Tuesday 4 May 2010

'Psychocandy' - The Jesus & Mary Chain (1985)


“Walking back to you
Is the hardest thing that
I can do”


My mum once asked me for the defining moment in my life. My reply was ‘Psychocandy’.

The day it came out I was 14 and couldn’t afford it. So I convinced my friend Christopher to buy it down Our Price that weekend, claiming that it was the greatest thing he was ever going to hear. This was a lie as he was very much the school’s King of Funkadelica. But he went with my recommendation. And hated it. And sold it to me a day later for 50 pence.

I’ve since bought it again many times over in every format, but that very first vinyl copy remains a treasure to me. How many teenage hours were spent looking at that sleeve while the songs rattled and screeched through my tinny, tiny speakers? You weren’t there, so can’t possibly answer that, but you get the idea. It was lots.

Here were four scraggly men. In black. With the most wonderful fringes. Look! That’s me. In my New Town home. Thinking I’m not alone. And the songs all burst into life on a squeal of feedback, spat out only half-intelligible thoughts about tripping people up, and then crashed to an end. All in two minutes. Why wasn’t Nik Kershaw doing stuff like this?

I’m quite sure ‘Taste of Cindy’ was the first song I heard from the album – on a free Record Mirror (or somesuch) flexi-disc that my older cousin Grant played me – so I have a huge soft spot for it. But my favourite remains ‘Just Like Honey’. I always imagined using it in the climax of a film. What? Oh.

I’m feeling bad about Christopher now. Don’t worry, I’ll pay him back properly next time I see him.

Spotify linky:

2 comments:

  1. I'm going to add a comment to my own post.

    How great is that album sleeve? Mighty fine. Wish I hadn't bent the corner. How very unlike me.

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  2. well, that's two of us that free single had that effect on - I think it was actually Mat's but it didn't have quite the same effect on him

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