The Jesus & Mary Chain have released their brooding new single ‘Chemical Animal’ – listen to it below.
The track is the second preview of the band’s forthcoming new album ‘Glasgow Eyes’, following November single ‘jamcod’.
The Scottish alt-rock band announced that their eighth studio album would be arriving March 8 (pre-order/pre-save here), which will be followed by a UK and European tour.
‘Chemical Animal’ is a heavy rumination on the past suppressed by dense guitar lines and an ominous soundscape of fizzing instrumentals.
Listen to it below.
“Our work on our autobiography definitely bled into our work on the album,” said Jim Reid. “‘jamcod’, the first single from the album, was about that night in 1998 in the House of Blues when the band broke up. ‘Chemical Animal’ is different but related.
“I was thinking back to those dark days of chemical dependency. When you fall so deep into that hole that everything you do is by instinct. The drugs are the driving force. The thing that gets you from a to b is whether you can score. It was a horrible way to live and I’m thankful I don’t live that way anymore.”
He continued: “One effect is that it made me aware of how our brains, who we are, how we feel, and what we do, depend on our neural chemistry, a chemistry beyond our control. It’s a biological curse we can’t escape.”
The band have an autobiography edited by Ben Thompson on the way and documentary is in the early stages, too.
Speaking to NME in a recent interview about how they know when it’s the right time for a new record, Reid said: “The big gap between ‘Munki’ [1998] and ‘Damage & Joy’ [2017] was probably largely to do with me.
“When the band got back together I thought, ‘Well, this is OK, it’s working’ – but everybody kept saying, ‘Make a record’. I wasn’t totally against it, but I just kept thinking about how horrific it was, the studio environment for the making of ‘Munki’.”
He added that after there were “no screaming rows” making ‘Damage & Joy’, it “made us realise that that can be done now”
As to why it took so long for another to come along, Reid said it’s simply because they’re “lazy”.
You can find Jesus & Mary Chain’s full list of 2024 tour dates here, and purchase any remaining tickets here.
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