After giving fans a taste of their upcoming new album, Glasgow Eyes, back in November by dropping the first single, "jamcod," the Jesus and Mary Chain have acknowledged the proximity of the LP's actual release date - March 8 - and have issued a second single: "Chemical Animal."
From the moment the song begins, there's no question that it's a J&MC track, and although it's a bit of a slow burner, both the vocals and the music surrounding them are so clearly the work of the brothers Reid that most listeners will almost certainly walk away champing at the bit for the new album even more than they probably already were.
Jim and William Reid, together again, now with less brotherly button-pushing.
As the Reid brothers revealed at the end of 2023, this is going to be a big year for the Jesus and Mary Chain. In addition to the release of Glasgow Eyes, which was recorded at Mogwai’s Castle of Doom studio in Glasgow (the same locale which proved creatively fruitful for the band when they recorded their previous album, Damage and Joy, in 2017), they'll also be releasing an autobiography later in the year via Orion Publishing's White Rabbit imprint, home of recent releases from such notable names as the Chemical Brothers, Sly Stone, and Ted Kessler.
And in case you're wondering if "the kids" are hip enough these days to even still appreciate the Jesus and Mary Chain, make no mistake, they are. And if you should need proof of this, then you need look no further than the band's 2022 appearance at Glastonbury, where they were joined for their performance of "Just Like Honey" by none other than Phoebe Bridgers.
“We’d already asked Phoebe Bridgers if she was up for a guest appearance during our set and she’d agreed,” Jim Reid told Under the Radar last year. “So we were sitting in our dressing room, and my youngest daughter Candice was sitting there with her wee friend discussing all the bands and artists they wanted to see, and she mentioned Phoebe Bridgers and I said, ‘Phoebe? Oh, she’s coming in here in a minute to rehearse with us.’ And they were like, ‘WHAT!!!’ And then Phoebe came in and it’s the only time I’ve ever seen Candice shut up, they were astonished! So uncool dad became cool dad for once!”
