The Jesus and Mary Chain release brooding new single ahead of their 2024 European tour

The Jesus & Mary Chain have released a dark new new single ‘Chemical Animal’, which references the bands years of substance abuse.

The track is the second taster of the band’s forthcoming new album Glasgow Eyes, following their November single ‘jamcod’.

Glasgow Eyes was announced by the Scottish alternative rock band as their eighth studio album in November of 2023 and marks the band's first release since 2017.

Glasgow Eyes is  set for release on March 8th which will be followed by a UK and European tour- and will include some Irish dates.

'Chemical Animal' takes listeners back to the bands roots sonically, featuring classic Jesus and Mary Chain-esque distortion and guitar as fuzzy as the Reid brother's hair.

The new track, upcoming album and tour marks a the beginning of a prolific period for the band, who also have an autobiography edited by Ben Thompson on the way and documentary in the early stages, to boot.

The duo consisting of brothers Jim and William Reid will also mark their 40th year in 2024.

'Chemical Animal' was influenced in part by the process of putting the influential Scottish bands autobiography together.

"I was thinking back to those dark days of chemical dependency," said Jim Reid of the new track.

“Our work on our autobiography definitely bled into our work on the album,” said Jim Reid. “‘jamcod’, the first single from the album, was about that night in 1998 in the House of Blues when the band broke up. ‘Chemical Animal’ is different but related.

“When you fall so deep into that hole that everything you do is by instinct. The drugs are the driving force. The thing that gets you from a to b is whether you can score. It was a horrible way to live and I’m thankful I don’t live that way anymore.”

He continued: “One effect is that it made me aware of how our brains, who we are, how we feel, and what we do, depend on our neural chemistry, a chemistry beyond our control. It’s a biological curse we can’t escape".

As part of their UK and European tour, The Jesus and Mary Chain also have two Irish dates lined up:

25th of March 2024 – Ireland, Dublin, Olympia
26th of March 2024 – UK, Belfast, Limelight 1

Tickets are available here. In the meantime, fans of The Jesus and Mary Chain can check out their new single below