The Smiths - The Sound of the Smiths: The Very Best of the Smiths
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Free Music Notes for The Sound of the Smiths: The Very Best of the Smiths
Free Music Review: ....But how does it SOUND!?
Hit: 4 Stars
Most likely if youre looking at this product page, you know exactly who The Smiths are, and what they sound like. So what you really want to know is how to the "remastered" disc sound? Much like you I was eager to own this CD only for the fact to hear The Smiths in all the aural goodness that modern technology can bring. I have to admit, I spend far too much money on music. Music CDs, music equipment, musical instruments, etc. so with my ridiculously overpriced headphones and a nice brand name CD player I plopped this disc in expecting magic. I have to say that the expectations vs. the reality let me down a bit, but that could be my own fault for having too many expectations. Honestly, how much magic could the studio create with 25+ year old masters? On the first through fifth tracks, I really didn't notice any difference in the sound over my "Hatful of Hollow" compilation. Actually most of the tracks sound exactly the same to me. The first track that I really noticed a difference on was "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" because of the guitar intro.
About 10 years ago I used to DJ, and I had this piece of equipment called the "Aural Exciter", and it really enhanced the tracks in some clubs. It gave the music a wider and brighter feel. I think some modern stereos have a 3D effect, and thats what this track sounded like it had going on. On all of the tracks that I could tell had some enhancements, thats what they sounded like - wider and brighter - but not artificially so. There really isnt much going on in the low end. Andy Rourkes bass lines sound the same as they did on all previous issues, as do the vocals.
The one exception to all of the above is found on disc 2. I have a bootleg CD called "The Troy Tate Sessions", and it sounds terrible. One song from these sessions makes this compilation, "Pretty Girls Make Pretty Graves", and this track sounds FANTASTIC compared to my old version... Its difficult to comment on this however, because Im not sure if I have the best copy of the TTS as it was never an official release as far as I know.
I suppose in closing that this is a must-have for the uninitiated..
..However for the rest of us, if youre like me, we already have these tracks from various other collections, and the remastering just isnt that amazing enough to recommend on that point alone. If youre a completionist, pick this up used, or at least when it goes on sale as you'll save a few dollars. Honestly, keep listening to your old CD/records.
Free Music Review: Sounds Fine to Me
Hit: 4 Stars
First a disclaimer: Since I was mostly into jazz in the 1980s when The Smiths were in their prime, I have no idea how most of the songs here sounded before Rhino Records' hot masters were produced under the supervision of Johnny Marr for The Sound of the Smiths. Because of that, I can't participate in the disputes over sound quality. But I have prior familiarity with about a third of the songs here and the hot masters sound just fine to me.
My experience with the music of The Smiths was quite limited as previously implied before I acquired this set. I was introduced to their music back in the 1980s and liked what I heard, but never got around to doing anything about it until I saw this recommended on amazon. So I took the opportunity to hear more of them and voila, a new Smiths fan was born.
One of the aspects of this CD set I enjoy most is that it shows the many musical moods of the Marr/Morrissey collaboration. I enjoy most everything here but my favorites are as follows:
Disc 1) Still Ill; Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now; How Soon is Now, which is one of my overall favorites; the energetic, howling Barbarism Begins at Home; The Headmaster Ritual; Bigmouth Strikes Again; the mopey There Is a Light That Never Goes Out; Panic, a hilarious song that mocks commercial music; and Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me.
Disc 2) This Charming Man, a version better than that presented on disc 1; Girl Afraid; Oscillate Wildly; the preachy but powerful Meat is Murder; the instrumental Money Changes Everything; Sweet and Tender Hooligan; and London.
If you already own most of The Smiths' prodigious output, then probably this set will not be for you. But if you are looking for a well-selected representative sample of the band's work, then The Sound of the Smiths may be just the thing. As for whether or not the selections meet your definition of "the very best" is for you to decide, but Rhino has given it a good shot. The CDs are housed in a quadrifold digipak and come with an attractive booklet featuring lots of pictures and song information, but alas no lyrics.
Free Music Review: CAUTION: new mix = new treatment
Hit: 4 Stars
I had to get this. There are some great rarities, and as a career retrospective, I don't think the track-listing could be better. In my opinion, nothing is missing here. Also, every track is completely remixed and remastered, but therein lies a problem. They sound different.
I heard Marr "supervised" the production (i.e. - remixing and remastering), but when hearing this one wonders what happened to the magic from the original mixes. It is nice to hear a more modern sounding version of the songs, but I often find myself missing the original treatments. A lot of effects have been removed, leaving the old Mozzah out on a limb in some cases, and the instruments are more distinguishable, but not always as bright as you may be used to.
Unfortunately, nearly every track suffers from this problem and cannot be considered a definitive version. Where was Stephen Street?
Anyway, apart from all that, the discs contain some wonderful treasures like the live cut of "Meat Is Murder", interestingly in a different key, and "Jeane" which is hard to come by anymore and oddly sounds better than some of the other songs. I had never heard the instrumental, "Money Changes Everything" either so I'm pleased to have acquired some great new cuts. Never mind "What's The World". It still sounds like crap.
If you are trying to get into The Smiths, I recommend "The Queen is Dead" and "Louder Than Bombs" for starters and branching out from there, as you can't really go wrong, although the self-titled album and some of the tracks on "Hatful of Hollow" sound a bit raw to one who prefers their more polished work.
Free Music Review: Backtrack
Hit: 4 Stars
I picked this up with the sole intention of deciding for myself if they truly lived up to their reputation as one of the premier British bands of the 80s, having miraculously missed them on the airwaves completely back when they were still active in the music scene.
Being a huge EBTG fan, my interest was stoked by constant references from critics to the Smiths' influence on Thorn and Watt's flirtation with New Wave on the 1985 album, 'Love Not Money'.
From the first song on 'The Sound of...' I began to hear for myself the distinct sonic quality of the jangly guitars and Morissey's plaintive yet emotive vocals that EBTG aimed for in those early days, with all due respect to both bands. I was also elated to find 'Shakespeare's Sister' in the mix, having learnt that the name of Siobhan Fahey's power group (expertly spelled as 'Shakespears Sister') was inspired by that song.
Along the way, I also heard that familiar 'Charmed' tune, 'How Soon Is Now?" (arguably popularised again by Russian girlgroup Tatu in the noughties), as well as 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me' (which I first heard on the single by Eddi Reader, Boo Hewerdine and Clive Gregson in the 90s), and all that was only on Disc 1. How did I miss this superb music growing up?
Am so spooked by this release I'm gonna check out New Order's reissues and finally get acquainted with Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' as part of my re-education of the 80s music that I missed.
Free Music Review: Sounds good
Hit: 4 Stars
I know coming in to any "best of" CD that there will be songs I like left out and that I would have done things a bit differently if I were in charge (they left off "I Know It's Over"?!). I am not a Smiths expert and it had been several years since I'd heard most of these songs. I like this CD a lot. It had escaped my mind how good, catchy and moving their songs were. The remastering engineer has said of the songs "They are mastered louder so they will sit better alongside current releases" so I think the buyer needs to be aware that like a review on here says they might be too loud could be true. Boosting the loudness needs to be subtly done, as U2 did on the remastered Joshua Tree, and it's always debatable what the results are. Personally, I don't think older records need to compete with Britney Spears, they just need to bring out all the sounds on the tapes and sound good. Nowhere Fast seems too bright to me but other songs sound really good. I guess buyer beware on this issue.
The songs themselves? Fantastic from beginning to end.
One more thing - if Morrissey and Marr could get it together to work on this, they could have come up with an essay or a song commentary and not just a booklet full of pictures.