The Smiths: The Smiths

I remember the anticipation surrounding this album's release, and I remember the moment just after buying it from Andy's Records on Regent Street the day it was released (or was it the day after? I know it was a Tuesday, because I was on my way back from a Chemistry practical. As it bounced in the basket of my bike, I thought, "This is the moment, and it's probably all down hill from this point on." How good to be proved wrong. Though, if pressed, I could just about make a case for this being the best Smiths album. Except perhaps for Hatful of Hollow. And The Queen is Dead. But, apart from them…

I don't think I've played this for years, and, damn, it sounds good. Reel Around the Fountain was always a favourite, and the old vinyl on my hi-fi, in a big room makes a gorgeous lolloping racket. As John Peel said of The Smiths, sometimes a band comes along and you just can't tell what they've grown up listening to. Originals.

And the lyrics have, if anything, become more evocative and more powerful with age. All those lines like "People said that you were easily lead, and they were half-right" which manage to combine knowingness and uncertainty (see also "there's more to life than books you know, but not much more" and many other examples). It's easy to come unstuck quoting lines in isolation, but I'll still risk saying that I think "Slap me on the patio, I'll take it slowly" is a totem of English pop music in the same way that "The highway is for gamblers…" is to popular song in general.

The inner sleeve of my record retains the crease where Steve Brown sat on it when it was on your sofa. After he left you remarked that I had "taken it surprisingly well". I know I'm anal and pernickerty about silly details, but I'm not that bad that I can't deal with a minor crease. If it had been the outer sleeve, however; well, it doesn't bear thinking about.

Happy Christmas.

MusicBrainz entry for this album