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The SmithsAlbums ReviewedThe Smiths (1984)Hatful of Hollow (1984) Meat Is Murder (1985) The Queen Is Dead (1986) Strangeways, Here We Come (1987) Louder Than Bombs (1987) The Singles (1995) The Smiths(1984)The unlikely pairing of socially inept New York Dolls biographer Steven Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr, extroverted and four years Morrissey's junior, formed the nucleus of The Smiths, whose witty and stripped down music was an influential force throughout their brief existence. Inspired by punk (according to legend, Morrissey's musical stimulation can be traced back to the same Sex Pistols concert that also inspired members of The Buzzcocks and Joy Division), they gave themselves a bland name to differentiate themselves from exotically named synth-pop acts A Flock Of Seagulls and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Johnny Marr's arpeggios and jangly Byrds' derived textures are the most noteworthy instrumental feature of the group's sound, while the rhythm section mostly eschew conventional rock in the favour of a low key and drab sound, almost venturing into rockabilly territory at times. This inconspicuous approach places even more emphasis onto vocalist Morrissey, a startling eccentric, alternately a campy lovelorn crooner and a consummately English wit. This enigmatic approach does create problems, and it's hard to know at times where irony stops and sincerity begins; the song 'Still Ill' opens with the line "I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving/England is mine and it owes me a living", while 'Suffer Little Children' alludes to Manchester child murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindles, ending with "Oh Manchester, so much to answer for." Their 1984 debut is remarkably assured, with the group having figured out their signature sound, and if anything overusing it; most of the arrangements are relatively homogenous, and even a moderate alteration such as the addition of a harmonica to 'Hand In Glove' seems revolutionary in the context of the record. Less welcome is the guest appearance of Paul Carrack on keyboards on three songs, as the ubiquitous purveyor of adult contemporary smothers on some irrelevantly smooth organ and piano. An average running time of more than four minutes for each track is too long for the stripped down sound, and some variations in style would have been welcome, resulting in a record that's well-crafted, but less than the sum of its parts. It's the singles that stand out, mostly because they're delivered with more energy - 'This Charming Man' (with the memorable line 'Why pamper life's complexities/When the leather run smooth on the passenger seat?'), 'Hand In Glove' and 'What Difference Does It Make' - while the low point is 'Miserable Lie', ending with a couple of uncomfortable minutes of Morrissey falsetto. Hatful of Hollow, released later in 1984, features six of these songs, some in improved stripped down BBC session form, and does render this album somewhat obsolete; as good as some of the remaining songs are, there's little compelling reason to buy this if you already own Hatful, unless you're one of those obsessive Smiths fans who regard Morrissey as some kind of soothsayer for your personal life. 
 Hatful of Hollow(1984)More like a compilation of available tracks than the proper followup to their debut, Hatful of Hollow often features in discographies as The Smiths' second album, maybe because it fits so well together that it seems like an album proper. Five of the tracks are BBC Radio 1 recordings of material from their eponymous debut, while the group's non-album singles to that point are also included. The result is largely in the style of the debut, but with more diversity coming from the later singles, while the reworked songs are noticably rawer than in their original incarnations. Unless you're going to be a Smiths' completist, you may as well start here, as it gives a good overview of the early sound, with more essential tracks and less monotony than the debut. Surprisingly, Hatful of Hollow actually hangs together well as an album, with many of the tracks sharing a relatively low key approach, although the excellent singles 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now', 'William It Was Really Nothing' and particularly the more elaborate and aggressive 'How Soon is Now?' tend to stick out with a more deliberate purpose and clearer production. The sameness tends to bury some of the less memorable tracks, particularly in the second half of the album, but Hatful of Hollow is generally filled with gems. Opener 'William It Was Really Nothing' is an utterly perfect two minute pop song, 'The Night Has Opened My Eyes' has an alluringly mellow riff, while the plaintive 'Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want' only inhabits about half of the running time that its quality demands. The singles are clearly the most impressive songs contained on Hatful of Hollow, so that it still isn't totally essential if you already own a compilation, but the entire album is still an enjoyable Smiths experience.
