Darklands

This album was beautifully tragic. The songs on this album definitely take you to some darklands. Even though the lyrics are melancholy I enjoyed their cool sound and his voice. I definitely liked this album more than I thought I would. Some of my favorites were darklands, deep one perfect morning, and happy when it rains. New favorite band for me.

Now this is the Chains I like!

(3/5) I definitely liked this album more than their other on the list. That one sounded like they were transmitting it from a low power AM station with two rocks and two tin cans joined by string.. bad. This one drops a bunch of that shtick and lets their music come through better. It's not my favorite type of music and I group it with the bunch of overrepresented styles/genres of music on this list, but in the totality of the list this is OK. Middle of the road for this type, and not offensive. I even found myself bobbing my head for a few of the middle, faster tracks.

Turns out that when they drop the wall of noise that they hid their music behind on the last entry, they sound a little bit better and more tolerable. Not great by any stretch, mind you, but MORE tolerable. Now I can hear the "jangly" guitar sound that is their signature much more clearly in order to discover I'm not a big fan of that, either. Sill, it's a 2.5 that I'll round up in order to differentiate before never listening to more of them.

213. Darklands - The Jesus And Mary Chain (1987) 9.23.26 Variety: 4 Adequacy: 5 Listenability: 5 Uniqueness: 4 Emotionality: 3 = 4.2 rounded down to a 4 "And you...and me/ Will win...you'll see/ People die in their living rooms/ But they do not need this God almighty gloom" Once again it's nice to be able to go through an artist's discography in order. The Jesus and Mary Chain only have the two albums on the list, and we've already hit Psychocandy, which I absolutely loved and which garnered a 5-star rating. I never made it very far back in the day with the band, with Psychocandy being the only one that kept popping up on lists. After the recent listen I did jump ahead to their most recent release from 2024 - Glasgow Eyes - and thought it was pretty decent for a bunch of old dudes. Very much looking forward to hearing this one for the first time, but who knows maybe I will recognize a random track from somewhere. I'm most curious to see where in the world they could go after that debut, which seems to have influenced many of the bands we've recently had a run of - Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine... THE TRACKS Side one "Darklands" - Right away it's VERY noticeable that these guys have toned the noise WAY down. There's still some fuzz and plenty of reverb, but it's not as overpowering and feels much more like what the bands who imitated them ended up sounding like. At least production-wise. They still have the 60s girl group but played in slow motion sound, maybe with a bit more jangle and a touch even of psychedelia. To be honest, I hear the shoegaze influence of bands like Mazzy Star more so than the my Bloody Valentines in that the noise to sugary bubblegum melodies are much more in balance. I like the full spectrum of that stuff though, so this is no problem for me. Fine stuff here, and glad they opened with a winner. "Deep One Perfect Morning" - There's that Shangri-Las beat, and maybe some Velvet Underground thrown in for good measure, with the drone and the vocals coming in on the low end. The guitars remain bright and ringing and jangly as all get out though, and while it's got a pretty dead center momentum without too many dynamics, the guitar keeps things on the rails, and this one ends up being a great bit of lazy atmosphere. "Happy When It Rains" - More poppy and uptempo, this one sounds much more of its time. I would compare it favorably to mid 80s Ramones, who had a similar harder edge laid over top of their still very bubblegum pop melodies. But it has that echoey, sparse 80s production that everyone around this time seemed to be drawn to, from the Cure to Roxette to Love and Rockets to New Order. This is as mainstream as I've heard these guys, and I don't hate it. "Down on Me" - We get some surf rock sounds in both the beat and the guitar work on this one that once again manages to give off some Ramones vibes ( compare this to their cover of "California Sun"). And I love me some upbeat music in combination with downer lyrics. The flavor this time is paranoia and pessimism in the light of a what might just be bright days ahead. "Nine Million Rainy Days" - We get a slow motion pop number about the deep dark depths of a obsession, and with appropriately low key vocals. I think I might have pointed this out on teh last album, but when you take these and play them at 1.5 speed the poppy song structure becomes even more apparent. This one, more than some of their others, almost sounds like it was written at a normal speed and then just slllllooooooooowwwwwed down. The sugary sweet pretty melodies still come across, and make the dark subject matter and downer vibes all the better for it. It's like a piece of cholocate covered bacon, where the savory