Darklands album cover
Darklands

The Jesus and Mary Chain

1987
Blanco Y Negro

The band formed by brothers Jim & William Reid will forever be best known for the fusing of 60s pop structures with searing noise on their debut album Psychocandy. And perhaps rightly so, as there was nothing on earth like it when it arrived. But their second album deserves as much attention, and proved they were the real deal once the noise died down. Following the departure of drummer Bobby Gillespie to form Primal Scream, they started using drum machines and toning down the distortion and feedback — a little, at least — leaving their songwriting to carry the record. And it REALLY does. Somewhere in the cracks between Ramones, The Beach Boys, The Shangri Las and Duane Eddy, they found a unique darkly romantic perfect pop archetype which perfectly suited their dour Scots voices and showed they were in it for the long haul.

Joe Muggs

Recommended by
Who also suggested

If you select your preferred streamer here, we will save your preference and link to that platform if possible. This can always be changed in the Settings menu.

Apple Music

If you’d like to prioritize Bandcamp if available, tap the Bandcamp logo.

Since some albums are only available on one service, you’ll still see logos for other services if the album is only available on that service.

Next