THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN Vinyl & CDs

Review: 1984 was a big year for a lot of reasons - including the wall of sound unleashed by The Jesus & Mary Chain with 'Upside Down'. The Scottish alternative rock set delivered their first single in November that year, marking the arrival of a decade-spanning tour de force of the guitar world. Packing a Syd Barrett cover on the B-side, 'Vegetable Man' (its chorus to be confused with the line, "festival man", not matter how much it sounds like those are the words), the track and its accompaniment on the flip would sell 50,0000 copies and become Creation Records first major success story. It also set the tone for one of the most inimitable back catalogues in rock & roll history. But these are other tales for other times.

Review: When Jesus & Mary Chain reunited in 2007 there were tons of questions about what this would mean for their music, music in general, and the planet. Well, OK, maybe more their music. The notorious 1998 on-stage implosion between brothers William and Jim Reid was a culmination of tension between the siblings that afforded the band their inimitable conflict of sound, but also seemed to call definite time. It would be another decade before they attempted to work together again, with a show at Coachella, then another ten years passed while they figured out where from there. In the end, Damage & Joy was the answer, 2017's album, co-produced by Youth in a bid to bring in a potential mediator should things go sour. They didn't, and the record was well received - somewhere between old JAMC and a new era. Now we have Glasgow Eyes, an extension of that. Rather than born of conflict, tracks feel united in a common goal, synths rising to the fore above guitars, combative tones receding in favour of comfortable juxtapositions and contrasts.