Engineering The Sound: The Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy
Cast against the backdrop of a conservatively regressive political climate, Psychocandy’s amalgamation of melody and extreme noise bucked against prevailing notions of popular taste. Paired with churning feedback, its bubblegum teen angst represented a much-needed rebuke to the hollowness of mid-80s pop, the stagnancy of rock, and the unambitious post-punk landscape. The Jesus and Mary Chain’s debut was the wake-up call for a generation of artists and fans.
But it wasn’t just a ticket to Top 40 success. For Jim and William Reid it was a form of sonic escapism. Melding their disparate reverence of 60s girl groups, classic rock and Einstürzende Neubauten, the Scottish brothers from East Kilbride boldly sought to correct contemporary popular culture’s failure to provide an escape from their bleak suburban existence. An eruption of noise-pop underscored by punk idealism, Psychocandy cemented the Reid brother's place in music canon, elevating them from relative obscurity into a worldwide phenomenon.
Psychocandy was completed in six weeks on a modest budget of £17,000. Within their North London studio, the group took an almost perfectionist approach, a far cry from the drug-fuelled excess of their notorious live shows. “At the time, we made that album totally sober” bassist Douglas Hart told The Quietus in 2011. “We used to put a lot of this mad, drunken energy into the gigs with this pent-up anger that was kind of a, ‘If we don’t do this, we’re gonna die’ attitude. So when it came to making the record, we were very conscientious and not drinking and not getting wasted.”
“We weren’t aiming for a record that comes out in 1985 and then be forgotten in 1990” Adams revealed in the same interview. “We wanted to make a record that, if you heard it 25 years later, it wouldn’t sound like a 25-year-old record. And if it appealed to little spotty anoraks in their bedrooms like we were, that was good enough for us.”
Few could deny that the group have achieved their goal. Of all JAMC's recorded works; few come close to their captivating and influential debut. So great was the demand for their classic material the quarrelsome brothers reunited to tour in 2015, playing the album in its entirety. While it might be all but impossible to pour over every minute of the group’s production, here are five key elements which shaped the group’s distinctive debut.
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