Track Listing

1. Queen Is Dead (Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty) [Medley]
2. Frankly, Mr. Shankly
3. I Know It's Over
4. Never Had No One Ever
5. Cemetry Gates
6. Bigmouth Strikes Again
7. Boy With the Thorn in His Side
8. Vicar in a Tutu
9. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
10. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2521 in Music
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
This is the value of working at cross-purposes: The Smiths were Morrissey's excuse to undulate his wry, disaffected lyrics, and Johnny Marr's vehicle for his sharp, chiming, pop songs. Their favorite kind of compromise made them essentially a singles band, and The Queen Is Dead has a couple of their best (notably "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side," one of the greatest pop expressions of the Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name). But it also has some wonderful compromises of different kinds: the bizarrely romantic "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out," and "Cemetry Gates," where Marr covers up for Morrissey's floridity with shimmying rockabilly. --Douglas Wolk

Customer Reviews

A great way to introduce the Smiths...
One easy way to make a Smiths fan is to give them The Queen is Dead. It's a pop masterpiece that works as a collection of singles as well as a unified album. There are plenty of Smiths singles collections out there, but in my view they seem somewhat "random" in their cohesiveness. Not so with The Queen is Dead; it's simply one of the greatest albums of all time.

A Dreadful Mistake
The year is 1988 and three friends are hanging out in the high school library. Somehow they've conned their teachers into letting them do independent study during first period of their last semester of high school. I'm supposedly taking independent study physics, Chris is taking independent study German, and Cynthia is library assistant or some such nonsense. Anyway, all we do most mornings is sit around and talk. This morning is no different.

"I don't like that awful Led Zeppelin you listen to. I love the Smiths," declares Cynthia.

"The Smiths aren't any good", I sneer, hoping Cynthia doesn't know I've never heard a single song by them.

"Yeah, the Smiths suck," adds Chris, as unfamiliar with the Smiths as myself.

Sufficiently miffed, Cynthia rises, tugs on the front of her Meat Is Murder T-shirt, and strides purposefully out of the room. Chris and I just laugh at our poor misguided friend.

The year is now 2002 and I'm contemplating how closed-minded I was as a youth. If it wasn't classic rock, southern rock, or metal, I wasn't listening to it. But once I got to college, I started opening my mind to new types of music, and sure enough, I eventually got around to giving the Smiths a chance.

The first Smiths album I heard was the Queen Is Dead. The first four songs sounded odd, but not entirely offensive to my metal-trained ears. Then when I heard 'Cemetry Gates', I gave up all resistance. The jangly guitars of Johnny Marr and the gloriously over the top vocals and uniquely clever lyrics of Morrissey were almost too much for me. Imagine then, when 'Big Mouth Strikes Again' came on. It rocked as hard as anything else I was listening to at the time and was twice as clever. Believe me, I kept listening intently until the final fade out of the irresistibly catchy 'Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others', and then admitted to myself I'd made a dreadful mistake that day in high school. Hopefully, Cynthia has realized her mistake when it comes to Led Zeppelin since then as well.

The Smiths' undisputed masterpiece
I still remember listening intently to "Bigmouth Strikes Again" on the radio just before this album was released here in the States. This has some of the Smiths' most powerful songs on it - "I Know It's Over", where Morrissey admits defeat at the hands of love and fate, "The Queen Is Dead", where Marr shows why he's one of his generation's best guitarists, "Bigmouth...", where Morrissey's self-deprecating lyrics match Marr's driving chords perfectly, and of course the classic "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", which has an unforgettable melody. This track is the favorite song of a lot of Smiths fans. "TQID" shows The Smiths at a turning point of sorts, leaving behind the jangly sound somewhat and mixing in a more glam-rock influence. "Some Girls Are Bigger..." is also an outstanding track. This album is already showing up at or near the top of a lot of 100 best albums' lists. It's not surprising, after just a couple of listens you'll see why. Also: notice the resemblance between the opening riffs on "Bigmouth..." with Heart's "Crazy On You"?