Meat Is Murder(1985)Meat Is Murder is The Smiths' weakest studio album, but it's hardly anything to be ashamed of, since they broke up before they even hinted of running out of ideas. If anything, Meat Is Murder is a slightly uncomfortable and undisciplined transition between the relatively stark approach of their initial recordings and the studio based approach of The Queen Is Dead and Strangeways, Here We Come. Most of the songs stretch out longer than they should, while the group are often over-reaching, where as on their next album The Queen Is Dead they'd learn to make more diverse styles their own. 'How Soon is Now?' is inexplicably recycled from the previous year's Hatful of Hollow to act as the centrepiece here, an admission that the album otherwise lacks a single. Yet Morrissey and Marr each seem to be holding their end of the songwriting equation; Morrissey's lyrical scope widens to encompass vegetarianism and bullying, while Marr's bag of melodies and guitar ingenuity is as deep as ever. The Smiths latch onto an uncharacteristically funky groove for 'Barbarism Begins At Home', and the rockabilly of 'Rusholme Ruffians' isn't particularly impressive, while 'Well I Wonder' and the title track are unsuitably ethereal. Along with 'How Soon is Now?' the other bona-fide Smiths' classics here are 'The Headmaster Ritual', topped off with Morrissey's tremulous wordless chorus, and the melodically plaintive 'I Want The One I Can't Have'. Elsewhere, Meat Is Murder is a little uninteresting and forgettable, so that even Morrissey's threat of dropping his trousers to the Queen fails to shock in the manner that he intended. 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore' is an adequate song, but strangely languid for a single. This album is kind of interesting in places, showing The Smiths unsure where to go next and exploring some surprising areas, but it's not very convincing most of the time.
The Queen Is Dead(1986)The Queen Is Dead is a regular feature on top albums of all time lists, especially those compiled by British writers, and it's certainly a substantial step forward from its predecessors; while the lack of diversity on Hatful of Hollow was somewhat stulifying, and the excessive diversity of Meat Is Murder was unsuccessfully distracting, this album gets the balance right; there's everything from epic ballads to British music hall to hard rock, but it's all indelibly stamped with The Smiths' sound. In my view it's not really a first tier classic - there are two or three tracks that don't measure up to the high standards of the rest of the record - but it's amazingly good considering the adverse circumstances the group found themselves it at the time; Rourke was struggling with a heroin addiction and Marr was involved in a car crash, and the album was pieced together relatively quickly. Despite this, most of the time here everything comes together perfectly. Morrissey's lyrics are especially sharp this time around, and he's not scared of poking fun at himself: "She said "I know you, and you cannot sing"/I said "That's nothing - you should hear me play piano."" Morrissey's lyrics aren't quite uniformly brilliant; he spends the entirety of 'Never Had No One Ever' lamenting his virginity, without much happening musically to compensate. The other two lesser tracks are 'Vicar in a Tutu' and 'Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others'; both have a certain charm, but are pretty outclassed in this company, and feel more like bonus tracks or b-sides on either side of the classic 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out'. But the rest of the record is great; the title track is almost as rocking as The Smiths ever got, while 'I Know It's Over' climaxes stunningly in the memorable "it's so easy to laugh" bridge. 'Frankly, Mr Shankly' succeeds by not taking itself too seriously, with a music hall feel, and a fantastic guitar break from Marr, while 'Cemetery Gates' is a wondeful jangler in the style of 'William It Was Really Nothing' with allusions to Wilde and Yeats. The brace of singles on the second side are all among The Smiths' finest; the jangly and euphoric 'The Boy With The Thorn In His Side', the aggressive 'Bigmouth Strikes Again' and the gorgeous 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out' are all standouts on the stellar Singles collection. I don't place The Queen Is Dead quite in the top echelon of classic albums, but nevertheless it's the greatest single album The Smiths ever made.
