A new Jesus And Mary Chain single came out last week, the first in eighteen years it is claimed. This ignores All Things Must Pass which came out in 2010 and was on a Best Of... (which in the internet age almost counts as a single). It also ignored the fact that the new single, Amputation, is a re-recording with a new name of a Jim Reid solo single from 2006. Here it is...
Dead End Kids
I liked Dead End Kids, bought it on cd single and thought it was a decent song. A typical Jim Reid three chord riff and a typically Jim Reid lyric- 'It's wine today, it's piss tomorrow', 'fucked up girls like fucked up boys', 'I'm a rock 'n' roll amputation'. The new version has some squally feedback at the start and reverb covered vox, a dirty guitar part on the chorus. But this release should have been a genuinely new song instead of a shrug and a sense of disappointment (which is what I felt). It's not an All For One level disappointment. A milder disappointment. Ah well, hey ho. Still, tickets for the tour in March are on sale and they were very good when they toured Psychocandy two years ago.
For an extremely scary moment just then I saw the post title and thought you meant Dead End Kids the band (and had I stumbled into some strange parallel world version of Bagging Area?) They must have been one of the worst-looking (sorry to be lookist but they really didn't cut it) 70s teenpop groups ever, and their existence in my formative years has clearly haunted me ever since. Phew. Of course this is in a very different league. And very good (first time I've heard it at all so no sense of disappointment here!)
ReplyDeleteI really wish that they had just accepted that their time had been and gone and left their legacy intact
ReplyDeleteI also wasn't familiar with the JIm Reid song, so I didn't have anything but admiration for Amputation. I've come to terms with the idea of bands who ended on a high that they shouldn't have messed with or a low that they never should have been allowed to recover from returning to the Rock & Roll carousel for another ride. As artists, I can see why you might not be able to hold your art inside, might need an outlet. Not every return is a good idea or a good song/album, but I'll gladly give time to a band I once loved or still revere offering something new.
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