21 Singles
It's a rare trick to uphold the sacred tenets of rock & roll while simultaneously reinventing them. But over the course of their21 Singles, compiled here, the Jesus and Mary Chain did just that. When the first of them, "Upside Down," emerged on Creation in 1984, the template was set. The Reid brothers took the idea of sullen, black-leather-clad rebellion to a darker and more inhospitable place than anyone had before. Even now, the early Mary Chain singles sound astounding, the way pop and avant-garde elements are mangled together so beautifully.21 Singlesgoes far beyond these, through another 14 years of protean glumness, patchy albums, and, fortunately, many excellent singles. For the Mary Chain's forte was the three-minute pop thrill, the precisely calibrated jukebox hit. An uncanny number of them--"Some Candy Talking," "Sidewalking," "Reverence"--remain among the very best of the 1980s and '90s.The Mary Chain's last two singles, from 1998, "I Hate Rock & Roll" and "I Love Rock & Roll," neatly close affairs: bitter and celebratory; consumed and confused by music and the impulse to make it, which has driven them for so long. This band was genius, and here's why.--John Mulvey