What Smiths albums are essential?

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S/T and The Queen Is Dead are nobrainers, but does a boy need copies of Louder Than Bombs, The Singles, or Hatful of Hollow?

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Monday, 3 March 2003 03:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Louder definitely.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 3 March 2003 03:38 (twenty-three years ago)

hatful of hollow is indeed essential

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 3 March 2003 03:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Singles renders all other Smiths comps obsolete.

― Evan (Evan), Monday, 3 March 2003 04:28 (twenty-three years ago)

And eveyone should own Stangeways cuz it's so wonderful...so,now someone just has to recommend Meat is Murder to you and you will be all set.

― Scott Seward, Monday, 3 March 2003 04:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Singles is a good starter record. But Louder is the best Smiths record EVAH!

― paul cox (paul cox), Monday, 3 March 2003 04:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Hatful of Hollow is my single favorite Smiths album.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Monday, 3 March 2003 05:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Willenium.

― Mean Guy, Monday, 3 March 2003 05:14 (twenty-three years ago)

ditto scott. strangeways is brilliant. what a wonderfully woeful work. (yeah, as opposed to their usual cheery optimism)

― j.a.e., Monday, 3 March 2003 06:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Hatful of Hollow and Queen Is Dead are all I need. I really don't enjoy Louder; too many dud songs, where as Hatful always impresses me with how many excellent songs there are.

― derrick (derrick), Monday, 3 March 2003 07:17 (twenty-three years ago)

so,now someone just has to recommend Meat is Murder to you and you will be all set

Meat is Murder is a great album...

My least favourite is their first (s/t) - the production is woolly (imo, apart from 'What difference', there are better versions of the songs on Hatful...) & the songs aren't half as catchy as the other albums.

So there.

― Jez (Jez), Monday, 3 March 2003 09:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Buy a copy of Singles - if you like it a lot you'll probably end up with everything, since it's a small catalogue and quite a cheap one. If you don't care for it that much you won't need anything else.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 3 March 2003 11:18 (twenty-three years ago)

"Stageways Here I Come" is the only slightly underrated Smiths album, the rest are all overrated.

On "Stagewayes Here I Come", it finally sounds like those songs were actually precomposed, giving them some rather decent melodies, whereas their earlier songs all sound like they have just been improvised on top of Johnny Marr's guitar playing.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 3 March 2003 11:21 (twenty-three years ago)

There all pretty fine if you like the Smiths - I get the impression many people like the one they heard first best.

― tigerclawskank, Monday, 3 March 2003 11:48 (twenty-three years ago)

the whole catalogue is in "need" of a serious remastering job. then you can pay for em all over again (as i would, happily).

― vicar in a tutu, Monday, 3 March 2003 12:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Louder Than Bombs is not really essential, though it's a good once to get once you have all the others. The Singles album is not essential. the Best Ofs are very inessential.

All of the proper Smiths albums are essential, viz:

the first album

"Hatful of Hollow"

"Meat Is Murder"

"The Queen Is Dead"

"The World Won't Listen"

"Strangeways Here We Come"

I recommend buying any of these as an intro to the Smiths.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 3 March 2003 12:41 (twenty-three years ago)

My recommendation goes to my favorite Smiths album, "Hatful of Hollow".

― rex jr., Monday, 3 March 2003 13:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Geir, I know we're not supposed to reply to any of your stupid comments anymore, but your contribution to this this thread just demands a reply: you are SO full of shit. Stupid idiot.

Fave Smiths-album may be obvious, but it just is: The Queen Is Dead.

― Crispijn, Monday, 3 March 2003 16:11 (twenty-three years ago)

If you only buy one Smiths record, make it "Rank"

(ducks)

.. Just get "Hatfullla" and "The Queen" ...

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:14 (twenty-three years ago)

_Strangeways..._ is absolute rubbish. Avoid it at all costs and copy "A Rush and a Push..." and "Stop Me If You..." from someone as those are the only two songs on that album you need.

I say _Hatful of Hollow_ and _Louder Than Bombs_ are both essential.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:31 (twenty-three years ago)

wot no Unhappy Birthday?

― g.cannon (gcannon), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:37 (twenty-three years ago)

GOD NO.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:38 (twenty-three years ago)

With all respect to Danger Dan, I wouldn't say Strangeways... is absolute rubbish. True, it's not their finest hour (and there are moments of near self-pardoy therein, notably "Girlfriend in a Coma"), but there are moments that redeem it. "Last Night I Dreamt..." is pretty great, I think, and "Unhappy Birthday" is hilarious....intentionally or otherwise.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:39 (twenty-three years ago)

well I even like Paint A Vulgar Picture so I should probly just can it.

― g.cannon (gcannon), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:43 (twenty-three years ago)

"Unhappy Birthday" is an abominable mess that never should have been released on an album. It's a stupid song that shamelessly panders to self-satisfied fourteen-year-olds who think the reason they get beat up at school is because they are far cleverer than everyone around them and not because they are irritating pests that could use an introduction to the business end of a baseball bat.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:44 (twenty-three years ago)

(No sir, I don't like it.)

