Darklands
by The Jesus And Mary Chain

Album
Darklands by The Jesus And Mary Chain
Year: 1987
Release date: 1987-08-31
Overall rank: 785th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
79/100 (from 399 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 20 albums of 1987 (15th)
Award Top albums of of the 1980s (114th)
Award Top 1,000 albums of all time (785th)

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The Jesus And Mary Chain bestography

Darklands is ranked 2nd best out of 16 albums by The Jesus And Mary Chain on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by The Jesus And Mary Chain is Psychocandy which is ranked number 301 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 5,452.

The Jesus And Mary Chain album bestography « Higher ranked (301st)
Psychocandy This album (785th)
Darklands Lower ranked (4,240th) »
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(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Darklands track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 82 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

Sort Sort by
#
Track
Rating/Comments
1.
Track pick (850 - 94 votes)
Darklands
Average Rating: 85 (94 votes)Comments: View 1
2.
Deep One Perfect Morning
Average Rating: 82 (73 votes)Comments: View 0
3.
Track pick (850 - 94 votes)
Happy When It Rains
Average Rating: 85 (94 votes)Comments: View 0
4.
Down On Me
Average Rating: 82 (72 votes)Comments: View 0
5.
Nine Million Rainy Days
Average Rating: 80 (69 votes)Comments: View 1
6.
Track pick (870 - 98 votes)
April Skies
Average Rating: 87 (98 votes)Comments: View 0
7.
Fall
Average Rating: 79 (66 votes)Comments: View 0
8.
Cherry Came Too
Average Rating: 81 (70 votes)Comments: View 0
9.
On The Wall
Average Rating: 78 (65 votes)Comments: View 0
10.
About You
Average Rating: 81 (68 votes)Comments: View 0

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Darklands rankings

Darklands rankings summary
Overall rank: 785th | 1980s rank: 114th | 1987 rank: 15th  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings).Help Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 5 hours ago)

Darklands collection

Darklands ratings

Average Rating: 
79/100 (from 399 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 3 ratings for this album.  | Show all 399 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 !		08/27/2026 23:09 Melway94  Ratings distribution  11883/100
 
75/100
 !		08/22/2026 16:12 mostlymor  Ratings distribution  7,02479/100
 
75/100
 !		08/13/2026 15:55 JamesMowbray  Ratings distribution  5,70569/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.7/100, a mean average of 78.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.9/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.4.


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Darklands favourites

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Darklands forum mentions

This album has been referenced 103 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From BestEverAlbums 25 hours ago in Chart of the day (#5452): By LittleM1971
“Today's chart of the day Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s by LittleM1971 () 1. by (1989) 2. by by (1984) 4. (1980) 6. by (1988) 7. by (1985) 8. by (1980) 9. by (1986) 10. by (1988) 11. by (1983) 12. (1985) 13. (1989) 14. (1984) 15. by (1980) 16. by (1980) 17. by by (1987) 20. (1982) 21. by (1984)…”
View forum post →

From Romanelli 09/13/2026 16:03 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
“What album are you listening to? (cont.)”
View forum topic (13 mentions) →

From BestEverAlbums 08/02/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5392): By leniad
“Today's chart of the day Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s by ) 1. by (1989) 3. by (1984) 4. (1982) 5. by (1980) 6. by (1986) 7. by (1989) 8. by (1985) 9. (1980) 10. by (1984) 11. (1986) 12. by (1983) 13. by (1988) 14. by (1984) 15. (1983) 16. by (1989) 17. by (1989) 18. by (1982) 19. (1980) 20.…”
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Darklands comments

Showing latest 5 comments | Show all 16 comments |
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Rating:  
85/100
From 07/27/2012 15:08 | #47323 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
After Psychocandy created some controversy regarding the sound of TJAMC, Darklands counterbalances and shows the critics and the public that the band was also capable of writing strikingly beautiful songs without necessarily recurring to the "Noise Rock" aesthetic. (Edited)
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Rating:  
95/100
From 06/22/2016 19:35 | #169497 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Basically, psychocandy, without the feedback and distortion. Alright, it's a bit more than that and though it isn't as interesting as it's predecessor, it certainly is more emotive and the songwriting overall is just probably slightly stronger, but i love the noise on, psychocandy, although it gives me a headache if I listen to it too loudly(the only album that does that to me). The second of the Mary Chain's two classic albums, darklands, is an essential eighties album. (Edited)
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Rating:  
95/100
From 12/25/2014 22:41 | #130090 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
This was so different to Psychocandy in a good way that is. It showcases how the Reid Bros. were able to write melodic songs without the use of noise and feedback as the others had said. Well done to the Mary Chain for doing this. My favorites are Darklands, Happy When It Rains, Down On Me, April Skies, and Cherry Came Too (Edited)
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Rating:  
80/100
From 01/16/2020 00:29 | #246875 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
When 'Psychocandy' came out in 85 it blew my mind and changed my life

When the 'Some Candy Talkin' EP came out in 86 it was almost as good

When the 'April Skies' single came out preceding the 'Darklands' album in 87 it was amazing

So to say the anticipation for the 'Darklands' release was palpable was an understatement ...

When I finally got I hands on a copy I knew going in it wasn't going to be Psychocandy Mark II (reviews had put paid to that ) and it was good . Better than good actually , the perfect follow up to the perfect album 2 years previous

Time has been really kind to 'Darklands' and listening to it in 2020 it hasn't aged one bit , the William Reid vocal tracks to mine are a revelation

"Hand in hand in a violent life
Making love on the edge of a knife
And the world comes tumbling down"

The last truly great JAMC album (Edited)
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Rating:  
90/100
From 01/20/2013 14:07 | #62206 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
This album is so different to it's wonderful predecessor but is still a good album in it's own right. The singles taken from it are it's best tracks! (Edited)
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Best Albums of  1987
1. The Joshua Tree by U2
2. Appetite For Destruction by Guns N' Roses
3. Sign "O" The Times by Prince
4. Strangeways, Here We Come by The Smiths
5. You're Living All Over Me by Dinosaur
6. Document by R.E.M.
7. Bad by Michael Jackson
8. Music For The Masses by Depeche Mode
9. Sister by Sonic Youth
10. Substance by New Order