This album links the bands UK and US singles, soundtrack cuts and key album tracks released on Creation, Blanco Y Negro/Warner Bros., Blanco Y Negro/Deaf Jam, and Sub Pop. Rarities include alt-rock favorites 'Just Like Honey', 'April Skies', 'Sidewalking' and 'Come On'. Warner Bros./Rhino.

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Please listen to the whole album and do NOT stop after the first three tracks. The first three tracks have an excessive amount of feedback, which would bother most people. Starting from track four and on, the music is deeply moving, romantic. I spent an afternoon driving under the So CA sun, blasting this moody and emotional music, which JAMC probably wrote and recorded in their native rainy, overcast Scotland. I've never felt more alive.

18 of 18 found the following review helpful:

Just a stunning collection of great songsAug 20, 2005
By Robert Moore
If someone were to rush up to me and hold a gun to my hand and insist that I recommend one and only one Jesus & Mary Chain album to someone completely unfamiliar with their music with the proviso that it be THE album that would bring that person the most enjoyment, I would be in a complete quandary (though why some insane person would be wielding a pistol in such a nutty undertaking I won't speculate about). On the one hand, PSYCHOCANDY is unquestionably their masterpiece, not merely a great album, but one of the great precursors of the emergence of alternative music in the nineties. Yeah, alternative went pop when Nirvana hit it big with NEVERMIND in 1991, but the Jesus & Mary Chain had already copped all the right attitudes and struck all the right chords with PSYCHOCANDY in 1985. With that album they go down with the Velvet Underground, Television, and Big Star as bands that wield an influence vastly in excess of their collective record sales.

But as great as PSYCHOCANDY is, I'm not sure that 21 SINGLES: 1984-1998 doesn't have better songs. The collection of singles pulls together not merely the very best songs off PSYCHOCANDY, but a host of great songs off other albums that either weren't as good or weren't very good at all, but nonetheless had a couple of great individual cuts. For instance, back when I was collecting Jesus & Mary Chain discs, I stopped with PSYCHOCANDY, DARKLANDS, and BARBED WIRE KISSES, two albums and an anthology. This means that I missed out on some really great cuts that are collected here. For instance, I was completely blown away by "Head On" the first second I heard it, but because I didn't get AUTOMATIC, it was completely new to me. Same thing is true of "Blues from a Gun," the very scary "Reverence," "Sometimes Always" (with guest lead vocal by Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star), and the wonderful pair of cuts from MUNKI, "I Love Rock N Roll" and "I Hate Rock N Roll." These are just great songs, and they really make me regret that I stopped my collecting of their music when I did.

So, I truly hope gun-toting maniacs stay away from me, but if saner, more everyday folk want who are unacquainted with one of the great bands of the eighties and nineties want to dive into their music, I would strongly recommend both PSYCHOCANDY and 21 SINGLES: 1984-1998. This music is as crucial as anything that arose during the period.

10 of 10 found the following review helpful:

some ear candy talkingSep 13, 2003
By AJM
I never got into the Jesus and Mary Chain back in the day- I'd heard of them, but never got to actual listen to them. Then last year I heard this great song on the radio that featured the unmistakable voice of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval singing with a guy who has this low voice that asks her to take him back, but to please not make him get down on his knees and beg...(which by the end of the song he says he does anyway). I had to find out who that was- I just loved the song.
I decided to go with 21 Singles because I didn't really know the band well and wanted a good intro and sampling- plus it has the song I liked: Sometimes Always.
What a great sound- It never gets to be totally punk, or goth, what is nowadays defined as alternative, or pop, (although it contains elements of all); JAMC is unique.
My favorite tracks are April Skies, Sidewalking, Blues from a Gun, Head On, and Sometimes Always. That is not to say the other tracks aren't great or enjoyable, though. This CD is always close by.

8 of 8 found the following review helpful:

*Not* the Death of Rock and RollJul 11, 2002
By Martin J Flanagan
First instict is to tell first-timers that their debut album 'Psychocandy' is JAMC's only essential purchase.
Strictly from an historical perspective, that alternative rock watershed may just be, but most of their best-written songs and alt-rock radio hits - Happy When It Rains, Sidewalking, Sometimes Always (their duet with Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval and sole US singles chart entry), and Head On (later covered by the Pixies) - came later.

It's interesting to hear these songs (which include all of the above-referenced high marks by the way) now that the hype and notoriety is a distant-memory. Death of rock-n-roll my arse, take away all the guiatar fuzz and what the Jesus and Mary Chain were was basically good, loud rock band who knew how to use feedback as an instrument. And even when they stopped recording albums with all the needles in the red zone, and thus stopped being "important/influential" (which they undoubtably were; My Bloody Valentine were certainly taking notes) they continued making good popsongs, as this album proves.

I was going to gripe about the handful of personal favorites that didn't make the cut (Happy Place, Taste of Cindy, UV Ray) but then again this isn't a collection of favorites; this is a singles collection, and a fine one.

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