The Jesus And Mary Chain: Glasgow Eyes
FUZZ CLUB (All formats)
22nd MARCH 2024
The Jesus And Mary Chain return four decades after they first set the music world alight. And they’ve lost none of their fire or fury, says a satisfied Tim Cooper.
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Arriving 40 years after that landmark debut album Psychocandy, and probably about 40 minutes since the last bust-up between brothers Jim and William Reid, it’s hard to know whether Glasgow Eyes is a fresh start for the Mary Chain – or just the latest chapter in alt pop’s second-most high-profile sibling soap opera.
Glasgow Eyes is the first proper album the feuding siblings have made since their final bust-up back in 1998 which occurred, fairly typically, in the middle of a gig in the middle of a song. Since then they’ve reunited for the 2017 release Damage And Joy (a mixture of new tunes and re-recorded solo numbers) and kept the fighting to a minimum, if only by dint of living 5,000 miles apart – William in Arizona and Jim in Devon with his partner and kids.
Not that it’s all peace and love, maaan. By all accounts recording of the new album did not pass entirely smoothly, as evidenced by each brother recording contributions in their before (or maybe after) they got together at Mogwai’s Castle Of Doom studio in Glasgow with today’s Mary Chain members – Mark Crozer on bass, Scott Von Ryper on guitar and Justin Welsh on drums. As has become their custom, there are female guest vocalists too: one-time Rezillos/Revillos frontwoman Fay Fife on opening number Venal Joy and Jim’s partner Rachel Conti on Girl 71, taking the roles occupied last time around by Isobel Campbell and Sky Ferreira.
Opening number Venal Joy sets the tone by reminding us of the sheer antisocial noise that debut made back in 1984 – a noise that I distinctly remember feeling I had not heard since the first time I heard the Pistols and Ramones; guitar as a weapon of mass aural destruction. Venal Joy’s fuzzed-out and fucked-up intro, channelling The Living End, doesn’t quite have the same impact but it’ll make you check your speakers aren’t about to blow or short out.
It leaps out of the speakers with its scuzzy electronic throb, all glitchy synth noises and distorted guitars around Jim’s languid vocal, proclaiming: “I’m on fire, piss on fire… don’t piss on fire.” What does it mean? Who knows or, honestly, cares. Fay Fife adds her dulcet tones to his tired rasp as he promises, perhaps in a mission statement that this album will reach completion: “I won’t give up and die”, assuring us that: “I’m all right, I’m OK. Well OK, I’m all right.”
It’s a powerful opener, and one that sets the tone for an uncompromising album on which the duo seem determined to demonstrate that age has not withered them, nor doused the fire that burns in their bellies. Things slow down with American Born, a disconcertingly gentle number that sounds like Suicide with its chimes and music box melody, with Jim surely singing William’s words: “I drink with Americans, I live with Americans” as his brother peels off a beautifully Velvety guitar arpeggio.
There’s another female voice somewhere deep in the mix at the beginning of Mediterranean X Film, muttering about “live transmission… revolution” before Jim makes another declaration about historical figures: “Churchill and De Gaulle, Berlin and the Wall, The Bunny boys and The Fall, I think I love them all.” Perhaps peace and love really has broken out in the Reid family after all. “Looks like I love everyone,” he adds, though the darkness of the music suggests otherwise.
And then comes the first single and the standout track Jamcod, with its narrative of a disastrous gig by our heroes. “The monkey’s organ grinder isn’t grinding any more,” sings Jim, “And I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve had this dream before.” When William’s chainsaw guitar comes in, fuzzbox and volume turned up to 11, it hits like a sledgehammer. It’s magnificent.
If the rest of the album doesn’t quite live up to its front-loaded opening quartet, well that’s not to say it disappoints, just that it moves in mysterious ways and turns in different directions. Discotheque’s driving bass reminds us of the motorik rhythms of Neu! with added squawks of synth, while Silver Strings is almost pretty, with a hypnotic pulse and a nice melody, and the light relief of Second Of June in which the brothers finally find peace with a reflective Jim inquiring: “Brother can you hear me calling you?”
