The Smiths - Strangeways Here We Come
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Free Music Notes for Strangeways Here We Come
Free Music Review: An Album That Gets Better With Each Listen
Hit: 5 Stars
Released in 1987, Strangeways, Here We Come was the fourth and final album by The Smiths after debuting with their self titled album only 3 years previously. Singer/lyricist Morrissey, guitarist Johnny Marr, bassist Andy Rourke, and drummer Mike Joyce consider it the best Smiths album, but fans tend to rank it as a lesser effort. Their output of only four albums is so staggeringly good that it's hard to rank one as better than the other, but Strangeways, Here We Come is a great album that has all the elements of The Smiths that made them a great band, but also showed them moving away from the sound of the previous albums. I may have a bit of a bias, as The Smiths are my favorite band, but there's not a weak track on this album:
1. A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours-5/5-Immediately shows a different side of the band, being piano-driven with little or no guitar.
2. I Started Something I Couldn't Finish-5/5-Morrissey gets a bit experimental with his vocals briefly, but it's a great, very catchy track.
3. Death of a Disco Dancer-5/5-With an ominous bassline, Death of a Disco Dancer is one of The Smiths' most beautiful moments as a band and one of Morrissey's most beautiful moments as a vocalist: "And if you think peace is a common goal/That goes to show/How little you know."
4. Girlfriend in a Coma-5/5-A brilliant pop song with wonderfully ambiguous lyrics and lovely string arrangements.
5. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before-5/5-One of my favorite Smiths songs. Well-written, well-performed, endlessly catchy. I've listened to this song well over a hundred times and it still hasn't grown old.
6. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me-5/5-With a 2-minute intro on piano, this song explodes into a beautiful portrait of loneliness and longing.
7. Unhappy Birthday-5/5-Bitingly witty, brilliant lyrics. A great song that's hard not to like. The idea sounds corny, but Morrissey elevates the lyrics to a flawless realm of hilarity and poignancy.
8. Paint a Vulgar Picture-5/5-A marvelous indictment of record company politics. Ironically, Morrissey's solo records have gone through much of what he sings about here. One of the band's finest moments, lyrically and musically.
9. Death at One's Elbow-5/5-The shortest song on the record at just about 2 minutes. Reminiscent of Vicar in a Tutu musically, but a whole lot better; It's a great track, although it sounds as if it could've been left off of The Queen is Dead or Meat is Murder.
10. I Won't Share You-5/5-I used the lyric "Life tends to come and go/That's OK, as long as you know" as my senior quote. This song is a grower. It remains my least favorite track on the album, but it's still a great song and, in a way, being the last Smiths song, it's rather poignant.
I love all four of The Smiths studio albums so much that choosing one over the other is nearly impossible, so I can't say that this album is better or worse than the other three. What I can tell you is that I grow to like this album more and more with each additional listen and if you love the band, I don't see how you can't love this album. While the sound of their previous albums isn't removed from this record, it is less prevalent with the band exploring more ways to express their musical creativity and, without ever sounding like an experimental album they created some absolutely beautiful songs. Whether you're a long-time fan, a new fan, or someone who has heard one song and wants to get acquainted with the group; you can use any of their four albums as a starting point.
GRADE: A
Free Music Review: THE SMITHS REVIEW # 6
Hit: 5 Stars
By the time The Smiths released Strangeways, here we come in 1987 (strangely the same year as U2's US breakthrough The Joshua Tree) the band had already parted company, and it wasn't until nearly a year after the albums release that the press even knew that the band were no more, this at the time not only stunned their now established cult following but the music press too. They'd only released four official studio albums (including two b side albums Hatful of Hollow, and The World won't listen, in the US Louder than bombs was released as a double LP combining both versions) and were considered on the of the best bands of the time, if not the best!!!!
Strangeways, here we come continues the bands or really Morrisey's familiar formular of combining stress with humour into a musical melody. In truth the sound was different but the feel was very Smiths, not that it made Strangeways a bad album, no way, hence the five stars, it just means it is their weakest effort, but there has to be one hasn't there????
Actually the album does have some untypical Smiths tracks and if anything, these songs proove that the Smiths were possibly heading to some different direction, A Rush and a Push and the land is ours is about the fight for Irish freedom from the British, I Started Something I couldn't finish, I am sure inspired the Gallagher Brothers of Oasis, hence why they have such an admiration for The Smiths. Whilst I can imagine all the members of Coldplay listening to Death of a Disco Dancer one day together around a table and saying "That's the sound we want to create!!!"
But the Smiths also keep to their own familar formular as well as the new one, Girlfriend in a Coma is classic Smiths, and is no suprise it was released as a single in the UK, it would peak at 12. Whilst Stop me if you've heard this one before is a typical humerous Smiths love song with one of the cleverist lines of all time "I still love you, but only slightly less than I used to." Whilst the very serious Last night I dreamt somebody loved Me turned out to be The Smiths final single release it the UK, peaking at 30!!!
