The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (1986) (1 Viewer)

[CinnamonBoy]

It's not a patch on Strangeways Here We Come.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

It's not a patch on Strangeways Here We Come.

Oh it is. It's a big patch.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

@travispickle have you read You Never Give Us Your Money? Entertaining but grim book about the Beatles fallout.
While I love QiD, I've seen live Smiths things where the drums and bass were really rocking and propulsive, but I never felt that they captured that on any of the studio recordings.

That's one of the things I like about Rank, you really get the feeling of energy that the studio recordings tend to paper over.

 

[Hector Grey]

No album deserving of such praise comes with Frankly Mr. Shankly or Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others on it. Cemetery Gates is a twee toss off. A song for your fuckin inter cert. And The Boy WIth The Thorn In His Side has always nauseated me, from the day it was released til now. OTHER THAN THAT, it's decent. Occasionally great. The entire Smiths oeuvre in a nutshell. The sublimity of There is A light or The Queen is Dead next to knock off, smartarsed hackneyed shite. Here's a band who were great when they were great and were fucking appalling when they weren't and they've managed to encapsulate both aspects perfectly on this record.

I think a truly terrific record has maybe one song you're not mad on, or sticks out, or doesn't fit in with the vibe. But 4 or 5? Nah. Half decent. C +.

HOLD ON, you're saying. MY CONFUSED YOUTH! THE WORDS! THE "HUMOUR"! JOHNNY MAAR'S CONFUSED AND EXHAUSTED PRODUCTION!. Yeah? Defend Vicar in a Tutu. Okay, then. Case closed.

 

[Lili Marlene]

On my first ever listen.


Lads, I like the 80's production, it's great! Mixing is a bit weird though, is there an entire other song going on underneath the title track?

 

[GO]

I love the production as well.I think it sounds awesome

 

[HMD]

Here's i go for the third time.

 

[rettucs]

we're up to a 4-star rating now too. Proper order

 

[pete]

Here's i go for the third time.

I can't do it.

 

[Jerry Twig]

It's not a patch on Strangeways Here We Come.

Strangeways is better in some ways, but not by a stretch.

I love the Smiths, I love early Slayer. The Queen is Dead is light years better than anything Slayer could ever do. 5 stars.

 

[therealjohnny]

 

[hugh]

Gave it a good few listens over the weekend. Was not really a Smiths fan back in the day and have never listened to a whole album all the way through before. I do love some of their singles though.

QID is a bit of a mixed bag. With the exception of the title track, I don't get the complaints about the production. It just sounds like The Smiths - like the way The Smiths are supposed to sound. I've no problem with it. I also don't get Hector's placing of the title track into the "sublime" category. I think it's rubbish. As is Frankly Mr Shankly (funny lyrics all right but that doesn't save it). The next song is pretty dull too but then an amazing run of songs starts. Cemetary Gates is great! I know it overdoes it a bit on the literary teenage angst bit but surely that's what they are all about. The only blight on the second half is, yes, Vicar In A Tutu but any album that has There Is A Light on it is automatically elevated into the good if not great category. Wonderful, classic song.

It can be hard to get past the fact that Morrissey seems like such a prat though. I also find it hard to discern the boundaries between earnestness and irony in his lyrics (but I suppose that ambiguity is part of their appeal). I walked into the Long Hall a few years ago and Morrissey was sitting at the bar having a pint with someone. My immediate reaction was "shit, let's sit at the other end of the bar so there's no chance that we have to talk to him".

On balance - it's very good.

 

[therealjohnny]

oops...wrong thread.

In case anyone was wondering

 

[David Kronenbourg]

oops...wrong thread.

In case anyone was wondering

I was

 

[kavanelli]

On the is it a Marr / Morrissey album. It says on a lot of articles about the album that Marr wrote 7 of the tracks and arranged them with Joyce on Drums. Andy Rourke was kicked out of the band prior to the recording because of his love of the ol' Heroin. But was back in for the recording.

 

[egg_]

I think a truly terrific record has maybe one song you're not mad on, or sticks out, or doesn't fit in with the vibe.

This is the thing about albums, innit? Same with an artist - is Iggy Pop good or shit? Depends on what you judge him by. Nowadays I think Teh Song is the only thing that matters, and almost never listen to albums anymore, or develop allegiances to artists

 

[egg_]

That's one of the things I like about Rank, you really get the feeling of energy that the studio recordings tend to paper over.

Ditto for Hatful of Hollow

 

[pete]

Went for listen #3 on the bus home. Fell asleep. A blessing.

 

[HMD]

I can't do it.

You're not missing anything. I just felt i should for the greater good but i may have to give it another go tomorrow as pricks kept talking to me in work and i missed a good bit of it, that may be a good thing though.

It's still not doing it for me but I'm starting to hear bits of bands that came after the Smiths and how they influenced a load of 90's bands.

I will give it one more uninterrupted go for the sake of the club but i can't see myself warming to it any more.

 

[Hector Grey]

This is the thing about albums, innit? Same with an artist - is Iggy Pop good or shit? Depends on what you judge him by. Nowadays I think Teh Song is the only thing that matters, and almost never listen to albums anymore, or develop allegiances to artists

I love an album, and I'll overlook a couple of duds in order to keep the suite complete. But it's hard. And TQID is not an album I'd listen to. Luckily there's Louder Than Bombs.

I'd agree, broadly. I think that the mp3 generation has that luxury. We create playlists and listen to 1000's of songs on random with abandon these days. When I was in school and I was making a mix tape for the walkman, it would take fuckin hours. You really had to think about it. Now the idea of dedicating an entire hour or so to one artists seems like a commitment I'm unwilling to make.

So when there's an album that feels so complete that I can't bare to break it up... that's what it's all about.