They’re a contrast to Pure Poor with its sluggish, lurching rhythm and discordant drone, as if the musicians had been numbed with ketamine, and the slow, dramatic Chemical Animal references the old songs – Just Like Honey and Some Candy Talking – with its Spector drum beat, whirring synths and an insistent one-note guitar solo (none of yer fancy two-note Buzzcocks virtuosity here).
It’s not all great: The Eagles And The Beatles is surely some sort of joke, with its Joan Jett riff borrowing blatantly from I Love Rock’n’Roll and daft lyrics about “hanging with the Stones – Charlie Watts and Brian Jones.” You wouldn’t be surprised if they run into Ringo at the bingo before the end. And the closing track, Hey Lou Reid, seems like another kind of in-joke with its experimental air of Velvets-referencing strangeness straightening out towards the end.
When it works, it works as well as you would hope. It’s no Psychocandy, but how could it be that? Men of 60 don’t make transgressive records like that. But brothers of 60 do have a sibling kinship that results in a symbiosis when they finally get together. “Our creative approach is remarkably the same as it was in 1984 – just hit the studio and see what happens,” says Jim. We went in with a bunch of songs and let it take its course. There are no rules, you just do whatever it takes. And there’s a telepathy there – we are those weird not-quite twins that finish each other’s sentences.”
TOUR DATES:
MARCH
22nd – UK, Manchester, Albert Hall (SOLD OUT)
23rd – UK, Manchester, Albert Hall (ADDED DATE)
25th – Ireland, Dublin, Olympia
26th – UK, Belfast, Limelight 1
27th – UK, Edinburgh, Usher Hall
29th – UK, London, Roundhouse (ADDED DATE)
30th – UK, London, Roundhouse (SOLD OUT)
APRIL
2nd – Denmark, Copenhagen, Amager Bio
3rd – Sweden, Gothenburg, Pustervik
5th – Norway, Oslo, Rockefeller
6th – Sweden, Stockholm, Munich Brewery
7th – Sweden, Malmo, Plan B (SOLD OUT)
9th – Germany, Hamburg, Markthalle
11th – Germany, Berlin, Huxleys
12th – Germany, Cologne, Live Music Hall
13th – France, Paris, Elysée Montmartre
15th – Switzerland, Geneva, L’Usine
16th – Switzerland, Winterthur, Salzhaus
17th – Italy, Milan, Alcatraz
19th – Austria, Krems, Donaufestival
20th – Germany, Heidelberg, Halle O2
21st – Netherlands, Tilburg, Roadburn Festival (HEADLINERS)
23rd – Belgium, Brussels, AB
24th – Netherlands, The Hague, Paard
25th – Luxembourg, Den Atelier
MAY
11th – USA, Pasadena, Cruel World Festival
24th-25th – Spain, Madrid, Tomavistas Festival
AUGUST
14th-17th – Portugal, Paredes de Coura
~
More of Tim Cooper’s writing at his Louder Than War author’s archive and at Muck Rack. He posts music daily at EatsDrinksAndLeaves.com.
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The Eagles and the Stones is one of the best tracks on there!
“I’ve been rolling with the Stones
Mick’ n’ Keith and Brian Jones
Bill and Charlie have gone home” etc
It’s clearly tongue in cheek and serious at the
same, giving props to their influences which
they’ve done throughout their career, the Pistols,
the Crystals, the Beach Boys etc but no mention
of the Eagles. And it’s a crackin’ singalong tune!!
let me preface my review by saying. I Love the JAMC, huge fan since psychocandy, saw them on that tour in Detroit. it was groundbreaking, amazing and fun. they sucked in the best way of sucking. I have since seen them on almost all the tours they had. I could not wait for the new album to get back into the amazing lyrics of Jim and the feedback of Williams guitars. I f n love these guys. they rocked me into a new world with their music. So good, so damn good. This album however is terrible. Yes it pains me to say this. its awful the only good songs on this album are JAMCOD- Pure boy -Chemical Animal- second of june. everything else is pure garbage.