RTSBBK#3: The Jesus and Mary Chain - I Hate Rock n Roll

Taken from the Mary Chain's final album, Munki (1998), this single is a wonderfully acerbic, spite-filled and withering attack on commercial and corporate aspects of the music business, and radiates the immediacy and rawness of a live recording. It has to be one of my favourite Jesus and Mary Chain tracks of all time. The album itself is largely ignored in discussions about the band's career and discography, the perceived wisdom, (and musical snobbery), being that the Mary Chain were on a gradual downward slide ever since the release of their stunning debut album, Psychocandy, and therefore Munki's not worth talking about too much. I couldn’t disagree more. Written at a time when the Reid brothers were barely talking to each other, the album mirrors this dichotomy and division by the inclusion of another track, I Love Rock n Roll, written by Jim Reid, as a counterpoint to William Reid's I Hate Rock n Roll.