Last month, Creation Records founder Alan McGee claimed that the Jesus And Mary Chain, the great ’80s and ’90s noise-pop alchemists, had recorded a new album and that it would be coming out in March. This was fucking awesome news; in all their years as functioning recording artists, the Jesus And Mary Chain never recorded a single bad song, and they gave us plenty of great ones. But it was also hearsay. So it’s even more fucking awesome to confirm that, yes, there is a new Jesus And Mary Chain album, and it is coming in March. It’s called Damage And Joy. Start getting excited right now.

That’s the cover art above, and it brings me no small amount of joy that the band is getting back together to give us their worst-ever cover art, the sort of thing you can imagine discovering in a dusty and forgotten cutout bin. That image could not possibly be any more ’90s — not even if it was somehow wearing gigantic Jackie O sunglasses with bright yellow lenses.

This will be the band’s first album since 1998’s Munki, and as Pitchfork reports, the brothers Jim and William Reid recorded it with producer Youth, a member of Killing Joke, who also played bass. Their touring drummer Brian Young also joined them, as did bassist Phil King, fresh off of the aborted Lush reunion.

Damage And Joy is out 3/24 on ADA/Warner Music. Steve Lamacq will debut first single “Amputation” on his BBC 6 Music show later today.

UPDATE: That new single “Amputation” is online now.