The Smiths (album)

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The Smiths
The Smiths cover
Studio album by The Smiths
Released February 20, 1984
Recorded Late 1983 in London and Manchester, England
Genre Alternative rock
Length 45:36
Label Rough Trade
Producer(s) John Porter, The Smiths
Professional reviews
The Smiths chronology
The Smiths
(1984)		 Hatful of Hollow
(1984)


The Smiths is the eponymous debut album of the band The Smiths, released on February 20, 1984. The album was well received by the critics as well as the public, and it established the Smiths as a prominent band in the 1980s music scene in the United Kingdom.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 481 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Contents

[edit] About the album

The album was particularly important and influential because it went against the grain of the popular music of the time. [citation needed] Its sound stood in stark opposition to the synthpop or post-punk genres [citation needed], coming off as 60s melodic guitar rock made unique by Johnny Marr's layered, note-intensive playing and Morrissey's superficially despondent but wit-filled lyrics, unique voice, and contrary song structure.

[edit] Cover

The sleeve for The Smiths was designed by Morrissey. It features American actor Joe Dallesandro in a cropped still from Andy Warhol's 1968 film Flesh.

In a 1993 interview with Mike Joyce he recalls being told by Johnny Marr about the cover of the album: "Johnny said to me, 'Uh, I've got the cover of the new album. And it's a picture of a bloke going down on another bloke.'" [citation needed] Some may say that this is another example of the band's (and particularly Morrissey's) homosexual undercurrent [citation needed].

[edit] Song-by-song description

 The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.

"Reel Around the Fountain" is the opening track. Though the music is written in the style of a love song, the lyrics detail lust and the loss of innocence [citation needed] . It features piano and organ playing by Paul Carrack.

"You've Got Everything Now"

"Miserable Lie"

"Pretty Girls Make Graves" is a song about the inability of an adolescent (some have speculated homosexual) man to fulfill his culture's stereotyped sexual/relational expectations:[citation needed] I could have been wild and I could have been free / but nature played this trick on me / She wants it now and she will not wait / but she's too rough and I'm too delicate, sings Morrissey. The stunning [citation needed] falsetto of the chorus is complemented by a powerful and effective[citation needed] barrage of tom drums, while the verses see a prominent bassline being supported by excellent guitar work. The strong musical and lyrical components of the song make it one of The Smiths' best remembered.

"The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" a song that some believed was about child molestation[citation needed] (an accusation vehemently denied), follows. Although it features a looping guitar part, the song adds or amplifies instruments to keep it interesting throughout. Morrissey's lyrics contain no verse-chorus structure, giving the song the feel of a poem set to music, which somehow makes it strangely beautiful [citation needed]. At one point, it was considered to name the album after this track but in the end they went with the simpler The Smiths instead.[citation needed]

"Still Ill" and "Hand in Glove", a remix of the band's debut single follow. They are more traditional pop tunes made interesting by Marr and Morrissey's unique style. The former sees the singer ruing the attraction of a person with whom he desires no relationship, while "Hand in Glove" is, in Morrissey's words, "the most important song ever written". It appears to be an us-versus-the-world love song[citation needed], until the song's last lines reverse the feeling into doomed romanticism[citation needed].

"What Difference Does It Make?" is a punk-influenced rock track that became the album's best selling single. "I Don't Owe You Anything" is a swaying track about a particularly forceful relationship [citation needed].

"Suffer Little Children", a song about the Moors Murders, closes the album. With a similar structure and subject matter to "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle", the song is sung from the perspective of the children who had been murdered. Its poetic nature and subtle musical backing make it a memorable closer. "Suffer Little Children" was the first song that Morrissey and Marr wrote together on that memorable day in 1982 when they first met. [citation needed]

The American edition of the record, released in April, 1984, by their American record company, Sire Records, included the 1983 single "This Charming Man". When in 1992 WEA bought the entire Smiths back catalogue, the album was re-released in its American configuration.

[edit] Track listing

[edit] LP

[edit] Side 1

  1. "Reel Around the Fountain"
  2. "You've Got Everything Now"
  3. "Miserable Lie"
  4. "Pretty Girls Make Graves"
  5. "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle"

[edit] Side 2

  1. "This Charming Man" (some editions only)
  2. "Still Ill"
  3. "Hand in Glove"
  4. "What Difference Does It Make?"
  5. "I Don't Owe You Anything"
  6. "Suffer Little Children"

[edit] Compact disc

Same as LP.

"This Charming Man" did not appear on the UK and European releases of The Smiths. It was, however, included on the American release because it hadn't been released as a single in the States, and was also on the original cassette release of the album. When WEA re-issued all Smiths albums in 1992, the American format was used.

[edit] Troy Tate sessions

The first recording sessions for this album were produced by Troy Tate from The Teardrop Explodes. Unsatisfied with his work as a producer, the Smiths re-recorded their debut with producer John Porter, and it was these recordings that formed the finished album. Most of the shelved Troy Tate recordings are available only in bootleg form, although the Tate-produced versions of "Jeane" (which the Smiths did not re-record with Porter) and "Pretty Girls Make Graves" were used as B-sides on official Smiths releases.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] The band

[edit] Additional musicians

[edit] Technical staff

The Smiths
Morrissey - Johnny Marr - Andy Rourke - Mike Joyce
Craig Gannon - Dale Hibbert
Discography
Albums: The Smiths | Meat Is Murder | The Queen Is Dead | Strangeways, Here We Come | Rank (live)
Singles: Hand in Glove | This Charming Man | What Difference Does It Make? | Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now | William, It Was Really Nothing | How Soon Is Now? | Shakespeare's Sister | That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore | The Boy with the Thorn in His Side | Bigmouth Strikes Again | Panic | Ask | Shoplifters of the World Unite | Sheila Take a Bow | Girlfriend in a Coma | I Started Something I Couldn't Finish | Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me | There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
Band-assembled compilations: Hatful of Hollow | The World Won't Listen | Louder Than Bombs
Other compilations: Stop Me |Best...I | ...Best II | Singles | The Very Best of The Smiths
Related
Rough Trade Records
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