lambchops's Full Review: Honey's Dead by Jesus & Mary Chain
It has taken literal months of effort to come to a conclusion about my thoughts of Jesus and Mary Chain. I came into my exploration of Honey’s Dead with limited exposure to the noisy, sometimes experimental rock band (my only previous knowledge of the band was through The Crow soundtrack). And as such, I entered with an open mind.
Jesus and Mary Chain formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1984 and didn’t disband until founding member William Reid left in 1999. Envisioned by brothers William and Jim Reid (both guitarists and vocalists), the band combined elements of avant-garde, punk, and pop from the get go. While they never made a major breakthrough in their fifteen-year career, the band did inspire on some level a host of other acts ranging from Dinosaur Jr. and Boo Radleys to Catherine Wheel and Lush.
The only two constant forces in Jesus and Mary Chain were the Reid brothers. Drummers, guitarists, and bassists came and went as the years passed, but the founders stayed for the long haul. The band is most easily characterized as post-punk British alternative rock. But more succinctly the term “shoegazing” fits just as neatly. Basically, Jesus and Mary Chain were a part of the British scene that incorporated distorted noise, gloom, and ambiance into their music. “Shoegazing” bands like Jesus and Mary Chain stood in one place and as the name suggested showed little emotion aside from simply staring at their shoes.
Over the course of a decade and a half, just six albums were released by the Reids and company. Some were great, but at worst the band slapped together an average album. It was with 1985’s Psychocandy that Jesus and Mary Chain their goal crystal clear. The tight blend of pure pop and Velvet Underground made for an enticingly strange kind of song. They went through a few incarnations including the radio-friendly Darklands (1987) and the unfortunately mediocre outings Automatic (1989), Stoned & Dethroned (1994), and Munki (1998). Admittedly, I’ve yet to hear all of the albums but it is safe to say that the most perfect albums came earliest in the band’s career.
Sandwiched between rather forgettable slices of mediocrity is 1992’s Honey’s Dead. Monti (from Curve) replaced the drum machine on most occasions while the majority of the work was put on the shoulders of the Reid brothers (vocals, guitar, and even production). Celebrated engineers Flood (U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Depeche Mode, New Order, Erasure) and Alan Moulder (Ash, The Cure, Curve, Lush, nine inch nails) functioned nicely in the context of this, the band’s eagerly awaited fourth album. While not perfect, Honey’s Dead represents somewhat of a return to creative form for Jesus and Mary Chain. The twelve songs run the gamut between aggressive, noisy pop-rock to stylized, earthy classic rock n’ roll, but there are a few problems. Most notable is that the songs lean heavily toward becoming monotonous. The beats at times seem somewhat contrived. But on the whole, Honey’s Dead is an above average outing almost certainly worth owning.
Reverence is immediately impressive with the kickoff lyric: I wanna die like Jesus Christ. Once the band has your attention, they whack away with a lovely backbeat, thick electric guitars and an incredibly up-tempo melody. Reverence is easily one of the top songs of Honey’s Dead.
Progressing, Jesus and Mary Chain both pleases and disappoints. Teenage Lust is theoretically decent, but badly executed. It is slow, boring, and is forgettable when compared to many of the other songs. Among those better tracks is upbeat pop-rocker Far Gone and Out. The jangle-rock works nicely and is sonically similar to songs like Divine Thing from Soup Dragons. While it isn’t the most genuinely creative efforts, it is nonetheless worth partaking in.
Almost Gold and Sugar Ray are also worth hearing. The former is a whimsical journey though territory that would later be categorized as Brit-pop. The melody is sweet, the vocals subdued. When synths join the lightly strummed acoustic and electric guitars it is clear that this was a natural direction and effortless progression for the band. Sugar Ray returns to thumping, whirring rock n’ roll. But what makes the sound different and more appealing is the use of a drum machine. Some lesser bands rely too heavily on such metronomic pace, but Jesus and Mary Chain uses the synthetic noise to their advantage…and it works wonderfully.
Tumbledown doesn’t prove as pleasurable as other drum-machine driven songs. The beats are thick and strong, but when paired with a characteristically loud guitar the purpose of the song seems muddled and in the end is lost. There are far worse things out there on other albums to complain about, but I have to split hairs. Jesus and Mary Chain presents better material here and elsewhere. Suffering similar fates are equally disappointing tracks Catchfire, Frequency, and Sundown.
Others aren’t so unfortunate. Good For My Soul is a lovely pop track, though it won’t appeal to most true fans of the band because it doesn’t represent the loud, noisy variety of music people are used to hearing from the Reids. Rollercoaster and I Can’t Get Enough are also fairly entertaining. Rollercoaster is a fast, jangly pop-rock track while I Can’t Get Enough is unquestionable one of the best of Honey’s Dead. The latter seamlessly blends punk attitude with radio-friendly melodies, vocals, and beats. I can’t get enough of I Can’t Get Enough.
Honey’s Dead is a good quality CD. Despite the fact that Jesus and Mary Chain is generally seen as relatively gloomy, I don’t get that vibe from the album. What I hear instead is a more developed band that reminds me (don’t laugh) of Jesus Jones with a significant leaning toward rock. Honey’s Dead is a good place for listeners to begin their journey through the Jesus and Mary Chain discography.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Track Listing:
01. Reverence
02. Teenage Lust
03. Far Gone and Out
04. Almost Gold
05. Sugar Ray
06. Tumbledown
07. Catchfire
08. Good for My Soul
09. Rollercoaster
10. I Can’t Get Enough
11. Sundown
12. Frequency
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