This is a pretty cool one, I got it from a Cure collector a few months ago who was unloading a bunch of bootlegs and had this with the rest of his albums even though he didn’t really like it. The disc is kind of worn, so I’ll be hunting around for a cleaner (cheap) copy in order to spruce it up a bit…but I don’t think you see a lot of signed album covers by the Reids floating around. I know there were other guys in the band, but personally I feel like since they started as a brother-brother songwriting partnership those two are the core. Right? Does it matter if Bobby Gillespie signed your JAMC album? Wouldn’t you rather have his signature on Screamadelica or XTRMNTR? I know I would. Whatever. I paid $35 for this and I thought it was a steal.
Before you get all, “Dude you don’t even like JAMC” on me, consider this: One of the very first records was Blues From A Gun, which I got from Ian as a “welcome to collecting!” gift. He also gave me a Canadian pressing of Violator, a Canadian pressing of Donovan’s greatest hits, a Canadian pressing of Plastic Ono Band and he tried to give me a copy of the first Black Rebel Motorcycle Club record, but it was warped so I told him I didn’t want it. I was apparently already a snob. That’s a $100 record now, so I guess I did him a favor by letting him keep it.
As far as the group’s studio albums are concerned, I’d put Darklands just behind Honey’s Dead in terms of my favorites. Psychocandy is alright but to me it’s always been “Just Like Honey” and then a dozen or more songs that kinda lose my interest after a while. The terse (by comparison) 10-track Darklands feels more realized and less meandering. Plus, you know,
The Jesus & Mary Chain
Darklands
(Warner Bros. – 9 25656-1, 1987)
A1. Darklands
A2. Deep One Perfect Morning
A3. Happy When It Rains
A4. Down On Me
A5. Nine Million Rainy Days
B1. April Skies [MP3]
B2. Fall
B3. Cherry Came Too
B4. On The Wall
B5. About You
