William and Jim Reid have been writing the same five songs over and over since their ground- breaking 1985 debut Psychocandy; as the engine that drives the Jesus and Mary Chain's music has never been broken, there has never been a need to fix it. 1989's Automatic is the closest they've ever come to releasing a stinker, but the fault with that album lies in the stiff production and not the songs, which were as catchy as ever. After a couple years of the kind of label woes rock stars love to whine about in interviews (hey, I've been canned from jobs, too), they wound up happy and rejuvenated on Sub Pop. Before Munki was released, there were rumors of a return to Psychocandy- era noise, but the album is nothing of the sort. Instead, it's very much an extension of the polished sound of its immediate predecessors, with a slight but noticeable improvement in songwriting.

If there's a theme to Munki, it's the Jesus and Mary Chain's ambivalence with the music that supports them. "I Love Rock N Roll" is the first cut (no, not the Joan Jett classic, but I will put another dime in the jukebox, thank you very much) and the noisy "I Hate Rock N Roll" closes the album on a high note. In between, Moe Tucker, Bob Dylan, Elvis, and a host of other icons are name checked, giving a very "inside" and self- referential feel to the music.

Munki also updates the band's sound a bit, adding an entirely new element: tongue- in- cheek lyrics. When William Reid sings "I love the BBC/ I love it when they're pissing on me/ I love MTV/ I love it when they're shitting on me" in "I Love Rock N Roll," he delivers the line with a certain tough- guy emphasis, and it becomes clear that he's not taking himself too seriously.

Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval pops up again on a duet ("Perfume"), a moody Velvet Underground- inspired piece that's the complete opposite of Stoned and Dethroned's "Sometimes Always," in that it's a good song on an album of good songs. Of the 17 here, about 10 are rea winners, driving and catchy with the melodic strength and innate pop sense that the Reid brothers bring to each and every album. And while the sound is the Jesus and Mary Chain all the way and they've still yet to try anything really new, they're good at what they do, dammit, and I'll take Munki over a dozen other bands failed "experiments" any day.

-Mark Richard-San