Customer Reviews

Barbed Wire Kisses

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Psychocandy is the album that defined the Jesus and Mary Chain. It was unfortunate that they turned down the distortion petals and created Darklands.

Where does that leave Barbed Wire Kisses, you ask. After all, this review is about Barbed Wire Kisses. Barbed Wire Kisses is a mixed bag of B sides, out-takes, alternate versions and singles only songs. Somehow, this mix blends well, and only in a couple of spots on the album feel disjointed. That said, this album ranks up there with Psychocandy. In fact, I like it more than Psychocandy.

As far as the songs on this album, there is a range from sinister to silly (read 'not serious')... with the covers of Who Do You Love and Surfin' USA being the poles. Who Do You Love is worth the price of the album, a slow and evil nod to Bo Diddley and cooler than George Thorogood's version. 'Kill Surf City', 'Hit', 'Just Out of Reach', 'Cracked' represent the dark side. 'Upside Down' has the distiction of being the greatest distortion-filled sonic assault the Jesus and Mary Chain ever did. It makes the Psychcandy album sound "nice" in comparison. The album is balanced by lighter fare such as 'Psycho Candy' and the acoustic version of 'Taste of Cindy'. And then there are the tunes that are just cool, like a pair of pitch black shades... 'Sidewalking' and 'Bo Diddley is Jesus'.

If anything doesn't work on the album it is the Darklands outtakes and the porta-studio demo 'On the Wall'. They sound out of place.

All in all, this album is one of my Desert Island albums. If I ever have to be a castaway, I better have this with me!

If you listen to Jimmy Eats World, your opinion on music is invalid. Enough Said.

Some albums effortlessly morph from being mere musical platters to representing whole chunks of your life. Barbed Wire Kisses, apart from opening my eyes to the JAMC phenomenon, represented 1992 in its entirety for me. (Yeah, I clued on four years after its release.)
Aside from the fact that BWK contains some of the band's best material, as well as their trippiest, oddest, eeriest and rockin'est (Sidewalking is the aural definition of cool), this album should be purchased by every single human being soley for Cracked. Without a doubt, this is the most terrifying song that was ever created. I see Hades every time I hear it. Nuff said.

This was the first J&MC album I got - and like the real special albums it still sounds fresh and interesting whenever I get back to it.

Still one of the best albums I have in my collection.

Indie music during the 80s was blessed with a number of great b-side compilations, but after the Smiths' "Hatful of Hollow", I have to say this is the best of the lot.

It's got a little something for anybody who loved either "Psychocandy" or "Darklands", depending on which version of the JAMC you preferred. A number of the songs could have been left on their sophomore release ("Everything's Alright When You're Down", "Don't Ever Change") without degrading the quality, and other tracks ("Head", "Hit", "Upside Down") make their debut sound like Kenny G does Dusty Springfield.

The superb acoustic binges of "Psychocandy" and "Taste of Cindy" sound just as good as if they were coming through Marshall stacks, and the demo of "On The Wall" is strangely addictive.

Add to that the sleeper single of '88; "Sidewalking", and you've got a fairly seemless collection that is as far away from filler as you can get.

Jimmy makes bands like Blink 182 seem like hardcore punk in comparison. Blink and others seem brilliant next to the mediocre standards set by many Emo groups like Jimmy, their catalogs become trend setters to those that were force fed Jimmy in their teenage existence. I try to listen to everyone so I gave Jimmy more than a few tries because they were at the head of a new music direction, Emo, but instead of them growing on me each listen brought aworse opinion of them. Since they have been successful in a new genre they will get mercilessly ripped on. Even more than if they just sucked like other bands that just suck, so I made sure I took this into account when listening. It didn't help. Jimmy is actually a group deserving the criticism it receives. They suck. They also represent Emo and ironically the problem I had with their music was that their songs didn't elicit any emotion. Everything was safe and boring. They couldn't even write the annoyingly catchy song that sticks in your head even though you don't want it there. I also don't understand why you bought a B-Sides collection to start with. B-Sides are discards and for diehard fans. Fans like me will report this is a shockingly good B-Sides collection, but only for fans. "Upside Down" needs to be in the record collection of any person with a pulse. It has more emotion than the whole Jimmy catalog put together. It may be one of the best songs ever written and is worth the price of the whole Jesus & Mary Chain recorded history. Hearing the melancholy rise from the fierce noise on top of it is the ultimate cathartic experience music can provide. Playing "Upside Down" when your goldfish dies will surely help you cope more than any Jimmy song. Enough Jimmy. Why do many bands leave off the title songs for an album? Especially when it is as good as this and the song would have fit perfectly in about 6 different places on the Psychocandy CD. Glad they finally released it, instead of continuing to hide it. The rest has tons of ace covers, truly great ear candy, and some hit and miss experiments. This is a treasure hunt of embarrassing riches that will continue to amaze fans from start to finish.

This is the worst album I've ever purchased. If I wasn't going to return it, I would burn it.