and sweet combine into something you could not think could ever taste as good as it actually does. Dig those "woo-woo-woo" backing vocals low in the mix. Loved this. Side two "April Skies" - Harder and more driving, this one feels like another stab at a more mainstream sound. The bass and guitar here are especially crunchy and with the toe tapping up to normal speed beat I could see this one as being strong lead single material. ( edit: I checked, and it was indeed the first single off the album - and would be the highest they ever charted in their career). "Fall" - The sound gets slightly bit more epic hear with the guitars, and someone turned the reverb knob up to the Peter Murphy setting. Instrumental-wise, everything sounds a lot clearer though, which is a nice dynamic. What of the Smithereens decided to play at a goth night show maybe? Still digging this evolution though. "Cherry Came Too" - More slow motions Ramones by way of the Beach Boys, with some jangle pop mixed in. I can even hear a bit of the Cult in here as well, especially their softer side. Still very pretty, and the sameyness of the overall sound has not yet started to wear on me, which is an excellent sign. But still maybe good that we're nearing the end, as I could see that being an issue with a long run time. "On the Wall" - This was fine, and seemed to look more towards the Velvet Underground repetitious drone model, and stayed pretty in the pocket without ever straying too high or low. For that reason, it doesn't reach as high as some of the other stuff, and I wish teh ending had soared upwards after a build, which would have pulled it up with the rest. "About You" - We end on a really different sound, this time going full on soft and gentle, and is more akin to some of the lighter stuff by the Cure or even by the La's. I really liked the juxtaposition of this sound with everything that came before, and even the lyrics are sweet and more than a bit optimistic. And I didn't detect any notes of sarcasm either, which was nice, and could very well have been a version which would not have sat well with the sincerity on display elsewhere. This makes me want to re-listen to the Peel Sessions Talking EP where they perform some acoustic covers of stuff off of Psychocandy. HIGHLIGHTS - "Darklands" - "Deep One Perfect Morning" - "Happy When It Rains" - "Down on Me" - "Nine Million Rainy Days" - "April Skies" - "Fall" - "Cherry Came Too" - "About You" MIDLIGHTS - "On the Wall" LOWLIGHTS FINAL THOUGHTS At barely under 36 minutes, this was just the right amount of time to soak in this vibe of very pretty, very downbeat 60s inspired poppy alt rock. What it lacked in the atmosphere and electricity of the debut, it made up with a clear focus, and a very damn solid track list of catchy, pretty pop songs that made the effort of meeting a more radio-friendly sound halfway at least. I'm sure there had to have been some conscious effort here to court some more popular appeal, but they also don't go full on dumb either, and still sound exactly like the Jesus and Mary Chain. I really love it when a great band evolves I can find more nooks and crannies to explore, and be surprised by how different can still be good. I would not say they played it safe so much as they just looked around and did some level setting. All that said, as much as I did like this, it was most definitely did not have the lightning in a bottle feel of the first one. And that's ok. I think a much younger version of myself could only have been disappointed if a band didn't follow up a 5 star masterpiece with another one, but I think over the last few decades I've learned to accept that greatness a lot of the time is accidental, even for the best bands. There are very few artists in any media that are able to maintain a string of works that all are better than the previous, and come out the other end with perfect runs. Even the Beatles had Beatles for Sale. Possible turn-Offs might include: - droning guitars - downbeat lyrics - slooooooow rhythms - some reverb - repetitious song structures You Might enjoy this if you: - love 80s Ramones - dig some wall of sound dynamics, but not so much as on their previous album - like the perfect mix of mainstream, radio-friendliness, and 80s dark, alt vibes - enjoy simple, 60s'-ish pop melodies PLAYLIST ALTERATIONS - Nah. FURTHER LISTENING Precursors: - Bo Diddley by Bo Diddley - Leader of the Pack by the Shangri-Las - Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys - The Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground & Nico - Leave Home by Ramones - Power, Corruption & Lies by New Order - Juju by Siouxsie and the Banshees Contemporaries: - Echo & the Bunnymen by Echo & the Bunnymen - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me by the Cure - Sonic Flower Groove by Primal Scream - Strangeways, Here We Come by the Smiths Descendants: - Isn't Anything by My Bloody Valentine - You're Living All Over Me by Dinosaur Jr. - Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins - Souvlaki by Slow Dive - Smile by Ride - Take Them On, On Your Own by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

