Why does Jesus and Mary Chain's 'Psychocandy' sound like crap?

Yeah, it's a shame. But MBV doesn't sound quite so bad.

Debito, MBV sounded horrible up until they signed to Creation and recorded Isn't Anything, which was only made possible by the earnings from Psychocandy. Psychocandy = 1985. Isn't Anything = 1988. There's no comparison.

MBV sounded horrible up until they signed to Creation and recorded Isn't Anything...

This is untrue considering that the Strawberry Wine, You Made Me Realise, and Feed Me With Your Kiss EPs all arrived before 'Isn't Anything'. Not to mention the 'Ecstacy' mini-LP which is excellent as well. Some people even like the stuff before it, but that Dave Coway singer is just wrong.

What he said. My god, why am I still awake?

Second, the vocals are way too upfront in the mix. Ouch. The drums sound like they're coming from down the hall.

The guitar sound is great of course.

That's why it's so great, in part. Yay!

You sensed a disturbance in the force, no doubt.

(PLease someone scrub my brain right now cause if you don't get the image of Bobby G in a bathtub out of my head RIGHT NOW I'm going to do no work at all today, and I'm going to be stuck in this office for the rest of time.)

no pics for you

can this be explained? you can't compare things unless they came out in the same year?? psychocandy's signal fault is that it all sound the same, and buys into boring drugs-and-shades-and-spector-beat mythology. isn't anything is kerlassic. there's the comparison.

So yummy, so chewy, the pop, naked Bobby G... aaaaaahhhh...

actually, it was recorded and released by a huge major label (Warner Brothers) with a fuckload of capital.

i remember seeing the posters seeming bigger than other typical posters, and looking at the overall band art, and thinking "this psychocandy is really getting the corporate marketing treatment".

i think stereo quality in their equipment was quite a lot more varied back then amoungst people, so suspicions like that from back then don't surprise me. The idea that stereo fidelity has something to do with it, i don't know that something like that could be used in the marketing today, as it was then.

Yes indeed. (He says while finishing listening to it.)

This wouldn't surprise me. I haven't heard "Psychocandy" on vinyl, but I have the "You Trip Me Up" single and it sounds INCREDIBLE -- 100X bigger and nastier and gorgeous than on CD. The vinyl grooves might be the widest I've seen ... that sucker was mastered LOUD.

I also think that the Peel Sessions versions of the "Psychocandy" tracks are far better than those on the album proper.

5 Jesus & Mary Chain re-releases
These remasters now £7.99 each, click on the titles to pre-order and to check the tracks: 'Automatic', 'Darklands', 'Honey's Dead', 'Psychocandy' and 'Stoned And Dethroned'. Released 10th July.

Of course, you know I'm going to buy them.

Anyone have any opinions on getting Psychocandy on Dualdisc (remastered) vs. the 180-gram vinyl release from Rhino? Decisions, decisions...

Dualdisc has the videos which are GREAT.

Anyone have any opinions on getting Psychocandy on Dualdisc (remastered) vs. the 180-gram vinyl release from Rhino?

first, this thread is a great read.

and because of that i broke open my dualdisc of Psychocandy. it's a must, if you own the 80's version of this CD. it's sound cleaned up without losing any of the dirtiness. what a album, one of the best ever!

because youre an idiot jerk

So quick with the insults? I thought we were discussing music here in a civil manner. Or is that kind of thing beyond your obviously low intelligence level? If so, please leave the board. Thanks.

I think that was his response to the thread title

yes. bimble you linked me to that thorn of crowns vid on youtube & will never be an idiot jerk in my book.

are the UK versions of their remasters dualdiscs or regular CDs? i hate dualdiscs.

Regular discs.

"Something's Wrong" came up on my ipod this morning. I had completely forgotten how utterly (and paradoxically) majestic that album could sound.

The only way to fully appreciate Psychocandy is via a cassette-recorded copy made in the studio of a university radio station, using an inferior turntable and the station's well-worn-to-the-point-of-whiteness-paler-than-the-Reid brothers' complexions vinyl version. (I later bought an official actual cassette and it didn't measure up.)

