Scuzzy Logic
Davis Benedict / Melody Maker
06.06.1998
06.06.1998
The Jesus and Mary Chain
MUNKI
One day bay in 1986, your reviewer was a pallid teenager mired in the provinces and JAMC released a single called "Some Candy Talking". Rather as people claim to remember where they were when Kennedy was shot, I remember the exact occasion I became aware of this: digging the garden, probably for money.
Things were bad. But there, on wonderful Radio 1, were the Reid brothers denying with characteristic Glaswegian insouciance that said single had anything to do with the purchase of - gasp - drugs. As if. JAMC were scuzz messiahs. Radio 1 banned "Some Candy Talking" and I never looked back.
JAMC inherited the f***ed-up rock'n'roll glamour of Iggy's Stooges and The Ramones, and they had it in spades. They bludgeoned purloined riffola into three-minute speed freak pop anthems, and wreathed delicate but insistent melodies in beauteous squalls of feedback. There were riots at their shows. Before independent became indie and despite getting into bed with a major label, they were definitely anti-establishment.
In short, they rocked.
Twelve years on, we find Jim Reid still venting his spleen on "I Hate Rock'n'Roll": "I hate the BBC/I hate it when they're pissing on me". But "Munki" doesn't quite arrive like the cavalry. At almost 70 minutes, it's an overburdoned nag, hobbling slightly. This, after all is the band who only played 25-minute sets because "there's never been a group good enough to play longer".
Pare "Munki" down though (who needs fluff like the quasi-tr*p h*p of "Perfume"?) and overcome the dissapointment that "Dreamlover" and "I Love Rock'n'Roll" aren't knife wielding appropriations of the Mariah Carey / Joan Jett originals (you sure?-Ed) and the result is a credible single long-player.
They won't change the world this time, but they did once and that's more than most bands manage. If you don't own them already, go buy "Psychocandy", "Darklands" and "Barbed Wire Kisses" immediately. If you do, parts of "Munki" will remind you why you first fell in love with them.
It's good to have them back; miserable odd buggers.
(three and half stars out of five)
MUNKI
One day bay in 1986, your reviewer was a pallid teenager mired in the provinces and JAMC released a single called "Some Candy Talking". Rather as people claim to remember where they were when Kennedy was shot, I remember the exact occasion I became aware of this: digging the garden, probably for money.
Things were bad. But there, on wonderful Radio 1, were the Reid brothers denying with characteristic Glaswegian insouciance that said single had anything to do with the purchase of - gasp - drugs. As if. JAMC were scuzz messiahs. Radio 1 banned "Some Candy Talking" and I never looked back.
JAMC inherited the f***ed-up rock'n'roll glamour of Iggy's Stooges and The Ramones, and they had it in spades. They bludgeoned purloined riffola into three-minute speed freak pop anthems, and wreathed delicate but insistent melodies in beauteous squalls of feedback. There were riots at their shows. Before independent became indie and despite getting into bed with a major label, they were definitely anti-establishment.
In short, they rocked.
Twelve years on, we find Jim Reid still venting his spleen on "I Hate Rock'n'Roll": "I hate the BBC/I hate it when they're pissing on me". But "Munki" doesn't quite arrive like the cavalry. At almost 70 minutes, it's an overburdoned nag, hobbling slightly. This, after all is the band who only played 25-minute sets because "there's never been a group good enough to play longer".
Pare "Munki" down though (who needs fluff like the quasi-tr*p h*p of "Perfume"?) and overcome the dissapointment that "Dreamlover" and "I Love Rock'n'Roll" aren't knife wielding appropriations of the Mariah Carey / Joan Jett originals (you sure?-Ed) and the result is a credible single long-player.
They won't change the world this time, but they did once and that's more than most bands manage. If you don't own them already, go buy "Psychocandy", "Darklands" and "Barbed Wire Kisses" immediately. If you do, parts of "Munki" will remind you why you first fell in love with them.
It's good to have them back; miserable odd buggers.
(three and half stars out of five)