I enjoyed this album much more than the first The Jesus and Mary Chain album we had, “Psychocandy,” which I gave a 2. Once they dropped that wall of muffled sound I found out they’re a pretty good band when I can hear them. Let's also get this out of the way, the obligatory use of the term "jangly" as in "These guitars are hella jangly." or "The guitars on this album lead with their jangly foot." And even: "Knock, knock." "Who's there?" "Jangly guitars." Okay. Now, I gotta say I could let this mood wash right over me. "Happy When it Rains" and "Nine Million Rainy Days" were just perfect to listen to on walks during this first few days of fall, as the weather turns cool and the clouds gathered to gray out the sky. Yeah, I get it now. 4/5

Kul. Vaguely sm familiar, ker mam podedovano ploščo, ampak prou zares jih pa nism neki poslušala. Všečno, zelo specifičen vajb & zvok majo. Škoda sicer za drum machine, čeprav po drugi strani pa pripomore k vajbu. Pomoje ga bom še poslušala, sploh zj jeseni, ker atmosferično paše.

60s + shoegaze. Not great not terrible

Some songs were not too bad but this album mostly felt like background music to me, may have been the listening medium but alas

Liked the overall vibe but nothing crazy stuck out to me

Major dad rock energy. Unfortunately for this album, I am not a dad, so it'll lose a couple points there. Maybe I'll revisit in a couple years and change my tune. Otherwise I did enjoy the album.

Sympa mais pas bien marquant

The album has a nice feel to it that carries from track to track. I really want to hit four stars but it doesn't quite rise to it for me.

these guys love the rain, wasn't bad just not for me

**an ok, easy listening album

I'm not to familiar with Jesus and Mary Chain but so far they seem pretty chill. Moody and catchy songs, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this album.

I've heard of these guys before but never really knew much about them. The sound is somewhat interesting, but the songs never really went anywhere for me. Just nothing that exciting worth grabbing onto.

I've never heard of this band, and I put off listening to this because I thought they were a Christian band. But this slapped, and I am pleasantly surprised.

Nothing to write home about. A bigger fan of their first album, without the more shoegazey guitar feels like it is really missing something

I couple of the jawns on this were pretty cool, but kind of droned on. Mellow in a good way, but like I mentioned, kind of got a bit bored with it. Coincidentally, liked Psycho Candy and a lot of the same critiques applied. Just appreciated the gloominess of that record more, I guess.

A million times better than their other album on the list (psychocandy). But all that took was not adding an irritating abrasive screeching at all times. Still not very impactful for me. But just fine.

Great great great

Moody and melodramatic alternative, but in a way that is fairly pleasant to listen to. Is a little too one-note, but does capture the vibes of a cloudy/gray day well. Perfect album for a rainy day spent inside. Top tracks: Deep One Perfect Morning, Happy When It Rains, April Skies

Good old fashioned Shoe Gaze! I know and like The Jesus and Mary Chain, so knew what to expect. Some minor hits here, too - April Skies and Happy When It Rains. Easy album to have playing in the background or in the car. A nice, comfortable 3.

I found this very dull to the point of annoyance. Something about it seemed soulless and a little almost clinical, almost like they were just going through the motions. That made me unreasonably bad tempered on the drive in this morning so for that it is a 1.5 , maybe a little harsh but a second listen later in the day of the title track confirmed it.

Teenjus

Never heard before. Liked very much. Will be adding to my playlist.

