[Ed. Note- rex is travelling today so has pivoted slightly from his top 5 of 25.]
One of my top 10 all- time LPs celebrated 40 years on November 15, 2025.
JACK WHITE’S 🇺🇸 Third Man Records (Detroit/ Nashville/London) reissued this debut gem by THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN 🏴. The remastering was done in Detroit, Michigan by WARREN DEFEVER (from nearby Livonia.) He is the auteur of 4AD outfit HIS NAME IS ALIVE 🇺🇸.
And what a job he did.
Listening again (for the nth time) brought back a flood of memories of that chaotic time in my life and the music world. Less than a month later I saw them live for the first time by sheer circumstance.
I was in Toronto for work overnight and discovered they were playing that night at the RPM Club. The date was Dec. 12, 1985! I left my soon-to-be ex colleagues after dinner and attended the gig buying my ticket at the door.
It was epochal for me. 25 (or so) minutes of feedback magic with the Reid brothers doing their thing and BOBBY GILESPIE (soon to be forming PRIMAL SCREAM 🏴) playing stand up snare along with DOUGLAS HART on bass. There was a frisson in the air as it was being widely reported in the British music weeklies (NME, Melody Maker and Sounds) that their abrubtly short and chaotic gigs were ending in riots.
Here is a video that gives you a sense of the mayhem.
Whew…
Back to my world.
This signed poster for the LP was acquired many years later and proudly hangs in my chambers.
What song to select? “Never Understand” is one of my Top 10 all- time songs, but I recently featured it on OPUS70.
I am going to go with the opener “Just Like Honey.” I chose this track because it is not only an incredible tune, but I love the video showing the entire band and it is softer on the ears for this chilly early January morning than the other 13 tracks on this 39 minute LP
So here is “Just Like Honey.” Enjoy.
SPOTIFY-
https://open.spotify.com/track/1LwP9g1Hjbs64jXM2Qsxry?si=EyTfWrWMQV6PYfHUr8aRlw
(SONG 1493)
Play Very Loud Or Perish
1/07/2026
underground365 
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