Honey’s Dead sounds disturbingly like Screamadelica. “Sundown” makes that much really obvious. Disturbing because Bobby Gillespie left The Jesus and Mary Chain after Psychocandy to form Primal Scream, of course.

The Jesus and Mary Chain are a hard band to critique. They are not a complex group; just generally skilled pop songwriters with a great sense of style. The unattractively bitter-named Honey’s Dead is their first noise pop album since Psychocandy, but at the same time it sounds much different. How is that possible? To put it bluntly, it’s because both albums sound very much of their time.

Psychocandy has the clear post-punk sound going through it, while Honey’s Dead sounds like some weird mix of the Baggy / Madchester and shoegaze scenes that were around, especially thanks to the production. The band finally gets a live drummer again, recruiting Curve’s Steve Monti, another large part of why the album sounds the way it does. He employs the same dance-beat drum rhythms as he does in his main band. It’s a good thing, as it helps Honey’s Dead come into its own sound—as far as the band’s own discography goes.

Not much else I can think of to say. The JaMC’s usual cool, posturing attitude is there. The kind that either drives detractors crazy or drives fans in. On some songs the grooves are more infectious than others, “Tumbledown” being my favorite on the album. I don’t believe the JaMC fell off as far after Darklands as some people claim. Honey’s Dead is another solid offering from the group that borders on being a really great early ’90s noise pop album, but as it is I would specifically recommend it to fans of the genre. If you’re a fan of The Jesus and Mary Chain as a whole, I’m sure you already like Honey’s Dead.