As befits an album bookended by tracks titled "I Love Rock'n'Roll" and "I Hate Rock'n'Roll,"
the Jesus and Mary Chain's Sub Pop label debut,
Munki, is schizophrenic and impassioned, a record that both summarizes the band's career to date and cleans the slate for their future. Virtually each of the 17 tracks here echoes a prior moment in
the Chain's existence, moving at breakneck pace from the volcanic noise of their earliest material to the bleak grace of
Darklands, through to the sleek, supercharged pop of
Automatic -- even
Mazzy Star's
Hope Sandoval makes a cameo, as she did on
Stoned & Dethroned. In a sense, it's an ideal primer to the Reid brothers' mercurial world, flirting with both brilliance and mediocrity; even after well over a decade,
the Jesus and Mary Chain continue to thrill, irritate, and confound -- they're a true love/hate obsession.