Title: The Queen is Dead
Artist: The Smiths
Genre: Indie Rock/Indie Pop/Post Punk
Artist Reaction: No fan of the Smith, I!
Genre Reaction: Not a fan of any of the three
Familiarity: I’ve actually heard this album before. See
here
Suggested by: Batty
It was nearly three years ago, so perhaps it will be interesting to see how, if at all, my reaction to the album has changed, especially given my inclusion of their lead singer in my Hate List.
The Queen is Dead: Good rocky opening, great guitar work as ever from Johnny Marr, but I’ve never liked, and probably never will like, Morrisey’s moaning, droning vocal. Song has a lot of energy, though I could do without the English sing-song before it.
Frankly Mr. Shankly: Got a kind of Beatles feel to it, bit annoying really. Not a patch on the opener and the guitar work is minimal. Meh.
I Know It’s Over: One of no doubt many maudlin ballads, whining about life as Morrissey does so well. Bit of a bluesy feel to it. Great bass line. God though his voice! When he sings “Mother I can feel the soil pouring over my head” I wish it was.
Never Had No One Ever: Another slow one, but with punchier guitar this time. Drone, drone, drone.
Cemetery Gates: Much better. Uptempo, happy guitar in almost a Greek style or something. Reminds me slightly of Deacon Blue. Maybe.
Bigmouth Strikes Again: Keeping things moving with an acerbic tune that rocks nicely. Even his vocal isn’t bad on this one. Marr really gets the chance to shine, and shine he does.
The Boy with the Thorn in His Side: Decent enough but I kind of missed anything interesting about it as it played, so it, you know, couldn’t have been that interesting.
Vicar in a Tutu: Fast rockabilly style beat on this. I see on the first listen I didn’t like it, and included it in my “least favourite tracks”. It’s not a favourite now, but I think I like it more. It certainly has heart and energy, and Morrissey doesn’t seem to whine on it, which is good (and unusual). Mind you, add in a fiddle and you’ve basically got The Bluebells’ “Young at Heart”!
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out: Good melody and rhythm, love the strings in this, really adds something. Arranged by the multi-talented Mr, Marr. Overall a very catchy song. Like it.
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others: This is uptempo too, but though it attempts to either poke gentle fun at shall we say oversized women, or sympathise or de-stigmatise them, it doesn’t really work for me and it just sounds a bit crass. Melodically and rhythmically it’s pretty cool.
Conclusion: I certainly wouldn’t say I hate this album, but as before, it hasn’t made me want to go searching out the Smiths discography. I believe I can live quite well without their music in my life, thanks very much. It also hasn’t removed Morrissey from my Hate List: he’s staying there. Whether or not his solo material will change my mind about him after I’ve heard it is another thing. But as far as this album goes, mostly it’s his annoying voice that stops me giving it a higher rating.
So, Love or Hate? Given my reduction to only four options, I’d have to rate this as a
Meh. It’s not a strong meh, but it’s still a meh.