Track Listing

1. Dirty Water
2. Bullet Lovers
3. Sometimes Always
4. Come On
5. Between Us
6. Hole
7. Never Saw It Coming
8. She
9. Wish I Could
10. Save Me
11. Till It Shines
12. God Help Me
13. Girlfriend
14. Everybody I Know
15. You've Been A Friend
16. These Days
17. Feeling Lucky

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34931 in Music
• Released on: 2006-07-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

Stoned (maybe) but certainly not dethroned!
This album sees the Marychain keeping their collective cool whilst all around them were loosing theirs. Some may cite this recording as the beginning of the end of the Marychain but those people have probably never listened to it in the first place. With hindsight it is very easy to see that this is a diamond hidden amongst the vast amounts of garbage produced in the early 90s.

At the time, there were rumours they were set to record an accustic album supported by a variety of vocalists. For whatever that didn't happen and history has this album instead.

I'll be completely honest; I love this record. It holds many memories; some of them very personal. Consequently, it's difficult to single out particular tracks but "Dirty water", "Bullet lovers", "Girlfriend", "She", "Till it shines" and "Everybody I know" all resonate nearly thirteen years later. Good stuff.

I'd disagree with the previous reviewer on one point - the Marychain where far from being a one trick pony. They were a fine slightly left field pop band who produced a cannon of work that continues to endure.

Best Mary Chain album after 'Psychocandy'...
Following `Honey's Dead' and the Rollercoaster tour with Dinosaur Jr, Blur & My Bloody Valentine, the Mary Chain delivered the `Snakedriver' and the relative to `Barbed Wire Kisses', the b-sides collection `The Sound of Speed.' The follow-up proper to `Honey's Dead' was this collection which pretty much stiffed in the era when Britpop was on the rise. It would be their last album on Blanco Y Negro/Warners prior to getting dropped, the band releasing their final album `Munki' on Creation in 1997.

The problem with the Mary Chain was the fact their debut `Psychocandy' was untopabble, some bands release fantastic debuts and just can't reach the peak again - Television, Wu-Tang Clan, The Pixies, The House of Love, Elastica, Gang of Four, Adam & the Ants, The Stone Roses...it happens! `Stoned & Dethroned' is probably the album `Darklands' should have been, the band were rumoured at times to be working on an acoustic album, then a record with guest singers like Scott Walker...this was the result.

Like a lot of unplugged-stuff in the 1990s, it wasn't quite acoustic, the Reid brothers recording with bassist Ben Lurie and drummer Steve Monti (was he in the original line-up of Curve?). As such it sounds like a blend of the Mary Chain, baggy and alt-country - a sound which has dated surprisingly well...I think this is their best album after `Psychocandy.' The blend of the Velvets-Stooges-MC5 template the Mary Chain worked from with country inflections suggests this is a primary work of alt-country and should perhaps be considered alongside bands like Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown, Nikki Sudden's solo work (RIP), & Wilco. Brakes have covered `Sometimes Always' from it on their enjoyable debut album, while the acoustic/alt-country directions of the Brian Jonestown Massacre evident on `Thank God for Mental Illness', `Bringing It All Back Home Again' and `We Are the Radio' are apparent here.

The seventeen tracks are all enjoyable, the Reid brothers taking turns to sing and predating the direction of Primal Scream at present by a good decade. The Mary Chain are one of those bands whose bad stuff is still quite listenable. Not really a dud here, there are some classics - `Hole' is fantastic, despite the fact its lyrics are repetitive (1985's `In a Hole') and that it sounds quite a lot like `Heat' - the version of `Teenage Lust' currently used in a beer-advert on TV! Opener `Dirty Water' sounds like a baggy Stones, `What the World is Waiting For' circa `Let It Bleed'; while `God Help Me' has a very suitable lead vocal from the great Pogue Shane MacGowan. The single `Sometimes Always' is the greatest song here, a duet between Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval (then paramour of William Reid) and Jim Reid it sounds like a scuzzy update on Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, - any fan of Calexico should love it! `Stoned and Dethroned' has aged well and along with `Psychocandy', I think it's the pick of the current reissues of the Jesus and Mary Chain.