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The Jesus and Mary Chain: “Never Understand” b/w “Suck” 7” (Blanco Y Negro, 1985)
The Jesus and Mary Chain has a new album out this week. I hate to say it, but I haven’t listened to it yet. There are a lot of Jesus and Mary Chain records I haven’t listened to. They’re a band I’ve always liked, but aside from the odd listen to Psychocandy or Honey’s Dead during a shift at the store, I haven’t listened to them much. But a while back I came across a stack of their singles and they seemed really cheap, so I bought them all. The earliest in the stack was “Never Understand,” their 3rd single from 1985, and I’ve been having a bit of a moment with it.
The night I first listened to it, I was playing a bunch of new to me singles, and that was probably the 8 or 10th single I’d listened to that night. As tends to happen, the volume knob crept higher and higher with each record to where I was really blasting them. And then I threw on “Never Understand” and it just peeled my fucking face off. The guitar tone on this record is downright audacious, as wild, brutal, and insane as anything Confuse, Negazione, or Disclose put to tape. I love blasting a record like this and just bathing in noise, and “Never Understand” gives me that sensation. I’d always associated JAMC with the softer, gauzier sound of “Just Like Honey,” but the production on this single is knives out, going straight for the throat. But then behind it is this very sunny pop song…
I’ve really been feeling 80s UK indie pop lately. I’ve always liked that kind of stuff well enough, but lately I’ve been discovering or re-discovering bands that have a punky take on that sound that’s really been doing it for me. Sealed Records’ reissues from Dolly Mixture and Chin-Chin (I know the latter was Swiss, but they’re very of a piece with this sound) remain in constant rotation, and I’m still listening to the Gymslips pretty often, too. I even thought about doing my staff pick about Girls At Our Best’s Pleasure this week, which I’ve also been playing regularly. Maybe we’ll do that some other time. At any rate, I’ve really been primed for this sound, and “Never Understand” is right on the money, with a bouncy, Ramones-y rhythm and vulnerable vocal melody.
And then there’s “Suck,” the b-side. It’s funny, I was listening to “Never Understand” with my friend Mike the other night, and I blurted out that it’s really just the Velvet Underground’s sound… straightforward pop songs drenched in feedback and noise. But “Suck” is really where JAMC goes full Velvets, reminding me of the most out-there moments on The Velvet Underground and Nico. I also love that “Never Understand” follows that UK single trope of having the pop hit on the a-side and the more daring, artistically adventurous song on the b-side. The Buzzcocks’ “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays” b/w “Why Can’t I Touch It?” is one of my favorite singles that follows that format. Siouxsie & the Banshees take this tack too, though honestly most of their b-sides are pretty bad. Listen to the singles collection Once Upon a Time and then listen to the b-side compilation Downside Up… that’s a pretty gnarly disparity in quality. “Suck,” though, strikes the perfect note, adventurous but not oblique; a diversion, but a consequential one.
A quick listen through JAMC’s early singles (they’re all on streaming, individually and not as a compilation, which is so fucking classy and cool I can’t even handle it) reveals that “Never Understand” is, perhaps not an outlier, but a moment where everything came together just perfectly. Or maybe that’s just my taste… I’m sure there are many opinions on which is the best JAMC single. I also listened to “Never Understand” on digital, where they add the song “Ambition,” which appears on the 12” version of the single. “Ambition” is a fine song, but I think it throws off the perfect balance of the 7” version.
That’s what I have for you this week. Listen to and appreciate singles. They rule!