Psychocandy is today's 'seminal album' being given away with The Times / WHSmith

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/commercial/article4867507.ece

I think I only have this on napster-download-circa-2001 mp3 so I'll probably buy that.

It is supposed to sound that way. It's called "shoegazing". See also My Bloody Valentine, which is an even more typical example of the same.

> See also My Bloody Valentine, which is an even more typical example of the same.

you talk as if mbv only ever released one lp...

pls do not associate JAMC with lame MBV thx!

by the way the first post is cute

I don't think the record sounds like crap. But I prefer the band's sound on their early 12" singles. They have this three-dimensional/dub feel that seems to be missing from Psychocandy.

another day goes by me
another day, a month and a year
and as I look around me
I feel so lonely there's no one here
no one here beside me
no one here to help to see me through
to see me through
to see me through
'cause I need you
'cause I need you
been standing still for much too long
and I realise there's something wrong
I'm feeling strange, I need a change
and I realise that
there's something wrong
there's something wrong
there's something wrong
another two years over
don't understand what's happened to me
these days are so much colder
up against the fire, dont feel any heat
cracked up years behind me
cracked up years ahead are all I see
are all I see

pls do not associate JAMC with lame MBV thx!

I think the debt is pretty obvious and acknowledged.

Trivia: Douglas Hart has done the amazing visuals for the new MBV tour.

Also, MBV lame? No.

come on now

I think the debt is pretty obvious and acknowledged.

The debt went the other way, though, didn't it? Obviously MBV's debt to Jesus & Mary Chain was great.

Both owe a great debt to Velvet Underground, with the exception that JAMC were influenced both by the good Velvets tracks("Sunday Morning", "Candy Says" etc.) and the bad ones ("Sister Ray", "Heroin" etc.), whereas MBV were only influenced by Velvets at their worst and most noisy and unlistenable.

yes surely MBV gave nary a second thought to Sunday Morning how true

xpost, that is obviously what I'm saying.

regarding the direction of the debt.

Geir I honestly wonder how familiar you are with MBV. Very pretty melodies all over the place.

Fact: Psychocandy sounds best on scratched up vinyl through blown speakers.

Geir I honestly wonder how familiar you are with MBV. Very pretty melodies all over the place.

No idea. I have listened to their albums several times. I can hear there are melodies buried somewhere in there, but getting them into my head, which is obviously needed to judge them, is impossible because of that wall of guitar noise.

Smoke some weed first

some days I think the best thing JAMC ever did was get mentioned in the liner notes to Evol or which ever it was

I can't see how Geir would dislike "Sunny Sundae Smile" or "Lovely Sweet Darlene".

(ie Loveless is NOT THE ONLY THING THEY DID FFS)

maybe because he's a cloth-eared fuckwit

i never really had a problem with the sound of this record, mainly just the repetitive song structures and general lack of variety. i've reconciled myself to this though over the last few years and now love the record pretty much unconditionally.

so basically u foreced urself to liek it.

sorta deal

It sounds that way on purpose. I like "Darklands" better because it has the vocals more in the forefront of the production.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/santabot.jpg

well, the current live version of this album sounds absolutely bloody epic.
there are these huge basslines courtesy of phil 'lush/union jackson/etc' king, that i had never heard before tonights rendition in bristol.
i never heard the proper remasters, so have no idea if those editions revealed the bass.
and as for the drums.
wow.
i did not expect to be as impressed as i was.

Still trying (and failing) to “get” this album. I guess you had to be there.

i guess so, what is there to get? it is a good album.

Yeah, you'd have to listen to the top twenty of the chart, and the independant album chart for a bit, and then play it, and then you may have context.

I don't think it's needed, really.

Some might say "Darklands" is the better album now, but.

darklands isn't as distinctive but i certainly prefer it

21 Singles is all I need, really.

Happy birthday, Jim Reid.