Tag: Jangle rock

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Smiths
Album Title: Strangeways, here we come
Year released: 1987
Year reissued: 2011
Details: Remastered, part of box set that includes booklet and poster

The skinny: How do you follow an album like “The Queen is dead”? Apparently, you break up your relatively short-lived but beloved band and months later, release your final album. “Strangeways, here we come” is considered by some, including both Morrissey and Johnny Marr, as The Smiths’ best album. I’m not sure I’m completely on board with this but it definitely counts a couple of my favourites in its track listing, tracks like “Unhappy birthday” and the one I’ve highlighted below. Perhaps I’ll throw this one over to Geoff at 1001albumsin10years, who I know is a big fan of these Manchester legends but has yet to chime in on his favourite of the studio releases. How about it Geoff?

Standout track: “Girlfriend in a coma”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Smiths
Album Title: The Queen is dead
Year released: 1986
Year reissued: 2011
Details: Remastered, gatefold sleeve, part of box set that includes booklet and poster

The skinny: There was a brief difference of opinions between two commenters on last week’s post and I stepped in to say that I always found The Smiths’ singles preferable to their proper studio albums. Our friend at Aphoristic Album Reviews agreed, but commented that this third album by The Smiths, “The Queen is dead”, was ‘very good though’. And I’m with him. This one was my favourite of their studio albums. So many great tracks like “Frankly Mr. Shankly”, “There is a light that never goes out”, “Cemetry gates”, “The boy with the thorn in his side”, and the one below, “Bigmouth strikes again”. In fact, it’s near impossible to point out a weak link here. I defy you to try.

Standout track: “Bigmouth strikes again”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Smiths
Album Title: Meat is murder
Year released: 1985
Year reissued: 2011
Details: Remastered, part of box set that includes booklet and poster

The skinny: If you missed last week’s post for this series, I’ll once again forewarn you that I am in the midst of a Smiths bender. This here’s the second post in a series that will take me through the entire “Complete” box set that Rhino Records UK put out a number of years ago. “Meat is murder” is the second proper full length by the Manchester quartet and was their highest charting record in the UK. As I mentioned last week, all the records in the set follow the original track listing so you won’t find “How soon is now” here. However, the album did see Morrissey climb up on the vegetarian soapbox with the title track and also a belt out a few other humdinging tracks, like the one below.

Standout track: “That joke isn’t funny anymore”