Music IS What Matters: The Jesus and Mary Chain-Honey's Dead (JHO Hall Of Fame)

When you read a lot of critic best of lists, you can almost guarantee a mention or nod for The Jesus and Mary Chain's debut album from 1985 "Psychocandy". It gets a lot of praise for being revolutionary in bringing the whole shoegaze-meets walls of guitars distortion-meets surfing sixties pop all wrapped into a snarling ball of wonderful sound. No one else was really doing this back in 1985 and the Reid brothers, William and Jim, helped push this album to the forefront with stunners like "Just Like Honey" and "Never Understand". So while "Psychocandy" stands as the "gem" in many eyes, I've gotten more enjoyment for the past two decades from their 1992 release "Honey's Dead". And here's a few reasons why I've always found it to be the red headed stepchild in their discography.

"I want to die on a bed of spikes/I want to die just like Jesus Christ"~Reverence. The lead off song from "Honey's Dead" got banned from the BBC. Wonder Why?

It was released in 1992 during the boom of grunge. A lot of college rock bands from the late eighties were being pushed aside for a new crop of cordorouy clanned artists that used angst ridden songs to get their message across. The Reid brothers answer was to bring in a great engineer, Flood, and producer,Alan Moulder, who did something to their sound. They cleaned it up....some, well maybe just a little. Sure the guitars kept buzzing but they never overtook the songs completely. And somehow, The Jesus and Mary Chain's sound became more sinister. Perhaps it was the use of live drums on some of these tracks instead of a drum machine which they had relied on heavily on their previous release "Automatic". Anyone who missed those buzzing guitars and feedback had enough here to keep them satisfied and anyone who wanted to know what great songwriting lied underneath got what they wanted as well.

"Did you get that pain?/Crawling up your spine"~Sugar Ray

The Reid Brothers

It's the songs that always bring me back to one of ten favorite albums when I was in college. The constant strain that holds these songs together is its unabashed intensity. The ballads never are droopy ("Good For My Soul" and "Almost Gold" with the lyrics "You're kiss was almost gold"). There are songs with very strong sexual overtones ("Catchfire" and "Teenage Lust" with the opening line "Skinny little girl, she's doing it for the first time".) The shoegazing anthems have you staring straight at the floor while wallowing in the extreme feedback ("Sundown" and "Tumbledown"). And the closest to straight up rock 'n roll songs bristle with tons of energy ("I Can't Get Enough" and the absolute stunner "Far, Gone, & Out"). My winning song has always been the plodding bass and excellent guitar solo that encompass the wonderful "Sugar Ray" which culminates each chorus with Jim singing sweetly "All I want is you.....". Of course the brash lyrical content of the opener "Reverence" may turn a casual fan off right from the beginning, but the snarling feedback and fantastic back-beat (a drum machine here) is enough to keep anyone on board willing to pay for the rest of the ride.

"Sometimes I feel nothing's good it's all gone wrong."~Rollercoaster"

I played these songs when I could on college radio until their next release "Stoned & Dethroned" mellowed things down two years later. A friend of mine who also worked at the station had the running joke of "Let's get the Jesus out" as a reference to a local classic rock stations "Get the Led out". Looking back, it was pretty un-PC but a great inside joke. The Jesus and Mary Chain also stands as the most sweaty and drunk mess of a concert I've ever been to when I saw them on their "Stoned and Dethroned" tour in 1994 at the Metropol in Pittsburgh. People were crowd surfing and pushing in the crowd. I just remember the Reid brothers looking pissed at every member in the audience the whole time.

"No one works so hard just to make me feel so bad."~Far Gone and Out

"Honey's Dead" became a cornerstone in my existence during my late teens and early twenties. Listening to it today brings back some "Late night driving back from the bar too late and maybe too intoxicated but thank God I've got the Reid brothers on the cassette player to keep me company til I'm home safely" memories. But those memories are what they are because of the enjoyment I squeezed from every ounce of feedback the JAMC provided. "Honey's Dead" remains my favorite album from them, maybe because it just flat out rocks. If I want something more ethereal, I'll listen to "Psychocandy". It's ironic when the band broke up in 1999, their last song committed to wax was the scathing and fed up attack on the music industry "I Hate Rock 'n Roll" from their "Munki" album. In 1992, the Jesus and Mary Chain had tried their hand at a fine "Rock 'n Roll" album that went kind of unnoticed but remains some fans personal aural treasure. And I'll take "Honey's Dead" any day of the week...."Heaven knows it's 'Good For My Soul', believe me."

"Far Gone And Out"