While gloomy British pop bands like The Cure will probably retain household-name status, their contemporaries, such as the Scottish band The Jesus and Mary Chain, deserve a place outside of the bigger bands' shadows and in the spotlight. The strength of their debut album, "Psychocandy," is enough on its own to elevate the band's status to godlike in the pantheon of guitar-driven downer rock.

The Chain will probably remain noteworthy in popular culture predominantly due to their most iconic song, "Just Like Honey," the third single from "Psychocandy" and the song memorably used in the final scene of Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation." However, as good a song as "Just Like Honey" is, it is the first track on "Psychocandy" and the perfect album opener, the stylistic heart of the album is best found on tracks five through eight. They are "Cut Dead," "In a Hole," "Taste of Cindy" and "Never Understand." These four songs comprise everything The Jesus and Mary Chain tried to do with their music, alternating between harsh, feedback-driven lamentations and borderline pop songs with garage band sensibilities. The angst-ridden lyrics of "In a Hole" juxtaposed with "Taste of Cindy," which sounds like The Ramones at their poppiest, demonstrates the range of diverse influences The Chain embraced, from The Sex Pistols to The Shangri-Las, the girl pop group behind songs like "Leader of the Pack."

"Psychocandy" established The Jesus and Mary Chain as an anomaly in the music scene at the time. Released in 1985, the album demonstrated The Chain's commitment to a guitar-driven sound when other bands were obsessed with electronic flourishes. Even though all of the sounds on "Psychocandy" are produced with the traditional rock