Album: Psychocandy
Year: 1985
“Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this!!”
— Tony Soprano
While Psychocandy came out in the U.K. in November, 1985, it didn’t come out here in the colonies until January of 1986, which was when I ended up getting it.
For me, it was easily the most anticipated debut album since The Smiths or maybe going back to Murmur! Yeah, OK. Back then, there were a lot of highly-anticipated debut albums, and honestly, Psychocandy was just another one — an artist would put out a couple of amazing singles, even an EP, and so by the time the album came out, there was a fan base just salivating for a whole album of chewy goodness — so while I was definitely looking forward to it, I probably wasn’t dying for it.
Until I heard it.
“Just like Honey” begins Psychocandy with the “Be My Baby” kick … kick-kick snare pattern, but of course Bobby Gillespie isn’t playing a kick drum, but rather a floor tom, over which William Reid is placing crackling phased out guitars.
And here’s the thing, where’s all of the feedback? Where’s the sheets of noise? Nowhere to be seen, because with “Just Like Honey,” The Jesus and Mary Chain were announcing that they weren’t a one-trick pony.
Or maybe it was so Jim Reid could sing his dirty fucksong with all of the tenderness of a straight-out love song, as he, well, croons:
Listen to the girl
As she takes on half the world
Moving up and so alive
In her honey dripping beehive
Beehive
It’s good, so good, it’s so good
So good
It’s sweet and tender and lovely, and as the song progresses, they glide into a regular beat, and William Reid begins to toss more guitars into his infinite reverb chamber and the song starts gathering momentum and just when you figure it’s going to build to the noisy part, it stops dead in its tracks.
And over the Phil Spector beat, Jim Reid single entendres:
Just like honey
Just like honey
He’s almost instantly joined by Karen Parker, who was Bobby Gillespie’s girlfriend at the time, singing counterpoint as the song begins to build and build:
Just like honey
Just like honey
Just like honey
Just like honey
Just like honey
Just like honey
Just like honey
And as they sing it over and over and over again, “Just Like Honey” reaches a slow, melting climax, and then ends.
Whether or not you’d heard the previous singles, “Just Like Honey” was the perfect way to open Psychocandy, as it was simultaneously a totally different sound for the band to those of us who had heard the singles, and ridiculously gorgeous opening salvo for newbies.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, it was a scene from the “Just Like Honey” video what provided the album cover for Psychocandy. If this wasn’t the first time a band had made that kind of explicit connection between the marketing of their image via music video and the marketing via their album covers, it was pretty damn close.
And of course, “Just Like Honey” is probably their most well-known song, thanks to its prominent placement at the end of Lost in Translation, turning a whole new generation onto it and leading to supremely awkward moment at Coachella 2007 when Scarlett Johansson stood around for two minutes being ignored by Jim Reid just so she could sing the Karen Parker vocal part at the end.
“Just Like Honey”
“Just Like Honey” live at Coachella, 2007
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