Album A Day: The Smiths – Meat is Murder

Artist: The Smiths
Album: Meat is Murder
Release Date: February 14, 1985

I gave my thoughts on The Smiths in the early days of the Album A Day project when I listened to The Sound of the Smiths compilation. What you didn’t know was that a short time later I went and procured very nearly the entire catalogue of the band. Yes, I liked them that much. This is my first time listening to any of the band’s studio album in anything other than a passive form though, for no other reason than I have a metric ton of music to sort through and don’t always get to something the minute I pick it up. That being said, my love of The Smiths has far from waned since January. The jangly juxtaposition of upbeat, shiny guitars and Morrissey’s mournful mumbles (2 alliteratives in one sentence. I win) are nothing short of compelling. Even though I don’t always hear or get what Morrissey’s saying, something about the dude’s voice just radiates bummer no matter what the subject matter is, whether its the socially conscious “Barbarism Begins at Home” or the classic emo-precursor “How Soon Is Now”. Meanwhile the band does exactly what it should do; support the singer and not overpower the message of the song, but also stop well short of droning on in atmospheric sludge. I’m going to go ahead and say it; The Smiths might be a new favorite band, joining the ranks of The Who and the Foo Fighters among bands I could listen to endlessly.

The Smiths – How Soon is Now [iTunes] (YSI)

==TJ==