Track Listing

1. Headmaster Ritual
2. Rusholme Ruffians
3. I Want the One I Can't Have
4. What She Said
5. That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
6. How Soon Is Now?
7. Nowhere Fast
8. Well I Wonder
9. Barbarism Begins at Home
10. Meat Is Murder

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6656 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Singer Morrissey's brittle wit and guitarist Johnny Marr's incisive guitar helped make the Smiths create both an entranced cult following and pop music of the highest order. The U.S. edition of the band's second album includes the bonus single "How Soon Is Now?" and while it's a welcome addition, the rest of the tracks stand ably on their own. The militant vegetarianism is heavy-handed, but the sly humor of "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" and "I Want the One I Can't Have" present proof of the band's scope, as do the anthemic "The Headmaster Ritual" and "Rusholme Ruffians." --Rob O'Connor

Customer Reviews

Masterful But Not the Smiths Best
Not widely considered to be the band's best but it does contain their biggest hit, "How Soon Is Now?". MIM contains the perfect mix of Smiths' style songs including both fast and slow, fun and political. I remember back in the 80's when 'Spin Magazine' had "How Soon Is Now?" ranked as the best single of all time. I also remember thinking, "You know, that isn't even one of my favorite Smiths' songs." Actually not even my fave from this album. To me HSIN had great lyrics and a cool sound but was generally not very Smiths-like. The song lacked the rawness and edge of their other material due to its high-gloss production... precisely NOT the point of the band. Still it's a wonderful song with a catchy, highly original melody and Mozz' sharp wit.

I've always been partial to the underappreciated songs from this album. The haunting "Well I Wonder" is dreamy and melancholy declaring "This is the fierce last stand of all I am." "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" is simply brilliant as we watch the knife of past words turn sharply against the protagonist. "What She Said" speeds up the pace but remains downbeat lyrically with its angst and sarcastic humor; Marr delivers an understated but excellent performance. On "I Want the One I Can't Have" the singer laments his inability to hide his emotions or capture the subject of his desire. And in "Nowhere Fast" Morrissey questions whether he has the capacity to experience life or emotionally progress at all (hence the name).

The title track is often clasified as over-the-top and may be many people's least favorite from this collection of songs. I beg to differ. Morrissey is entitled to his opinion on us meateaters and I have no issue with that. He states his case in a dark, poetic manner backed by the cries of cattle and sounding of the screaming knife. Missed in the criticism of this track is MArr's ability to craft an otherwordly guitar melody that is both sad and majestic in a way I've rarely heard. Quite simply, this is the vegetarians' anthem. Actually there was a t-shirt in the 80's with every single lyric printed on it. "The Headmaster Ritual" speaks of systematic cruelty embedded in British schools while "Barbarism Begins at Home" echoes that abusive cruelty in the home.

All in all, this is not the band's best but still merits every bit of 5 stars. In other words, an average Smiths' release.

Park the car by the side of the road....
Historically, the greatest songwriters in rock (Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello) have never articulated any original or remarkable thoughts within their lyrics. The most a successful rock lyricist can hope to accomplish, is to accurately mirror the status quo by encapsulating how and why certain segments of society feel. Not to write meaningless, relativistic "phonetic poetry" like Brian Eno. Not to claim that the difference between things there (the projects) and here is such that the taking of responsibility there and here should be on different principles, like most knuckle-dragging hip-hop "artists" try to do. That music not only says nothing about "my" life, but nothing about life in general (except that its absurd). It's like Camus with a drum-machine.

When Morrissey first emerged from the UK's New Romantic scene in the early 1980s, he and the Smiths immediately stood out from the crowd. Hitherto, he was the first lyricist to speak out for tens of thousands of disaffected, alienated adolescents, who had been waiting impatiently for such a spokesman as the flamboyant Mancunian. Unlike unbearably bleak successors Kurt Cobain and Richey Edwards, there was an occasional optimistic light at the end of the tunnel within Morrissey's lyrics.

"Meat is Murder" is full of somber, melodic tunes that cast a autobiographical light on Morrissey. The first song "The Headmaster Ritual," is a petulant diatribe aimed at the abusive faculty of St. Marys, a Catholic school he attended until he was 16. Track five, "That Joke isn't Funny Anymore," is my personal favorite; a song which Morrissey claimed in an interview was about the treatment he received by the music press. Then there's "How Soon is Now," a song that the Smiths are identified with here by most people here in the US, nothwithstanding the fact that it was never released as a single for the Smiths in the UK.

A definite must-have for any Smiths fan and a smart first-purchase for those looking to get acquainted with the band's best work.

"...the air hangs heavy like a dulling wine"
how perfect are these lyrics? absolutely. hey, morrissey may have had his moments of despair, but overall he was a very sarcastic person. those imbeciles who don't understand the concept of sarcasm should bury their heads in the sand and continue to listen to tripe like creed and kravitz, lyrically challenged to the last. music can MEAN something and be done in a clever way that the beforementioned will never achieve. alas, i digress...
anyway, on this album, as is the case with the queen is dead, johnny really goes off on his guitar. the strumming in "rusholme ruffians" and "the headmaster ritual" is truly inspiring.
always criticized for being a depressing lot, you will be hard pressed to find a more emotional song than "well i wonder." a very simple, but moving moment to this album. if you haven't heard "how soon is now?" buy this album just for this song, though you will find all of it excellent. this one song is arguable the quinessential track of the '80's. brilliant and haunting.