Track Listing

1. Rush and A Push & The Land Is Ours
2. I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
3. Death Of A Disco Dancer
4. Girlfriend In A Coma
5. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
6. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
7. Unhappy Birthday
8. Paint A Vulgar Picture
9. Death At One's Elbow
10. I Won't Share You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17735 in Music
• Published on: 1987
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

A worthy final album of a great, great band....
This is The Smiths's swansong (barring any reunion album, which, sadly, is probably not going to happen), and it generally gets mixed reviews from Smiths fans. I think it's a near masterpiece. It's not as vibrant as other Smiths' albums, but it's still damn good and there are some magnificent songs that can stand up to any of the Smiths's classics. The opener, A Rush and the Push and the Land Is Ours, is a beautiful, haunting pop number that only the Smiths can do well. I like Death of a Disco Dancer, and its extended instrumental break. It's reminiscent of Barbarism Begins at Home (off Meat is Murder), and it's very powerful. Girlfriend in a Coma is one of Morrissey's best lyrics, a cutish, poppy song set to a lyric where the protagonist really wants his girlfriend to die (that's so sweet). Stop Me If you Think... is a great single that gets better everytime I listen to it. I rather like Death at One's Elbow, even though most people dislike this song for some reason.

But the masterpiece of the album is Paint a Vulgar Picture. It's one of the greatest songs The Smiths ever recorded. It has a great melody and some of Morrissey's most acidic, acerbic, and brilliant lyrics ever. The song is also one of his most timely, as when a big dead rock star dies, there's always leeches who come out of the floorboards to claim to have known the real person (the sycophantic slags, as St. Morrissey calls them). He also berates the record companies for repackaging everything. How many times has one had to "double dip" on CD reissues with crappy extra tracks (like rehearsals), or on a DVD? F***ing greed is all it is, and Morrissey's sings about it with grace and intelligence. Brilliant man, brilliant band.

Even if you're a casual Smiths listener, you should still pick this one up. It may not be as good as the other albums, but it's still amazing in its own way.

Bitter, bitter pill
Much darker and meaner than most of their stuff, this is actually my least favorite Smiths record. It has a couple good songs, but really just marks the abrupt and bitter end of this fantastic group.

20 years out, Stop me if...
It is now twenty years since its release. I purchased the CD to replace a cassette tape, yes some of them can linger around that long and still wind around. Still just as wonderful, lyrics still stand "Paint a Vulgar Picture" & "Girlfriend in a Coma" true and funny as ever.