For a decade in which the discovery of clean future-speculative sounds of synthesisers began to define pop music, it seems strange that such a noisy album would rise to prominence. It’s influences are just as unorthodox as it’s arrangement and as such has allowed it to remain as one of the biggest unintentional influences to the shoegaze genre, as well as alternative rock as a whole.
Taking influence from pop and rock groups such as The Beach Boys and The Velvet Underground, as well as girl groups such as The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las, Psychocandy is the essence and melody of 60s pop pushed through the overdrive of punk rock. And by pushed through the overdrive of punk, I mean pushed to it’s very extent. The Jesus And Mary Chain’s detached pretty-boy attitude was seldom seen in British music at the time and ignored the sheen of new wave in a raw demeanour, making it the perfect visual counterpart to the band’s sound. If the “less is more” attitude was gospel in punk rock, then in The Jesus And Mary Chain it remained a sacred text.
The sound of Psychocandy is mainly typified by heavy layers of feedback, achieved through use of distorted fuzz and reverb pedals. With this, the album unfolds into a divide between slow, melodic songs juxtaposed with fast, energetic punk tracks. The album’s two opening cuts remain the best example of this. The opening track, Just Like Honey, drenches you in walls of fuzz as feedback-laden chords ring out through the song. It’s beat, unmistakably lifted from The Ronettes’s Be My Baby, ensures a gentle pop melody upon the track, mirroring the harshness of the track’s fuzz-generated white noise. It all comes to a head when the guitars phase out and only the drums and “It’s just like honey” chorus can be heard. It almost feels like you’re being rewarded with a time to rest after being walked through the album’s most intense emotional buildup. Waking you up from Just Like Honey’s distorted gentleness is the crashing chords of The Living End. Three chords, ear-splitting white noise and an attitude to melt Lou Reed’s heart is all the song needs to juxtapose it’s melodic predecessor. Psychocandy’s sound hits you like a blanket of cold water. It crashes in a way that soothes you in one breath and gets your blood rushing in another.
When reflecting on the past 35 years since the release of Psychocandy, it isn’t hard to see the niche influences it’s had on alternative rock as a whole. The album’s flurry of feedback and fuzz would go on to define the “wall of sound” guitar philosophy in the shoegaze movement. Some of the genres biggest bands, such as My Bloody Valentine, Ride and Slowdive would take the Psychocandy guitar sound, played alongside dreamscape melodies, becoming the defining sound of shoegaze. The band’s style in general would also become visually iconic to many bands from the early 2000s alternative rock scene. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Kills and The Raveonettes would all mirror The Mary Chain’s dark detached appeal and introduce it to a new generation. The album would even inspire Richard D. James started making electronic music as Aphex Twin, but of course only as refuge from how “bloody awful” he thought it sounded.
Psychocandy is a rare occurrence. It takes a popular concept and imbues it with enough niche and interesting ideas to shoot it off into an entirely different space. With bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth taking influence from it’s guitar sound, it’s fair to say that Psychocandy essentially set up the foundations for the bands that gave guitar music one of its last breaths of fresh air. Psychocandy’s abrasive white noise might not be for everyone, but those who can appreciate it will also appreciate how The Jesus And Mary Chain pushed 60s bubblegum pop into punk overdrive and inadvertently influenced an entire niche genre as a result, with that influence remaining untapped to this day.
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