A Guide to The Smiths
- Cameron Bishop
- Nov 30, 2024
- 8 min read
If you're just starting to get into the indie music classics, then you'll no doubt find yourself quickly acquianted with the name "The Smiths". You may have even heard a few of their songs, either just by witnessing the cultural impact they left or the aftershocks they caused. Despite only being around for 5 years, they created 3 classic albums, 1 good outing, and several compilations filled to the brim with one-off singles and b-sides that never made it onto a mainline album, and they rarely put a foot even microscopically wrong, and that has been appreciated throughout the years as successive generations seem to discover the band and fall in love with them over and over again. But what makes The Smiths in particular so special, and so stubborn in their position right on the rim of the spotlight?
First things first
I think with a band like The Smiths, it's important to clarify the situation that birthed them. The Smiths were formed in 1982 in Manchester, England; a few years after Margaret Thatcher (rest in piss) became Prime Minister of the UK.
I don't just bring that up to criticize the woman who hated the working class so much she made it her life goal to fuck us over, as cathartic as that may be, I mention it because, while there is very little in the way of explicitly political themes in Morrissey's writing for The Smiths, the music feels very connected to the working class culture of the 80s that the class warfare of the Conservatives inspired. By my analysis, that culture is essentially one of strong bonds amongst a perceived in-group, and increasing disdain for those seen as outsiders as the threatened in-group seeks to protect their own.
Cue the working class outsiders...
The Smiths
The first album from The Smiths is, as any self-titled and/or debut album ought to be, a mission statement. It lays out exactly what you expect of The Smiths musically: jangly, pop-leaning instrumentation from a band that works phenomenally well together, complimenting each other perfectly, as Morrissey sings peculiarly over the top of it all with lyrics that aren't afraid to break some boundaries and often make angsty oddballs feel validated (a skill he would go on to wield for evil in the decades since the band's split).
With their first effort, The Smiths feel completely formed in a way that very few artists can claim. There is no lack of cohesion or direction that can usually be expected and forgiven from artists on their first project, and this instant momentum begot instant classics and more underground, heady cuts alike in a way that felt more, again, cohesive than it had any right being.
It's not a perfect album though. I usually don't like to highlight negatives in music through fear of putting off a potential fan from finding something they love, but I feel it's worth mentioning here: the production on this album is noticeably poor. It's not throughout the entire thing, and it rarely ruins a song for me, but a dull mix here, and a questionably loud cymbal there can be off-putting, and personally I remember it contributing to a confusion around the hype of the band when this album served as my introduction to them. If you are a new listener, and decide to start here, just know that it gets better, and there's a good chance you will come to love even this album despite it's flaws.
That being said though, this is still a good album. One that is especially easy to respect after having listened to other albums from them in my opinion, but even on first listen, songs like This Charming Man (if you count the song as "part of the album") and Hand In Glove clicked instantly for me and showed enough promise for me to have not given up on the band.
Meat Is Murder
Just 12 months and a compilation album later and the indieheads of the 1980s would have another album to enjoy by The Smiths. You might think that, given the quick turnaround with this album, it must feel rushed or low-quality in some way, but you'd be so very wrong. To bring my personal opinion into it, this is my second favourite of their albums, and it is generally considered yet another classic album by the band.
The album doesn't deviate too far from the sound of their previous album other than the noticeably improved production, with the band dipping their toes slightly into a plucky, fairground sound for most of the album, and taking a sharp turn at the closer with the wistful title track, which opens with the sound of cows and cold machinery.
Other than that stark exception though, this album is on-the-whole a much more fun album than most of The Smiths' discography, maybe barring the compilation albums. To demonstrate the difference, you only need to look at the openers of each of the albums: While the opener to The Smiths is the delightfully dour Reel Around the Fountain, this album opens with a spunky and vivacious explosion in The Headmaster Ritual. And the energy is carried until track 5 where Morrissey pleads for more sympathy and less mockery over That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore's slow, yearning instrumental.
If you wanted an album to listen to that would give you a good idea of what to expect from The Smiths, this may well be the one. It's a solid outing with a lot of fun tracks, and some of that classic Marr-Morrissey melancholy to keep it grounded in their discography. I don't think it's controversial to say there will be better albums than this to come, but it's a great starting point.
The Queen Is Dead
A little over a year after the release of Meat Is Murder we have yet another instant classic, this time one of the greatest albums ever made. Practically every song on this album is amongst the best of The Smiths' already impressive catalogue, with the only exception being Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others, which is still a very good instrumental that some claim is marred (pun intended) by it's strange lyrics.
