Smiths - Louder Than Bombs
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Free Music Notes for Louder Than Bombs
Free Music Review: excellent
Hit: 5 Stars
Anything by The Smiths, one of the best rock bands in history, should get 5 stars (except for maybe Meat is Murder, an indulgent but competent album). Louder Than Bombs is a true rarity - a collection a record label got right. Not only are most of the essential non-album songs included, but the song order could not have been better. Whoever put this CD together should be applauded.
Out of all The Smiths CDs, only four are true original albums (Smiths, Meat is Murder, Queen is Dead, and Strangeways). Two are merely non-album singles and b-side collections (Hatful and World Won't Listen). Louder Than Bombs is a combination of the two collections and in my opinion better than either of them and, since it omits true album songs, is better.
The seven main Smiths CDs are essential to any fan of rock/pop music. Despite, the Smiths CD discography is lacking - there are many different versions of songs that are very good and some have never appeared on CD (Wonderful Woman and Jeane).
I don't understand record companies; another CD with these loose ends would complete The Smiths legacy. They erronously assume people download free songs because of price, when actually it is because for the most part they don't know what they are doing. Louder Than Bombs, however, is an exception.
Free Music Review: "Shoplifters of the World Unite and Take Over."
Hit: 5 Stars
In the spring of 1987, one year following the group's masterpiece "The Queen Is Dead," the Smiths released two albums. In the UK, they unleashed "The World Won't Listen." But in the United States, they released "Louder Than Bombs," a double album of singles, b-sides, and rare tracks. A compilation of this nature shouldn't work, but, amazingly, it did. "Louder Than Bombs" shows why singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr weren't just simply leaders in mope rock--they were also among the most vital and influential British songwriters of the 1980s. Morrissey exposes his utter contempt for pop music in the semi-controversial "Panic," croons though the brilliant and self-loathing "Unlovable;" shines through the potent "Rubber Ring," and is even funny in the snide "You Just Haven't Earned it Yet, Baby." But the heart of the album, I think, is the still-marvelous "Hand In Glove," the band's debut single replete with Johnny Marr's stellar guitars. But the songs I just mentioned only hint at the many riches this album has to offer. At 24 tracks, "Louder Than Bombs" is a huge platter of material, but the songs here are brisk and range from very good to brilliant. I played this to death when I first bought it, and it still gets the occasional spin in my stereo. A great album that earns its five stars.Free Music Review: "Take my hand and off we stride..."
Hit: 5 Stars
"Louder Than Bombs" is too amazing for words. I can't believe some of these song were ever considered B-sides. It plays like one of the greatest, "greatest hits" by any band. It's extremely impressive how this supposed hodge-podge of tunes sounds so coherent and strong. I highly recommend this album more than any SMITHS' record out there. They're all worth owning, but "BOMBS" is packed with more SMITHS' classics than any other SMITHS' record. Buy it without hesitation.
Stand-out tracks according to me: IS IT REALLY SO STRANGE?, SHEILA TAKE A BOW, SHOPLIFTERS OF THE WORLD UNITE, HALF A PERSON, PANIC, GIRL AFRAID, WILLIAM, IT WAS REALLY NOTHING, YOU JUST HAVEN'T EARNED IT YET, BABY, HEAVEN KNOWS I'M MISERABLE NOW, ASK, OSCILLATE WILDLY, THESE THINGS TAKE TIME, RUBBER RING, BACK TO THE OLD HOUSE, HAND IN GLOVE, STRETCH OUT AND WAIT, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET ME GET WHAT I WANT, THIS NIGHT HAS OPENED MY EYES, and ASLEEP
That's 19 out of 24 tracks that, in my opinion, are classics. And the one's I left out are argueably classics to other fans, I'm sure. Even the album title is one of their best. Only "Meat Is Murder" beats it out for the best SMITHS' album title.
Free Music Review: Gorgeously Sad
Hit: 5 Stars
These are the songs that saved your life if you were a Smiths fan in the 80s. While I've tried to avoid compilation albums out of a misguided sense of purity for the Morrissey/Marr oeuvre, my resolve has eroded over the years, and I only recently bought Louder Than Bomb. I've been missing out.
"Sing Me To Sleep" and "Back to the Old House" are gorgeously sad as only Morrissey can be. "Ask" is the Morrissey/Marr collaboration at its most representative, with shiny guitar riffs that make your head want to explode driving Moz's weird, morose lyrics. "Panic" and "Shoplifters of the World" are clever to the point of philosophy. And what other pop singer would use the refrain "In the midst of life we are in debt, et cetera."
Call me morbid, call me pale, but Morrissey's melancholic worldview is seductive to the point of addiction. He's the thinking man's teenage suicide grown middle age, and arguably the greatest lyricist in rock who was lucky enough to hook up (if only briefly) with arguably the greatest pop guitarist.
Only a record executive could not like this album.
Free Music Review: Essential to any Smiths collection
Hit: 5 Stars
Although some Smiths fans prefer "Hatful of Hallow" over "Louder Than Bombs", citing the rawness over "Louder Than Bombs" polished singles and b-sides, "Louder Than Bombs" is essential to any Smiths collection.
The Smiths not only made good albums,they were masters of the 3 minute pop single. Morrissey and Marr were influence by alot of 60's bands who often worked at a breakneck speed and sought to emulate them in the studio, which accounts for the quality and amount of work they did in such a sort period of time. They did some of their best work on their singles releases which often contained songs such as "Panic", "You Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby", "Ask", etc, that never appeared on albums. "Louder Than Bombs" is a much more thorough account of the Smiths singles and b-sides than "Hatull of Hallow" which only accounts for about half of the Smiths singles releases, altough a fine record in its own right. But "Louder Than Bombs" truly cements the Smiths place of being one of best English bands of the 80's.