2017 has become a memorable music-year now already, and we're not even halfway through. The new albums by Slowdive and Ride made my heart beat just a little bit faster than this one, but DAMAGE AND JOY by THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN is destined to end up in my top 10 list of this year as well. Even though it's 19 years since their last album Munki was released, nothing much changed. Which is not extremely surprising, as some of these songs are actually quite old and have previously been released in other versions, like for solo projects of the Reid brothers. All Things Pass was for example on the soundtrack for 'Heroes' in 2008, while Song For A Secret and Can't Stop The Rock were on a 7" by Jim Reid and Sister Vanilla in 2005. Sister Vanilla being the artist name of Jim and William's sister Linda, who's also contributing to a few songs on this album, just like Sky Ferreira, Isobel Campbell and Bernadette Denning (William's girlfirend) do. The album's filled with catchy, distorted, noisy, fuzzy tunes with (sometimes a bit too) simple lyrics and rhymes; and showing an attitude that even as men in their late 50s, they still don't give a fuck. In other words: JAMC exactly as we know (and love) them.
Label: Artificial Plastic Records
Cat.nr.: APR001LP
Year of release: 2017
SIDE A:
01. Amputation
02. War On Peace
03. All Things Pass
04. Always Sad
SIDE B:
01. Song For A Secret
02. The Two Of Us
03. Los Feliz (Blues And Greens)
SIDE C:
01. Mood Rider
02. Presidici (Et Chapaquisitch)
03. Get On Home
04. Facing Up The Facts
SIDE D:
01. Simian Split
02. Black And Blues
03. Can't Stop The Rock