Right from the first few seconds of the album you're prepared for an exceptional experience, as the record opens with a contextually sarcastic rendition of Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty, transitioning into the driving drums of the opener and title track The Queen Is Dead which remains exciting for the entirety of it's 6:24 runtime. From there, the band shows you what makes them so legendary with the perpetually perfect pairing of Morrissey's lyrics and singular vocals with Marr's exceptional guitar parts, with both comfortably at their peak here both in terms of individual brilliance and in how they come together to elevate one another's performances.
Following a mostly energetic album in Meat Is Murder and before that a more slow and considered album with their self-titled debut, The Queen Is Dead strikes a balance that is required of a genre-defining album (as fun as their less balanced efforts still prove), as—due to that balance—the album has become not only a great album in isolation, but a blueprint for what music in this style should be.
This album is also the clearest moment of their discography where the cultural background I mentioned in the intro comes into the fore. The most all-encompassing theme I would assign to this album is a feeling of being an outsider, rejected by the society you live in. The second song on the album, Frankly, Mr. Shankly, outlines a desire to be respected and leave a legacy, which tangentially sets the tone in that respect so that songs like Bigmouth Strikes Again, Never Had No One Ever, and The Boy With the Thorn In His Side, among others, can hit it home. Even the album's biggest song, There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, goes out of its way to highlight it to near-excess:
I never, never want to go home Because I haven't got one Anymore
Please don't drop me home Because it's not my home, it's their home, and I'm welcome no more
I think it's fairly clear by now how highly I rate this album, but to drive it home, if there is one Smiths album that you'll listen to in your life, you should make it this one. The only reason I don't recommend it as a starting point is that it sets the bar unfairly high for their other work.
Strangeways, Here We Come
Strangeways is a weird album to talk about, because—while I believe The Smiths doesn't have a bad album—following such a masterpiece as The Queen Is Dead, this album just feels exhausted. And fair enough, the band made four mainline albums along with the material to fill two long compilation albums between 1984 and 1987. They had so thoroughly commented on society that they were probably struggling to find new avenues for it. They secured their legacy with an all-time great indie album (maybe even two or three, depending who you ask), and they did it in less time than most countries give between general elections. They have every right to be a little burned out, but it feels like more than that. It just feels off when you listen to it within the context of the discography. Something about it feels a little synthetic. That isn't to doubt the quality of the album, it is still a good album, but I get an uncanny valley type of feeling that, while not ruining the album, makes it a strange experience to listen to. It feels like the band have all started their solo ventures before actually starting them.
I think one of the strongest things about this album is one of the biggest reasons it feels so off: and that's the diverse experimentation with their sound. Experimentation is, of course, essential in keeping things fresh, but here it felt as though there were three ideas that the band had and switched between in a whiplash-inducing way. The first is to mostly keep doing what they were doing, as seen with I Started Something I Couldn't Finish, Girlfriend In a Coma, and Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before; The second is experimenting with guitar techniques and effects, like with Death of a Disco Dancer; Then the third was to add new instruments into the mix, like the strings on Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me and all sorts of alien instrumentation (at least alien to The Smiths) on the opener. Each path is valid in my view, and could have made for yet another great album, but they don't compliment eachother all that well for me, which puts this just short of their usual standard in a way that feels wrong. With both the prior albums, the band had a really lame superpower of sorts when it came to sequencing: whatever they did it just worked, and flowed naturally and seemed cohesive, even when it really shouldn't. I think the lack of that power here stands out and makes it a slightly off experience.
I think it's worth reiterating that this album is still an album by The Smiths, which means it's well worth a listen if you're interested in indie music. It's just that when comparing it to other albums by the band, it's a bit of an odd one to try to recommend.
Where do I start?
If you aren't reading because you're interested in listening to The Smiths or already have, thanks for reading! I hope you got something out of it. If you were interested in getting into The Smiths though, here's what I would recommend: start with these two tracks:
If you preferred the first, I'd recommend starting with The Queen Is Dead, then otherwise going in chronological order. If you liked How Soon Is Now? better, I'd start with Meat Is Murder, then The Queen Is Dead, followed by The Smiths and ending with Strangeways, Here We Come.
Thanks for reading my guide to The Smiths! I hope it in some way helps you to appreciate the mark they've left on music, whether that be because you wanted to get into their music, were seeking validation for your love of it, or just wanted to understand their appeal as someone who isn't that into them. They're a special band, and I think they deserve that recognition.
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