Jesus and Mary Chain Soars Above Conflict

“Life is good. Cheer up, people,” Jesus and Mary Chain guitarist William Reid told the crowd at the Palace on Tuesday. That’s not exactly the message this British band has sent for more than a decade with its darkly beautiful songs of despair and desolation, but sometimes you have to roll with the punches.

Seemingly liberated by its recent move from the major-label wars to the less pressurized world of indie rock--its new album, “Munki,” is on Seattle-based Sub Pop--the group has lightened its load and expanded its sound without sacrificing its fundamental trademarks. It can now sing a song called “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” without a trace of irony.

Of course, the Jesus and Mary Chain also has one called “I Hate Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a fittingly bitter reflection on a system that can keep a band this vital down. That ability to embrace contradictions is one of the group’s enduring draws, and on Tuesday the trio (supplemented by a bassist and a guitarist) sounded both powerful and edgy as it reconciled conflicting emotions in its soaring music.

In “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” singer Jim Reid declares, “I don’t care what the people say / They say what they say / I go my own way.” Only recently that might have sounded like an epitaph, but this band just might be in the anthem business again.