Song of the Day: Jesus and Mary Chain “April Skies”

There is divergent line among fans of the Scottish shoegaze pioneers, Jesus and Mary Chain. While there is no doubting the honeyed pop melodies that the band initially concealed under the layers of skuzz and guitar feedback that made up their sound on their early singles and first LP, 1985’s Psychocandy. By the time the group’s second LP, Darklands, came around in 1987, the band had largely dispensed with all the dissonance and had brought the pop elements of their sound front and center. Some people found this move to be a betrayal of punk ethos that the band had embraced, while others celebrated the act as new found songwriting maturity. Wherever you stand on the issue, there is no doubting the quality of the songwriting across Darklands. The songs represent a step-up for the band, with deeper, more wistful lyrics and clear melodies. While some of the tracks on Psychocandy could sound like filler or recalibrations of songs that you had just heard, everything on Darklands feels distinct and, above all else, necessary.

Darklands, to me, is also a perfect spring record. The record’s themes of gentle rain, sacrifice, rebirth (very fitting given the name of the group) and the early glimmers of warmth explicate this. “April Skies” summarizes a lot of the spring feel of the LP and lyrically cuts through a swath of what the band were all about. Amid the hope at the core of the song, with Jesus and Marcy Chain, there is always a tinge of luscious darkness:

Hey honey what you trying to say
As I stand here
Don’t you walk away
And the world comes tumbling down
Hand in hand in a violent life
Making love on the edge of a knife
And the world comes tumbling down
And it’s hard
For me to say
And it’s hard
For me to stay
I’m going down
To be by myself
I’m going back
For the good of my health
And there’s one thing
I couldn’t do
Sacrifice myself to you
Sacrifice
Baby baby I just can’t see
Just what you mean to me
I take my aim and I fake my words
I’m just your long time curse
And if you walk away
I can’t take it
But that’s the way that you are
And that’s the things that you say
But now you’ve gone too far
With all the things you say
Get back to where you come from
I can’t help it
Under the April skies
Under the April sun
Sun grows cold
Sky gets black
And you broke me up
And now you won’t come back
Shaking hand, life is dead
And a broken heart
And a screaming head
Under the April sky

Jesus and Mary Chain were founded in East Kilbride, Scotland. The band was formed by the brothers, William and Jim Reid in 1980 with a strong desire to make progressive guitar-based music. The group was initially a bit reactionary, with William conceding: “It was perfect timing because there weren’t any guitar bands. Everybody was making this electronic pop music.” Amusingly, after original drummer Bobby Gillespie left to pursue his own band, Primal Scream, he was initially replaced with a drum machine. The group has gone through a number of line-up shifts over the years, with the Reid Brothers remaining the only constants but has remained a constant and dynamic force for noise and guitar pop.