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:45 (twenty-three years ago)

you're evil and you lie!!

― g.cannon (gcannon), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:46 (twenty-three years ago)

That comeback has done more to justify the existence of "Unhappy Brithday" in my eyes than all of the reasoned arguments I've heard put together.

Still don't like it, though.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 March 2003 16:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Am I the only one who hates the first two minutes or so of that canned music at the beginning of the otherwise wonderful Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me?

I like Meat is Murder a lot. Not so taken by the first two songs but after that it really takes off and Well I Wonder is brilliant.

― Calum Robert, Monday, 3 March 2003 19:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Am I the only one who hates the first two minutes or so of that canned music at the beginning of the otherwise wonderful Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me?

Are you referring to the needlessly lengthy intro which offsets angry crowd noise against plangent piano chords? Never quite understood that either (although I wouldn't necessarily say I hate it).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 3 March 2003 20:40 (twenty-three years ago)

shamelessly panders to self-satisfied fourteen-year-olds who think the reason they get beat up at school is because they are far cleverer than everyone around them and not because they are irritating pests

well, this description could be applied to any Smiths' song, couldn't it?

My ranking of the Smiths albums: Louder than Bombs > Queen is Dead > Meat is Murder > Strangeways > s/t. Hell, I even like Rank, mostly for Morrissey's over-the-top yodelling.

― Somnambulist Cesario, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 01:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Essential Smiths is exactly Hatful of Hollow, and Queen is Dead/Louder than Bombs (former if you want an album that was meant to be an album, latter if you want lots of songs). Then you've got the best of two different kinds of Smiths. If you love what you hear, then the rest becomes essential also, because it's all great if you like Smiths. Even Strangeways, which is like Abbey Road in band-in-decline-but-still-great way. Unhappy Birthday is stupid but catchy like Mean Mr Mustard. Last Night I Dreamt is great as (albeit exact opposite of) Here Comes the Sun.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 02:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Louder than Bombs is the only essential Smiths album.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 03:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Singles is only available on import in Canada (i think) so it was not, as Tom says, cheap. On the other hand, I love it and I've never felt compelled to buy anything else by them, except for Queen Is Dead when found it for a dollar on vinyl.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 06:10 (twenty-three years ago)

As stated a million times, the s/t first album by no means takes precedence over the others. Get Hatful of Hollow before that.

But get them all, yeah.

I love Strangeways best of all sometimes. Unhappy Birthday is awful though, yes. As is Death at one's elbow. But APART from that (I love the crowd noise intro to LNIDSLM)

Meat is Murder is almost as good, but I never loved Barbarism (at least not it the album version) or the title track, so it suffers from serious tail off for me.

But sod all that. The DV was right - there's nothing I could really imagine calling 'inessential', except for the latter day compilations.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 12:43 (twenty-three years ago)

all Smiths records are essential, even the Sweet and Tender Hooligan single. Those who know don't say, those who say, don't know....

― roger adultery, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 07:44 (twenty-three years ago)

'Barbarism' is based on an old Kevin Keegan B-side.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:05 (twenty-three years ago)

None of them.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:13 (twenty-three years ago)

this thread does kind of show the problem people have getting into the smiths - there isn't a universally agreed, yes-this-is-the-one album. well, except, there should be, and it should be louder than bombs. this is why:

it has most of their best songs on it. don't disagree, it's true.

it does share a lot of tracks with hatful/world won't listen, but LTB is best because of the sequencing. it's the only compilation that was properly planned, moving as it does from their most shamelessly happy song all the way through, step by step, to their most extremely self-pitying. irresistible narrative logic.

it wins!

― pete b. (pete b.), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Asleep is not their most self-pitying song. And even if it were, that would be a rubbish trajectory for an album.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Louder than Bombs probably is the best compilation but by no means it is essential. I'd go for Hatful of Hollow (early Smiths)) and The World Won't Listen (late Smiths). Louder is the best introduction in one CD but it misses too much. One example is Reel around the Fountain. There is a gorgeous version on Hatful of Hollow.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:17 (twenty-three years ago)

as far as i'm aware it's the only smiths song where he asks his partner/imaginary friend/self to kill him. and bear in mind that, if he is talking to someone else, the line 'i don't want to wake up on my own anymore' doesn't make any sense. unless, that is, having someone with him doesn't even stop him feeling alone which = self-pity. QED.

it's a fantastic trajectory for an album simply because it's so dramatic. you can hear the archness drain away until you're left with - IMO - the saddest and most emotionally naked lyrics morrissey wrote: 'stretch out and wait,' 'please please please,' 'this night has opened my eyes' etc etc.

― pete b. (pete b.), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Suicide = self-pitying??

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:35 (twenty-three years ago)

yes, that pretty much sums up my attitude.

― pete b. (pete b.), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:38 (twenty-three years ago)

oh wait, you don't mean Suicide do you? they're not self-pitying at all, in fact i imagine they walk around feeling pretty pleased with themselves, what with being so hip these days 'n all.

― pete b. (pete b.), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:39 (twenty-three years ago)

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