Music / Psychocandy

The album art, showing Jim (left) and William Reid (right) on the set of the "Just Like Honey" video

"We already had learned that kind of thing worked. If you could listen to "The Black Angel's Death Song" on the same record as "I'll Be Your Mirror," it worked then. So it's going to work again."

Jim Reid, discussing Psychocandy's contrast of noise and Pop ("psycho" and "candy") with Under the Radar Magazine, September 2015

Psychocandy is the debut album by Scottish Alternative Rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain and the Trope Maker of Noise Pop. It was released in 1985 through Blanco y Negro Records (in conjunction with Reprise Records in the US). The album combines the band's love of Phil Spector-ish "Wall of Sound" Pop with Velvet Underground and Einstürzende Neubauten's head-crushing noise, plus Jim Reid's Trope Codifying Perishing Alt-Rock Voice and a Punk Rock attitude of not giving a damn.

The record is considered the band's defining masterpiece. Along with Noise Pop, the album was instrumental in the development of Shoegazing, and it continues to be a pillar of Indie and Alternative music to this day.

Tracklist

Side One: A

1. "Just Like Honey" - 3:03
2. "The Living End" - 2:16
3. "Taste the Floor" - 2:56
4. "The Hardest Walk" - 2:40
5. "Cut Dead" - 2:47
6. "In a Hole" - 3:02
7. "Taste of Cindy" - 1:42

Side Two: B

8. "Never Understand" - 2:57
9. "Inside Me" - 3:09
10. "Sowing Seeds" - 2:50
11. "My Little Underground" - 2:31
12. "You Trip Me Up" - 2:26
13. "Something's Wrong" - 4:01
14. "It's So Hard" - 2:37

CD reissues also include "Some Candy Talking" (3:19) between "Taste of Cindy" and "Never Understand".

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I'll be your plastic trope for you:

• Alternative Rock
• Face on the Cover: The Reid brothers, taken from a shot from the "Just Like Honey" video.
• Meaningful Name: "Psycho" refers to the harsh noise and "candy" refers to the Pop melodies underneath it.
• Noise Pop: The album that kicked off the genre.
• Perishing Alt-Rock Voice: Trope Codifier with Jim's breathy, sleepy voice.
• Post-Punk
• Shoegazing: Ur-Example with its combination of dense walls of guitar noise, foggy atmospheres, low-key vocals, and pop melodies.
• Standard Snippet: The distinct "dum du dum tsch" drum beat that kicks off "Just Like Honey" was originally a Shout-Out to The Ronettes' "Be My Baby," but has since been used by just about every indie rock band.
• Three Chords and the Truth: Underneath the noise, the music is very simplistic, sometimes not even bothering with a third chord. As described in the booklet included in The Power of Negative Thinking, the Reid brothers were more concerned with the feel of the music than technical ability.

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