Unhappy Birthday is another great Morrisey gimmick "I've come to wish you an unhappy birthday cos you're evil" and is the kind of song we'd all love to sing in tribute to our worst enemy at their birthday (for a joke naturally!!)
Whilst Paint a Vulgar Picture, about a failed musician, who Morrisey has a fancy too, is an elequent song, and like most of the album has some powerful lyrical moment "This was your life but you could of said no if you wanted too!!!"
Death at ones Elbow, turns out to be the weakest on the album, and most desturbing, as it seems to lean on Morrisey's gay side, whilst I won't share you though sounding depressing is the funniest addiction song ever, where Morrisey admits that he's addicted too...perrier (that's sparkling water!!!)
Overall Strangeways, here we come is a great listen, and it would peak at 2 in the UK, and remains to this date their most sucessful US chart entry at 55. So ok it's not their best, and I'd hardly recommend it over The Queen is Dead, but there is a favourite saying of mine...
Smiths worst studio album = Other bands best album!!!
ENOUGH SAID!!!!!
Free Music Review: My favorite album of theirs, and one of my favorite albums, period.
Hit: 5 Stars
I can't say that this is The Smiths' best album--I can't, because, they have a lot of GREAT albums--but I can say it's my favorite.
"The Queen is Dead" is terrific, but this feels more anthemic, more forceful, alive, and vital.
"Louder than Bombs" is amazing--though many don't even consider it an album, just a compilation--but this feels more focused, directed, and much tighter.
"The Smiths," their first album is experimental and fun and jubilant and dark, but this is the work of a mature band that's seen too much and that, although they're bummed out about things, can't take it all too seriously anymore.
"Strangeways, Here We Come" is an amazing collection of songs. From lyrics like, "And the pain was enough to make a shy, bald, buddhist reflect and plan a mass murder," to a conflicted love song to a girlfriend in a coma, to an amazing, self-referential song about the record industry, lyrically Morrissey had never been better.
And musically, the songs are driving, haunting, deep...and even catchy. It's almost wrong to call this "Eighties music," because it has almost nothing in common with the Thomas Dolbys and the Duran Durans that once cluttered up the airwaves. This was music written ahead of its time, and music that's good anytime: depressing, enlivening, uplifting, thought provoking.
These songs got me through adolescense, and then they just stuck around. I don't think they'll ever leave me, and at this point, I don't want them to.
Free Music Review: Astounding record
Hit: 5 Stars
Having been cheap and only owned the singles, I let down my guard and bought "Strangeways, Here We Come" on the basis of "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me." What a wonderful surprise! This album is the best Smiths album, without question.Every song is a gem, rendering timeless melancholy. Signs of the band's final days are looming throughout the mix, particularly in the cacophonous opening of "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" and "Paint a Vulgar Picture," in which Morrissey reveals that the perils of the record industry were present in 1987 as well.
What is astonishing about the album is that it manages to convey its messages fully in the concise 37 minutes of the album. All ten songs are drawn out well, and the listener is left wondering how they could have accomplished so much in a small amount of time.
A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours- 10/10
I Started Something I Couldn't Finish- 9/10
Death of a Disco Dancer- 10/10
Girlfriend in a Coma- 10/10
Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before- 9/10
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me- 10/10 (their best yet)
Unhappy Birthday- 9/10
Paint a Vulgar Picture- 9/10
Death At One's Elbow- 8/10
I Won't Share You- 10/10
I am not a Smiths sycophant and was indeed a hard sell, believing they couldn't live up to their contemporary rivals, The Cure, New Order and Depeche Mode. However, this album made me a believer.
Free Music Review: Time has been very kind to"Strangeways"
Hit: 5 Stars
I was into the Smiths in high school. I got to see them live and continued to buy Morrissey albums until "you are the quarry,"( dismal album). But when this album came out it left me cold and it sat on the bottom of my CD pile until a couple of years ago when I gave it another shot. You know what? It's an amazing album. It's just my teenage sensibilities couldn't understand the emotions and sarcasm it explores. Only with time and wisedom do I get it. The band, everyone knows was breaking up at the time and you can feel the sense of loss and sadness. "Strangeways" is the most subtle of the The Smiths catalog. It forgoes much of it's theatrics from previous albums and just paints a mood instead of a repeat of their-at this point, well known formula.
Everyone says 'the queen is dead" is their best but i think "hatful of hallow" is their best collection of songs; sonically and thematically. And I love the collection "louder than bombs", if anything "the queen is dead" is a wee bit overproduced and shallow for my taste. "Strangeways" is more complex than anything they'd done before and almost feels like a concept album. And people who say it's overproduced are just plain wrong, put down your MP3's which are 1/23 the quality of a CD and listen to it on headphones-it's heartbreakingly beautifull. See for yourself and buy this album, now!