Strangeways, Here We Come(1987)The success of The Queen Is Dead established The Smiths' ability to branch out into different styles after the relative homogeneity of their first two albums. Strangeways, Here We Come is a retrenchment, showcasing their newfound stylistic adaptability in more subtle ways, resulting in an album that lacks the amazing highpoints of The Queen Is Dead, but still shows plenty of creativity, enough for it to rank as their second best studio album. Superficially, it's mostly mid-tempo pop-rock, but there's plenty of variation within - a couple of the songs are even devoid of guitar, namely the opening 'A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours' and the grandiose orchestrated ballad 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me', while 'Death At One's Elbow' ventures into rockabilly. This record also captures some of Morrissey's best vocal performances, showing a pure upper register, while he also plays some piano during the long jam that closes out 'Death Of A Disco Dancer'. While 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me', the charmingly pretty 'Girlfriend In A Coma' and 'I Started Something I Couldn't Finish' were chosen as singles, the choices could just have easily as been the catchy pop of 'Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before', the music industry diatribe 'Paint A Vulgar Picture' and the opening music hall groove of 'A Rush and a Push....' - this is an extremely even record, even if the last couple of tracks are somewhat nondescript and it feels a little slight at just 35 minutes. Unfortunately this was to be The Smiths' last album; Marr left the band directly after it was made, a rift that Morrissey claimed could have been healed if it wasn't for the press coverage driving them further apart. The group bewilderingly soldiered on briefly as a three piece before calling it a day, leaving Morrissey to appear alone in the album's videos.
Louder Than Bombs(1987)A collection of The Smiths non-album material, Louder Than Bombs was actually released before Strangeways, but it looks tidier underneath. It's actually less useful than it could have been, doubling up on eight tracks from Hatful of Hollow. Given the existence of Hatful of Hollow, this compilation would make more sense if had been recast to include the group's final b-sides, the Cilla Black cover 'Work Is A Four Letter Word' and fan favourite 'I Keep Mine Hidden', as well as a couple of 1983 b-sides also unavailable on CD. There's also a song, 'Money Changes Everything', only available on the British compilation The World Won't Listen, which Louder Than Bombs draws from. In fact the whole Smiths discography is such a mess that a complete three or four disc boxset would be a sensible release; the group only released a handful of really substandard songs in their short career, and one comprehensive set would make more sense than having to buy three copies of 'Hand In Glove' to obtain all of their easily available studio recordings. Still, originally a double LP set, fitting onto one CD, this album is a great buy with plenty of terrific non-album singles like 'Shoplifters of the World Unite', the Kirsty McColl duet 'Ask' and 'Panic'; someone at my University certainly liked two of those songs, since the film school had a letterbox with a "shoplifters of the world unite" sticker, while a desk in the library had "Hang the blessed DJ/'cos the music that he constantly plays/Says nothing to me about my life" engraved in it with the sharp point of a compass. Among the material not previously from Hatful of Hollow, there is some obvious filler, unsurprising for b-sides; most noticeably the Twinkle cover 'Golden Lights' and the instrumental 'Oscillate Wildly'. But there's plenty of interesting material too - 'London' and 'Shoplifters of the World Unite' are arguably the hardest rocking tracks The Smiths ever recorded, especially the punk like thrash of the former. 'Half A Person' is one of the Smiths' most effective songs too, with the lines "Sixteen, clumsy and shy/I went to London and I/I booked myself in at the Y.W.C.A./I said: "I like it here - can I stay?" Since I'm not too enamoured with The Smiths' early work, from my perspective Louder Than Bombs actually covers most of their essential work aside from their last two studio albums. If only 'How Soon Is Now?' was included here, grabbing this, The Queen Is Dead and Strangeways would constitute a pretty effective abridged Smiths discography.
The Singles(1995)For four brief years during the eighties, the Smiths released a truckload of music that was catchy and attractive, yet also had Indie guitar credibility. While some of their albums are a little patchy, whoever picked their singles got it right every time, and this collection is near perfect, ranging from janglers like the two perfect minutes of 'William, It Was Really Nothing' and 'The Boy With the Thorn in His Side', to the electrifying 'How Soon Is Now?' and the poignant 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out'. While some of these singles are better than others, the number of quality singles that The Smiths produced between 1983 and 1987 is quite astonishing and is more or less essential for any quality music collection.
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Written 2001-2007, Graham Fyfe
