First cab off the rank in my list of my favourite 15 “desert island” or “car stereo hard drive” discs is The Smiths’ “The Queen is Dead”. Released in 1986, the album reached number 2 in the UK and, somewhat surprisingly given it’s “Englishness”, number 70 in the USA Billboard chart.
It was The Smiths’ third album, and it found them at the peak of their powers.
With their ridiculously good looking lead singer, Morrissey, their legendary lead guitarist and composer Johnny Marr and a pretty handy rhythm section in Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, the band reached a new level on this album and it stands the test of time as their best.
While I’ve made a habit of listening to one of their compilation albums, “Louder Than Bombs”, in recent times due to it’s mix of iconic singles (like “Ask”, “Panic” and “Sheila Take A Bow”) and lesser-known but timeless songs (like “Oscillate Wildly”, “This Night Has Opened My Eyes” and “Half A Person”), it was a pleasure to listen to “The Queen is Dead” again after a few years’ absence. There are two songs in “Frankly Mr Shankly” and “Vicar In A Tutu” that don’t quite match the quality of the rest of the album, but when the rest is so good it’s hard to complain.
The Smiths for me were about trying to establish some kind of connection to the overcast, depressed image I had of England from watching films and tv shows from the late ’60s and ’70s, and empathising with Britain’s fall from grace as the leading political and cultural power in the world. The optimism of Beatlemania and the early ’60s had been replaced by despair and punk in the ’70s. The Smiths spoke to the decline in a sentimental fashion but weren’t afraid to criticise tradition at the same time (hello, Royal family).
Growing up a Beatles fan and enjoying the music of their peers such as The Who and The Byrds, my core taste in music formed around harmony, melody and ideally the jangle of a Rickenbacker guitar. At their best The Smiths play their own take on jangly guitar pop, but mix in Morrissey’s voice and a literate approach to songwriting (which has perhaps never been equaled in terms of reflecting teenage “tragedy”) and you have a unique approach that has earned them a place in the bloodline of great British guitar pop bands.
Rolling Stone gave the album 5 stars. The NME recently voted it “The Greatest Album of All Time”.
Perhaps the album’s best song, “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” ranked number 25 in Mojo magazine’s 100 greatest songs of all time.
As music fans we usually hold certain albums in high regard due to a combination of the musical quality of the album and the mood or memory that reveals itself to us when we listen to it. A lot of the time we remember a happy time with friends, but this is the type of album that can hold quite different memories. With two of the album’s best songs having the titles “I Know It’s Over” and “Never Had No One Ever”, it’s obvious that the emotions dug up can be more of the heartbreak variety, and that certainly applies here (hi Brooke! :-)).
Having said that I do love this album and it is truly timeless.
