on 2011-05-26 hstisgod Said:

wow, two completely different perspectives and both tremendous reviews!
Not Rated

Review:

on 2011-05-25 CharlesMartel Said:

Aah, the Smiths. Once you get round to reviewing an album by the Smiths you are supposed to feel on steady ground. The Smiths are iconic, arent they? One of the most significant influences on music since the end of the eighties. Single-handedly responsible for the explosion in indie music, at least in Britain. Here is a band which we can all respect and love.

Now I may be somewhat iconoclastic when it comes to hyped up bands and albums (Radiohead and "Loveless" being examples), I cannot bring myself to trash the Smiths. Not that they need any trashing, of course, for the Smiths were all those things that I said about them in the opening paragraph. Which is all the more frustrating and annoying that, even after all this time, I still cannot get worked up about the Smiths to the extent that I do with other bands of the era. But I should, shouldn't I. I mean, I love UK post-punk and have very high rating for a number of jangle-pop bands (the genre perhaps most directly influenced by the Smiths). And yet the Smiths themselves leave me tepid at best.

Perhaps it is that, for all they stood for, their recorded music never matched the potential that the band displayed, and the reality of the impact they had. Their self-titled debut album was something of a disappointment and, even after all this time, it is definitely not usually reckoned as their best. The principal problem is that the album has been ruined by awful production, a style of production which I often term elephant's ear  flat and grey. It would be really interesting to hear what would happen if the whole thing was digitally remastered and reproduced from the original tapes. Put this in the hands of a really good producer and you might have a quality album. As it is, it is heavily marked down because of the lifeless sound.

But then this is the Smiths, a band whose present hype exceeds their past achievement. Touted as the leaders of post punk, they were far from that, though they did have commercial success. OK the songs were dark and depressing, but one swallow a summer does not make. One miserable song a post punk does not make either. Yet of all the albums, this is the most depressing. Morrissey was pretending to be asexual and strode the stage of Top of the Pops swinging a bunch of gladioli and announcing to a stunned mainstream that music continued to live, all you had to do was look for it.

But to a generation of miserable adolescent boys, this was the height of cool. Locked in your room feeling sorry for yourself, you had the Smiths to tell you that yes, the world was really as crap as you imagined it to be. Self-pity can be a fulfilling way of life. Despair is the new optimism. Morrissey's voice simply drew you into the pit and told you that it was alright to be there. His rejection of sex (a complete lie as it turned out) made you feel better about not getting any yourself. And that made you feel better, your misery was so real and present it was the natural way to be. Misery and self-pity could now be your ruling passion, and something you could almost wake up to, expectantly and with longing, for another day of it.
Rating: 6/10

Review:

on 2007-08-09 SolitaryMan Said:

Quite a debut record from one of the more well-known and discussed British pop-rock groups, with many set-in-stone classics that launched it up to number 2 on the UK charts and cracked the 150 mark in America. Misunderstood (according to him) and silk-throated vocalist Morrissey is a youthful ball of energy on tracks like the breakthrough "Hand In Glove", where is youthful exuberance about personal and social issues not too typically featured in popular music makes for plenty of intrigue. What really ties this solid collection of songs together, however, is the bright and breezy guitar of Johnny Marr, a talent who should be mentioned with the best of the best of his era. "The Smiths" could possibly be seen as the initial blueprint for what we now sometimes refer to as "emo", although they often are way too upbeat in contrast to Morrissey's self-loathing to be considered as such. This album still ripples across the musical pond, and it must be seen as a classic in that light.
Rating: 8/10