The Smiths
The Queen Is Dead (1986)

This album is constantly on top 5 British albums of all time lists, and no one can doubt, it is a masterpiece. The title track is amongst one of the harder Smiths tracks you’ll find, with a rollicking drum beat at the beginning, and a great opening vocal by Morrissey. Its been said so much, but on this track his voice really does act like an instrument, no one else can ever pull that off – only Morrissey.
This album, on the surface, is one of the more ‘cheery’ Smiths offerings, Track 2 – the humorous ‘Frankly Mr Shankly’ just makes you want to smile, while Track 3, ‘I Know It’s Over’ could make you cry; “Its so easy to laugh, its so easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind”, are great lyrics. Poets, and Poetry are on Morrissey’s agenda on Track 5, and my personal favourite ‘Cemetry Gates’ – again, another upbeat pop song which is just classic Smiths. I can imagine it was hard to think of singles to release off this album, but both Tracks 6 and 7 made the cut: ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ and ‘The Boy With a Thorn In His Side’ both songs breeze along, with Morrissey’s lyrics and vocal on top form, on the aforementioned track 6 in particular.
I hate referring back to tired old ‘Best Of’ lists, but a song which is often seen as the best Indie song of all time is Track 9 – the truly fantastic ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’. Acoustic guitar and great backing playing by the entire band make this song what it is, but as with so many Smiths songs – Morrissey’s lyrics steal the show again.
This is the best Smiths album, music wise – it’s quite an uplifting summery sort of album, in stark contrast to 1985’s ‘Meat Is Murder’. This is a great place to start your collection too, and after that, frankly, you will be hooked.


+ Review by Arfyn

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