The Jesus and Mary Chain – Upside Down: The Best Of...

The whopping 44 track beast that is Upside Down: The Best of the Jesus & Mary Chain prompts that age-old question – can you have too much of a good thing? In short, scuzzy adrenalin-soaked blasts JAMC truly are one of the great British bands of the last twenty five years; they transported the down-at-heel characters of counter-culture America to a darker and more shadowy place, and made them sing, and sing in a way that still makes your heart feel bruised and bursting today.

But, unsurprisingly for a band once famous for twenty minute sets and amphetamine-fuelled violence, the sheer weight of numbers included on this retrospective disc detracts from the overall impact. The evolution between 1984’s debut single Upside Down and All Things Must Pass (the only new material released since reforming in 2007) may be clear, but it’s not so marked as to drag you through a 44-song-journey to chart it. That would require concentration and focus, and with a band like JAMC, was that ever the point? [PJ Meiklem]