The Jesus and Mary Chain

The duo - brothers Jim and William Reid - will further mark their 40th year in 2024 with an autobiography (published by Orion/White Rabbit) a major  European tour starting in Manchester on March 22nd.

 

‘Glasgow Eyes’ was recorded at Mogwai’s Castle of Doom studio in Glasgow, where Jim and William continued the creative process that resulted in their previous album, 2017’s ‘Damage and Joy’, becoming their highest charting album in over twenty years. What emerged is a record that finds one of the UK’s most influential groups embracing a productive second chapter, their maelstrom of melody, feedback and controlled chaos now informed more audibly by their love for Suicide and Kraftwerk  and a fresh appreciation of the less disciplined attitudes found in jazz.

 

Jim Reid says, “But don’t expect ‘the Mary Chain goes jazz.’ People should expect a Jesus and Mary Chain record, and that’s certainly what ‘Glasgow Eyes’ is. Our creative approach is remarkably the same as it was in 1984, just hit the studio and see what happens. We went in with a bunch of songs and let it take its course. There are no rules, you just do whatever it takes. And there’s a telepathy there - we are those weird not-quite twins that finish each other’s sentences.”

 

The album’s first single, ‘jamcod’, welds dark electronica with the immense guitar sound that can only be that of William Reid creating an instant Mary Chain classic that’s also undeniably fresh and radical.

 

‘jamcod’ and ‘Glasgow Eyes’ not only extend The Jesus and Mary Chain story, but feel simultaneously like a return to roots. From the incendiary ‘Psychocandy’ debut and its classic ‘Just Like Honey’ onwards, the Reid brothers steadily became the misfits who made good without compromise.