Darklands - Jesus & Mary Chain (1987)
Ideated from: The Sevens, releases from years ending in 7.
Jim and William Reid stormed out of Scotland and into the shoegaze / noise rock / post-punk conversation in 1985 with their debut, Psychocandy. That record was pretty much all fuzz, all the time, with everything cranked to 11.
They didn’t change the formula a whole lot for their second album, but Darklands does have a little bit more headroom. The fuzz is dialed down to make way for more moody atmospherics. The live drums were replaced with a drum machine after their drummer quit, and it makes this a gloomier, doomier affair while still keeping the shout-along choruses and plenty of guitar.
It is somewhat fair to say that this record is really only three songs in slight variations. Nine Million Rainy Days and Deep One Perfect Morning are easy to confuse, as are Happy When It Rains and April Skies. But they’re all pretty high quality, and even though I’ve known this album for 30 years I shout along until I lose my voice.
