Automatic by The Jesus and Mary Chain

Automatic, the Jesus and Mary Chain's third album, came out on Blanco y Negro on 9 October 1989, and it finds the East Kilbride brothers stripped down to the bone. Jim and William Reid made it more or less by themselves, letting a drum machine keep time and synthesisers handle the bass. The only other musician in the credits is Richard Thomas, once of Dif Juz and soon the touring drummer, who plays on "Gimme Hell".

The result is cold, glossy and still gloriously sulky, the noise-pop that made their name hammered into chrome-plated rock and roll with a mechanical heartbeat. America finally took the bait: "Blues from a Gun" and "Head On" became the band's first charting singles over there, and alternative radio couldn't leave them alone.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.