If I remember Psychocandy correctly, Darklands is a more straightforward rock record as opposed to the shoegaziness of their debut album. I can feel the influence this album had on modern bands all through this album. There is less reverb here and I think that is what made Psychocandy stand apart initially. Part of me prefers this album though, as it is less reverb but it feels more musical in some ways. Darklands seems like a more mellow record compared to Psychocandy as well. There is more acoustic instrumentation and the sound is slightly less abrasive. I think it works pretty well, though the back half of the album may be too mellow for me in some spots. "Darklands" is a great start to the album and introduction to the sound change from Jesus and the Mary Chain's debut album. "About Me" was also a great (and mellow) way to end the album. My favorite tracks: Darklands Happy When it Rains Down on Me Nine Million Rainy Days April Skies Cherry Came To About You

This is a fun little album and I really like the singers Lou reed esque vocals This album is very transformer sounding which I love I do think this album gets worse as it goes on but overall very solid 3.5 or 4/5 Favorites: happy when it rains, deep one perfect morning

The fact that it's so shoegazey is a good and bad thing. It has an easy, comforting sound but it just kind of floated there forever and got a little boring

The cure came on after these guys, they’re way better

Absolutely impeccable stuff. Here I was thinking The Jesus and Mary Chain was all feedback and noise so I braced for the squeal as I pushed play on this one and to my delight it was nothing but incredible postpunk. Gives glimpses of Echo and the Bunnymen.

Inegavelmente oitentista, mas com uma alma intrínseca totalmente atemporal. Conteúdo lírico poético e riquíssimo, com uma sonoridade temperada da mais doce nostalgia e saudade deslocada. Disco que deve ser ouvido ao ar livre. Parece que ele casa-se muito bem com os elementos da natureza, seja estes ventos quentes e secos, ou brisas marítimas, ou a luz solene da Lua. Talvez seja um caso onde, acima de tudo, o som de Darklands é libertador. Não há ambiguidade nenhuma ao senso pastoral e no contato com o divino. Está no nome da banda! E em menções constantes nas letras. Impossível desvincular essas conotações, e elas adicionam muito ao som esperançoso do álbum. Maravilhoso. 5/5

Never really liked this band: but shrouding their catchy melodic lines in hazy feedback and thick shoegazey wall of sound, with moody low vocals works. Spooky sugar rush melancholia.

Fun commercial pop that somehow didn’t land on the U.S. charts, though it definitely could have.

*Tokes cigarette and winks at camera* Nice.

Amusingly grim at times but some lovely tunes.

Enjoyed this one

Surprised at how little this did for me sadly

Nice easy listening album. Very Stone Roses-esque though this may preced them. Nothing mind blowing either but solid record

*1987. Scottish alt rock. *I really enjoyed this! It definitely sounds more early-mid 90s than 80s. *Despite having never heard this before, it sounded nostalgic and like it should be in a John Hughes movie. *Slightly moody post-punk, similar to Echo and the Bunnymen, the Cure, Joy Division. RATING - 7.5/10

Britain during the 60s: she loves you yeah yeah yeah ✌️😜 WOOO!! Britain during the 80s: you know I actually like the rain 🫩

I've heard of this band many times, but I've never listened to any of their albums. I guess from context I was thinking they were more like My Bloody Valentine. This record is pretty soft and jangly, although the vocals are a bit morose. I guess that was the idea. Anyway, I liked it. It's good for what it is, as they say.

To steal from another reviewer "It sounds like the first time you fell in love". Maybe that's true or just my romantic version of teen love in a 80's movie. Either way, what a perfect vibe.

