On November 18th, 1985, The Jesus and Mary Chain, helmed by brothers Jim and William Reid, released their breakthrough debut LP Psychocandy—which featured the singles:
“Just Like Honey” (Which famously used the opening drum riff of The Ronettes‘ “Be My Baby“.
“Never Understand”
and “You Trip Me Up”
The album also included Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie on drums, who had passed on the band’s demo tapes to Creation Records founder Alan McGee.
Psychocandy is one of the best albums of the 1980s and laid some of the groundwork for the shoegaze genre that would emerge in its wake.
On the album’s sound, frontman Jim Reid explains:
“We planned the whole record for years. Even before the songs existed, we’d just sit around talking about the music, the album. At the time we were listening to sixties pop and eighties noise—I’ve said this so many times but it’s true, we pretty much wanted to do a song with both Shangri-Las pop and the production values of Einstürzende Neubauten. Like if the Shangri-Las were backed up by a noise band.”
Tracklist:
- Just Like Honey
- The Living End
- Taste the Floor
- The Hardest Walk
- Cut Dead
- In a Hole
- Taste of Cindy
- Never Understand
- Inside Me
- Sowing Seeds
- My Little Underground
- You Trip Me Up
- Something’s Wrong
- It’s So Hard