When Automatic, the JAMC's third album, came out in 1989 they were looking like yesterday's men. Dance and Manchester had happened, and suddenly black leather and feedback were a bit old hat. It didn't help that Automatic wasn't a great lp either- a few good songs, but all produced to sound the same, lyrically repetitive. Drum machines had moved on too, and William and Jim hadn't kept up really. Coast To Coast was one of the few off this album that had the old Mary Chain magic and menace, so it was good to hear this alternate version of the song, with William singing it, when the JAMC box set came out last year (The Power Of Negative Thinking). Sounds very different from the Automatic version and just as good. Course, when the Reid's eventually fully digested the musical, chemical and technical changes that were in the air they re-appeared a year or two later with a much better album- Almost Gold.
Coast To Coast w Alternate Vocal -- William Reid.mp3
Coast To Coast w Alternate Vocal -- William Reid.mp3
I would like to disagree with you intently about this LP, how dare you say this was not a great LP ... Lyrically this was one of their finest, and they where only experimenting with drum machines at that time and when did they bring an album out called almost gold ??? I just had to laugh at this "review" .... x
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