid aka THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN have been around for ages, although they only made/recorded 7 studio LPs in their 40-year career (with an 8-year hiatus between 1999-2007). But, wait, here’s their brand new 8th
one, titled GLASGOW EYES is out now.
Photo by Mel Bulter
Pitchfork: “Beneath its electronic veneer, Glasgow Eyes sounds curiously settled. The synthesized arrangements are something of a sleight of hand, disguising how the Jesus and Mary Chain aren’t abandoning their old obsessions; they’re still singing about longing and decadence. Ultimately, what’s different about Glasgow Eyes is not the form but the tenor. As they advance into middle age, the tension between the Reid brothers has dissipated, giving Glasgow Eyes an unusually congenial spirit.”
TUTV: No expiration date for the Reid Bros, yet. With Glasgow Eyes they come up with a solid tunes-stuffed record, many young bands would sell their souls for. It’s The Jesus And Mary Chain by numbers, rad numbers that is. They added a lot of synth structures to their music here, but still sound as crystal clear, as polished and as vocally glamorously smooth as ever, even when they rock out with their familiar flamboyance (Venal Joy / American Born / jamcod / Girl71 with its Lou Reed‘s ‘Vicious‘ riff). It’s who they are, it’s what set them apart.
The presence of Krautrock-like electronics is at its best on stylized grooves Discothèque, Silver Strings, and Second Of June, while vintage TJAMC psychocandy pop is audible on Pure Poor, Chemical Animal and The Eagles and The Beatles (citing 60s icons Stones, Beatles, Small Faces, Bob Dylan and more). And to close the album and their appetite for the swinging sixties we get a, and makes you wonder why.
Final verdict: the Glaswegian brothers Jim and William Reid still have
that desirous look in their eyes to create most entertaining pop pizzazz.
Singles/clips: jamcod / Girl71
– JAMCOD –
– GIRL71 –
ALBUM
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TJAMC: Instagram
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN – Memoir ‘NEVER UNDERSTOOD’ In August
7 March 2024
After 41 years (with a hiatus between 1999-2007) and (only) 8 albums Scottish
psych-pop heroes THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN will have their memoir out,
titled NEVER UNDERSTOOD on August 15. Pre-order info here.
It’s written by the bros, Jim and William Reid, assisted by author Ben Thompson.
Weird, when they started out their goal was to never be understood and now they write
a book about never being understood. Make your minds up, guys. Legendary band, of course.
TJMC: Instagram
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN Share New Track ‘GIRL 71’ With A Vicious Lou Reed Riff – New LP On March 22
New striking strokes
24 February 2024
Photo by Mel Bulter
Scottish pyschocandy brothers Jim and William Reid aka THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN have been around for ages, although they only made/recorded 7 studio LPs in their 40 year career (with an 8-year hiatus between 1999-2007).
But as announced some time ago the brothers will make their fans go nuts soon with
their 8th one, named Glasgow Eyes. It was planned to come out March 8, but due to
vinyl production problems the release date is pushed back to March 22.
To make up for the wait, JAMC dropped new track #3.
With GIRL 71 they do what they do for many years now,
writing simple, catchy psych-pop tunes.
I’ll eat my hat up if the bros say they didn’t pick
that fat riff from Lou Reed’s Vicious classic.
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All 3 singles
TOUR 2024
JAMC: Instagram