The main takeaway I got from this album is that the likes of the Stone Roses really didn’t do anything that novel at all. Compared to the previous Jesus And Mary Chain album, this one is a lot lighter in tone, more jangly (if still distorted) guitars, and more vocals in a higher and melodic register. There’s still some of the New Wave style deeper register vocals, still some of the more ponderous and chugging guitar riffs, but what it feels like here is that the Reid brothers have taken a lot of inspiration from Sixties pop or folk-rock and utilised that for the melodies. Damn you, Crosby!
Compare, for example, the melody of the track Darklands with that of Haight-Ashbury hippy anthem San Francisco by Scott Mackenzie, or Cherry Came Too to anything by the Beach Boys. There’s not a clear and direct comparison, but once you hear it you can begin to recognise bits and pieces of the Sixties to the vocal melodies. This is very much a step towards the sounds of the early Nineties Indie, kind of a modernising and updating of psychedelic era music.
Lyrically the tracks usually move to a repeated phrase for chorus purposes, but throughout the albums there’s a rainy theme - Happy When It Rains (not the Garbage one), Nine Million Rainy Days, even April Skies at a pinch.
Really liked this one.
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