Darn. Daylight saving time is back. I was really enjoying pulling these albums at 1:17 PM down here in Straya. Guess I've gotta go back to waiting until 3:00 PM like the cucked soymunculus I am. I hope and I pray that GQD EMPERQR TRVMP changes his tune and makes standard time mandatory everywhere in addition to enstating a policy which requires all time nonconformists to pay with their lives. Did I really add biting and topical political satire to my review of this cool ass album? Am I making a self-deprecating nod to such a shameful display rather than simply removing the remark in question? Am I existing on a plane of self-deprecation previously unknown to man by self-deprecating my self-deprecation? Fuck you. This is my review, bitchesssssss. Anyways, I've seen this album cover while perusing the book. Pretty fucking cool, if I do say so myself. However, I've no clue what genre such an awesome album cover could belong to. I'm thinking a dense rock album similar in style to that of "Endtroducing" by DJ Shadow, though 1987 seems much too early for that. Likewise, this album cover appears to be far too moody and refined for an early grunge/alt rock outing, so I'm seriously stumped as to what this could be. Hmmmmm. Hrmbbbbbbb. I'm drawing blanks. Moody, nocturnal, rock album of a nondescript genre it is. Here goes. Alt rock and post-punk? I should have knownnnnn. This wasn't bad! Dare I say, I thought it was cool - a feat which is admittedly owed in large part to the aforementioned badass album artwork. The jangle poppy guitars took some getting used to along with the slow-moving, surprisingly earnest musical style, though I successfully got into the groove of this album by the time I was crossing the finish line. Admittedly, many of these songs are quite formulaic, though their foundation is solid thanks to the steady, growling guitars and dramatic post-punk percussion. The breathy vocal style that persists throughout a lot of UK 80s music used to be pretty high up on my musical shit list, though this book has thankfully broken that barrier down for me, and I can now appreciate how it meshes with the earnest style of the music. All in all, yeah. This was a nice listen, though my lack of interest in the first half of this albums keeps me from bumping it to a four star rating. Perhaps on a future listen. Book time. Critics had been begging Jesus and Mary Chain to split following the release of their debut album "Psychocandy" as it was too good and couldn't possibly be followed up. That's amusing. Between the release of Psychocandy and Darklands, the band released the non-album single "Some Candy Talking", which catapulted the group to stardom and "...had lines forming outside record shops on the day of release." The singles from Darklands achieved similar success. The album marked a pivot within the band's sound and style in addition to being a highly varied release. The book entry closes with "The first half of the 1980s had seen rock sliding into middle age; now the Mary Chain had shown exactly what it was capable of, and the world was listening." Wikipedia says this album uses drum machines following the departure of Bobby Gillespie, who had left the group to form Primal Scream. Critics were favourable, and the album performed respectably on the charts. It charted in eight countries and notably peaked at No. 161 in the US, No. 20 in New Zealand and No. 5 in the UK. Yeah, I'm on this album's side. Were it yet another jangle pop album I'd likely be singing a different tune, though I thought the album was commendably varied and unique. I cosign this inclusion.

Just not good

Decent shoegaze

Незаконно скрытый в тени более распиаренного альбома Psychocandy. Гениальный, атмосферный второй альбом, классика шугейза и почти что идеальный саундтрек золотой осени.

I'll admit I assumed this was going to be dumb. At least dumb to me as some similar stuff on this list hasn't hit me just right. Darklands has a soul I wasn't expecting. Maybe it's my mood today but I could see listening to this over and over.

3/5

Pretty goood shoeglaze album

I wanted to get there with this album. There are just too many slow repetitive pieces. They did at least keep the album relatively short, but it felt like they didn't get a lot done with the time they had.

Gave this 2 in other group, re-listened, enjoyed. Upgrade from 2 (bleh) to 3.49 (meh/yeah)

Nice of them to decide to make actual music for this album. It's not very interesting music, but it beats the noise from Psychocandy.

p576. 1986. 4 stars. Well done and brooding 80s Brit Goth/alt rock. Point deducted for being single paced, but on the whole this is fine.

For something called dark lands the music feels very upbeat, but this is a great album!

Favorite songs: Darklands, Deep One Perfect Morning, Happy When It Rains, April Skies, Cherry Came Too, About You

het is niet saai maar het is gewoon niet interessant

Wildly mid

This was not my thing when it was released back in the '80s, but I gave it a listen in 2026 and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some quality 1980s new wave / alternative music.

It sounds pretty old but good.

I liked this, it was surprisingly catchy, but I prefer Echo and The Bunnymen.

Just okay for me

My favorite J&M chain album 4.5/5.

Just two years after Psychocandy JAMC strips out all of the noise and feedback to uncover the same simplicity of the songs, but none of the swagger. It's still good, but can not approach the greatness of Psychocandy.

