"The Shangri-Las and Einsturzende Neubauten on the same record"

By way of a preview for the Jesus & Mary Chain's forthcoming new album Damage And Joy - lest we forget, their first since 1998 - the Guardian's Jeremy Allen has chosen ten of the best tracks from their back catalogue. Perhaps unusually for this kind of list, there are no controversial or wilfully perverse choices, but that's very much to be welcomed.

The selection serves a reminder of the stupendous quality and huge influence of their early material ('Upside Down'), their effortless marrying of apparently disparate styles ('Just Like Honey', 'Some Candy Talking') and the merits of 'April Skies' and the Darklands album in general (Allen is probably right when he ventures that it has better songs than Psychocandy) while also offering a stout defence of songs and albums that time has remembered less favourably, such as last LP Munki, and highlighting their contribution to the excellent soundtrack for The Crow.

Coincidentally, 'Sometimes Always', the duet recorded with Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval that is quite rightly Allen's pick from 1994's Stoned & Dethroned, has been covered by US punks Beach Slang for a mixtape called Here I Made This For You Volume II. It's more a nod to their influences than an attempt to make the song their own, but it's still worth a listen.