Darklands

by

The Jesus and Mary Chain

Edit

Darklands is pure genious - from the first note of the opening track to the very last sound of 'About You'. This is one of the albums I could not live without. While 'Psycho Candy' was a fantastic debut, 'Darklands' just blew me away. 'April Skies' and 'Happy when it rains' were two grandiose singles, released prior to 'Darklands', and there is not a bad song on this entire album. The first time I put this LP on my turntable was back in 1987 and I have listened to it at least once a month every year since then. Your CD collection will not be complete without this album !

In their first album "Psychocandy," brothers Jim and William Reid, the force behind JMC, experimented with sonics -- a buzzing chainsaw like sound, which was imitated by a myriad of latter-day bands (eg. My Bloody Valentine, Ride, The Raveonettes). The band basically cleaned up their sound with "Darklands," which is more-or-less a straight-forward melodic rock album, which contains what is perhaps JMC's signature song: "Happy When It Rains." In fact, one can hear the band basically repeat the melody of this particular song a number of times on subsequent albums.

The second best song on Darklands is probably "Down On Me," which is the only rocking number on the album. I love the guitar work on this track. The other standouts (though not really at the same level as "Happy When It Rains" and "Down On Me") are "Darklands" (the title track), "April Skies," "Cherry Came Too" (with a humorous tribute to the Beach Boys in the middle) and "About You."

JMC often uses double entendres, usually involving a sexual theme. Just look at two of the song titles: "Down On Me" and "Cherry Came Too" which have nothing to do with what you might think.

A number of the songs on "Darklands" speak of the pleasure and pain of being with the one you love. For instance, from "Happy When It Rains": "But Something about you felt like pain/ You were my sunny day rain/ You were the clouds in the sky/ You were the darkest sky/ But your lips spoke gold and honey/ That't why I'm happy when it rains." From "April Skies": "Hand in hand in a violent life/ Making love on the edge of a knife." From "Cherry Came Too": "Cherry takes me to the place above/ With barbed wire kisses and her love."

"Darklands" clocks in as a good, not great album, that would be clearly surpassed by "Honey's Dead," two albums down the road.