The Smiths

the ig

Well-known member
I got ‘The Smiths’ s/t again a while back and the whole room went mauve-grey like the cover, immediately, when I put it on. I wanted to stay in my re-upholstered space for good, but i had to put another record on.

Funny how the more doleful they are, the better, how Marr & Co’s lyricism, touch, poise help tease out a wandering space in the streets and squares and lanes, for that recessive Moz life. The whole point is the ‘outing’, the validation, of the big sulk forever, amen. The groggy-blinking-fresh joy in that! (I mean lol imagine finding them ‘depressing’).

Moz nailing a thing, wriggling, in few words, with that swaying, indulgent diction, those supernumerary trills and distended sinking syllables, is one of the great pop things.

Vengefully pinning new coordinates down, they’re sleepy and brash, negative and imperious, prim and corrosive yes...pop...bright from the shadows, all conquering.

my absolute fav is ‘Hatful of Hollow’ which is an odds and ends comp obvs but many consider full album cos so strong overall.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I tried listening to meat is murder after reading this thread and gave up sharpish when morrissey started yodelling

I do love some of their songs but at the same time his singing style is right on that knife edge of being either the greatest thing ever or punishable by beheading in a public square
 

jenks

thread death
For a brief period of time they were perfect - The Queen is Dead is my favourite album but Well I Wonder from Meat is Murder their absolute masterpiece. Four studio albums, two compilations and they were gone. There’s a great live bootleg - Thank Your Lucky Stars which captures them at their best - much better than the official Rank. The Troy Tate version is interesting as the first album is always considered to be underproduced - I think Moz said “like elephant ears - flat and grey”
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I like the sinister one about the moors murderers


- this could go in the 'best bits in music' thread maybe, the chords are quite innocuously pleasant until 32 seconds in "leslie ann and your pretty white beads" it introduces this kind of queasy bass note/harmony, somehow gets across the sickness and menace lying beneath the pastoral

another song about a serial killer with that kind of semi subdued menace and horror wot i heard recently

 

Simon silverdollarcircle

Well-known member
I like the smiths really but the thought/idea of hating them is really really appealing.

It's a constant disappointment to me that I don't hate the smiths. It looks fun to hate the smiths, more fun than hating any other band
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
This is the best Morrissey-solo vocal performance / lyric / arrangement-production - apart from "Late Night Maudlin Street". And the last great thing he done. Mozz-as-ambient

 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
50fc907ce11c6cb7cadb363e2a629d02.jpg


a disgrace, only one outcome

tumblr_n17lo30Tsz1sqhc10o2_400.gif
 

Woebot

Well-known member
Practically flawless back catalogue, I can always come back to them, no need to be ashamed. How do you rank the LPs @Matthew ?

I'd go,
1. Meat is murder
2. Queen is dead
3. The Smiths
4. Strangeways here we come
1. Meat
2. Hatful
3. Queen
4. Smiths
5. World Won't Listen
6. Strangeways [a very distant 6th place]
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
1. Meat
2. Hatful
3. Queen
4. Smiths
5. World Won't Listen
6. Strangeways [a very distant 6th place]
Oh, snap then! I didn't include the comps but they are essential, though I'd swap out world won't listen for louder than bombs, which was the one I owned (and caned).

Hatful of Hollow is amazing, better versions of the songs on the debut proper, plus its got How Soon Is now :love:
 
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