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The Jesus and Mary Chain: Darklands (Warner Bros.)

Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 3 December 1987

IN ITS own way the Jesus and Mary Chain's second album is just as audacious as the band's controversial debut, Psychocandy. On the first album the Chain offered up melodic pop drenched in noise and feedback. Darklands, the impressive follow-up, reveals enviable conceptual mettle, as the group sets aside its characteristic Ramones-in-a-blender sound for spacious, echo-laden politesse. Jim and William Reid, the singing and guitar-playing brothers at the Scottish band's core, are still writing virulently downcast songs but have elected to proffer them with restraint, rather than in a wash of disorienting fuzz.

Total word count of piece: 242

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