Quote:
Originally Posted by Urban Hatemonger
I think simply put it's the best collection of individual songs they ever put on one album. It's not my favourite album of theirs I prefer Honey's Dead as an album but in terms of individual songs Psychocandy beats it with ease. The production is awful but I guess i've got used to it over time.
If you look at the circumstances of it's release and the timing of it (Gigs ending in riots, being the total antithesis of slick corporate 80s pop) you can see why music journalists went apeshit over it, and it did influence a hell of a lot of bands. I don't think Grunge or Shoegaze happening just a year or two later was an accident and I doubt those genres would have been anywhere near as big had Psychocandy not been the success it was.
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hmm, i've always thought the songwriting on Darklands far surpassed this effort. Psychocandy may very well have been more influential but i just don't understand why it's the only surviving mainstay of JAMC's back catalogue when they put out three other solid LPs.
and as for the influence aspect, i completely agree with shoegaze but i can't see the connection to grunge. as i've always thought of it as more of a fad than a genre, there was a much longer period of evolution behind it. i suppose Psychocandy had a definite impact upon some of the same related bands, Dinosaur Jr. in particular, but that could be more ostensibly attributed to J Mascis choice of guitar and less about the songwriting.