Didn't know this band really other than by reputation, but fairly cool.

Veldig fint album

It's a mysery to me why this album is on this list. What did they do or in what kind where they so special. For me this is typical 80s pop/rock. Nothing, nothing and nothing at all is special about them. I am not saying that they are bad but simply an average band from that time.

Miserable, moody music for goths. It's alright if you like that kind of thing, although Cherry Came Too is weirdly Beach Boys or pop. I didn't enjoy this as much as their other album on this list, Psychocandy.

DIdn't know this, but I like it.

Quite liked this

No tan bueno pero definitivamente esta banda es un clásico.

De paso, nada memorable, pero no por eso es que carezca de calidad Personalmente no me llamó la atención pero si veo que tiene si personalidad en cuanto el lado del post punk o shoegaze Ameno, no el más reescuchable dentro de la lista de álbumes hasta ahora

OK - first time listening. Needs a few more listens I think

post punk/alternative rock. Non male

Their first album is A LOT better. This one removed the distortion and left the pop elements, effectively castrating their sound.

reheated velvet underground nachos

Not bad, but it didn't really blow me away. Happy When It Rains is a nice song. The others just sort of blended together for me. Just wasn't in the right mood for it today, so I'll give it some slack.

I don't know but I never bought this. I should have done. I loved it.

Wasn't really paying much attention to this... but I guess it didn't GRAB my attention. Still enjoyable

This was decent. Ok. I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it.

middle of the road for me Will I listen to again: 10%

Made me reminisce about the soundtrack of "Lost in Translation" (2003). It would fit there perfectly. Nice sound.

Pretty good 1980s goth pop, if kinda one dimensional.

Well, this is definitely easier on the ears and head than their debut "Psychocandy", and far more mainstream too. I appreciated both of these aspects, but also realized that without as much ceaseless droning and wall of noise with each track, they're not quite as distinctive either, for good and bad. The first two tracks (title track and "Deep one perfect morning") are an interesting detour from the rest of the album, in that they're slow and morose, but from "Happy when it rains" onward (with the exception of "Nine million rainy days"), it's just jangly guitars and virtually indecipherable lyrics, which apparently excited their fans, but I'm hard pressed to recall any of it, aside from their big hit "April skies". I appreciated this album more than "Psychocandy", but I'm not sure I particularly enjoyed it.

Emo Beach Boys are fun, fun, fun.

I wanted to give this a two, but will admit the fact that the album wasn’t available on my streaming service impacted it. I had to listen to every song one at a time and it was all annoying and disjointed.

Not bad for background listening, but I doubt I'll put it on again

сильно не осознала, но нормальный такой, шотландских акцентов не слышно)

I would like the opportunity to never be in the Darklands. 2/5

I love the band just from knowing a couple of singles so was nice to dive into one of their albums. I had an excellent time, 'Darklands' quite poppy, and expected more of this style. Then immediately you hear the baritone on the second track as we get get a bit more baritone all the way into into 'Fall'; the darkest track on the album, and probably the best. It's a bit post punk, a whole lot of Stone-Roses and it's massively 80's all at the same time. A new classic for me.

Pretty mid

I know it was the 80s but sounds like it could have been a 90s movie soundtrack! Which isn’t a bad thing tbh

Middle of the road indie album.

35 mins of rock solid indie rock. So good and it doesn’t even contain Just Like Honey!

A surprisingly enjoyable listen. Especially whilst being inside with such terrible weather listening to "happy when it rains" Atmospheric and powerful I found myself coming back for more, this will probably become a feature of many more evenings!

I enjoyed a lot of this album. The vocals are great for the style. The guitar and bass has a sound that became used a lot by other artists. And everything is done to an excellent degree with one exception: the lyrics. The lyrics straight up sound like an “I’m 13 and this is deep” post online. They’re so cheesy and corny I can’t give this album higher than a 3. If they had a halfway decent lyricist, this album would have been incredible. Sadly, they did not.

vibe moody, rock old school, un po' monotono

Far too mellow and boring for my liking. Zero bangers

🫤 This album is for fat chicks named Amy (that really didn't want to go to the prom anyway).