This was voted by critics as one of the best albums ever recorded ... which really is a masterpiece listen and enjoy that’s it

"Morrissey strikes me as a bizarre man" Could not be more spot on mate.

It's funny you said Morrisey reminds you of Robert Smith, because they really hated each other back in the 80's, Morrissey just has a big personality that he lets run through in his singing and lyrics (Bigmouth Strikes Again is a response to the tabloids, The Queen Is Dead is about his disgust with the royal family, Frankly Mr Shankly is a hate letter to the mismanagement from their label). Morrissey has such a strong fanbase because he appeals to those who can't fit in. I really like how he sings, the emphasizing on different syllables every time keep the songs dancing on their toes. I think he took inspiration from jangly guitar playing where you can subtletly tweak around on repeated parts. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out starts with a nod to the Velvet Underground's There She Goes Again. If you react to (and end up liking) Cocteau Twins, I recommend The Cure's magnum opus Disintegration. They are as pop as in Friday I'm In Love only half of the time, they actually took a lot from Joy Division (listen to A Forest or The Kiss).

Keep listening. Keep looking into them. You'll fall in love and regret you didn't discover them earlier.

'The boy with the thorn in his side' is my all-time favorite song.

Don't judge The Cure on Friday I'm in Love. It's pretty universally hated by their own fans. Love him or hate him, Robert Smith is an incredibly talented musician and writer. You should add Disintegration to your album reaction list.

The reason why the last song fades in and out is cause Morrisey wanted it to sound like a door opened and close then opened again leading to a room. Great review btw hopefully you’ll do more smiths albums.

I can see you're not ready for this just yet! The boy with the thorn is a masterpiece, he's literally yodeling towards the end.

This album contains some of the best songs i've heard in my entire life. I can easily cry hearing one of them. Cheers from Brazil!

The biggest problem with non-British listeners reactions to bands like The Smiths is perhaps cultural. This album is a reflection of British society in the 80s and you would have to have lived it to properly connect with it. I was was a teenager, like any other living in Britain in the 80s and this album brought to light so many thoughts and feelings that most working class people experienced under an uncaring Conservative government. Morrisey understood this being from the same backround. Combined with Johnny Marr's brilliant guitar riffs and you have a seminal moment in British music. This is arguably The Smiths best work.

EDIT: (This album has become one of my Top 10 favorites. See here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bd6Tq692lrLMgn0.html) Thanks for the comments, everyone. I don't usually get this many comments in a day. I want to add that this album has been a massive grower for me over the past couple of days. I've listened to the album several times over (skipping Never Had No One Never and Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others, my two dislikes). Cemetry Gates and The Boy With The Thorn In His Side are my faves. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out makes more sense to me now too. I think it helps to see the comedic side of the songs, and then through that you can access the introspective and raw elements in the lyrics. Also, hearing this album and the songwriting of The Smiths in general makes a lot of the other music in the 80s-90s make a whole lot more sense. I can see the impact they had on rock, sort of a stepping stone from post-punk in the 70s to indie/alternative rock in the 90s. More THE SMITHS Reactions: Self-Titled: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q6mFp5V_r8_VfJs.html Hatful of Hollow: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n816dc-ksciuj5s.html Meat is Murder: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n76YosyDp8q9oqc.html Strangeways, Here We Come: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kL-Ils58nauyhZ8.html The World Won't Listen and Louder than Bombs: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mb11Z5eYvbbZZpc.html

The Queen Is Dead - 1:50 Frankly, Mr. Shankly - 5:00 I Know It’s Over - 7:29 Never Had No One Ever - 9:02 Cemetery Gates - 10:00 Bigmouth Strikes Again - 11:07 The Boy With The Thorn In His Side - 12:54 Vicar In A Tutu - 15:31 There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - 16:32 Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others - 18:22

Both Joy Division and The Smiths music are to a large extent products of the individuals concerned growing up in 60s & 70s northern Britain, coupled with their own personal experiences. Try listening to The Buzzcocks, Another Music in a Different Kitchen. To some extent it fits in the musical family of Joy Division and The Smiths. Not that they sound alike, they're just from similar backgrounds.

This reaction broke my heart but I’m so happy you gave the album another listen. One of my all time favorite bands!

Loved your commentry dude , keep up the videos love watching them

At that time the music and attitude of The Smiths felt quite revolutionary and yet they had a funny side too. I was 17 and the song 'The Queen is Dead' sent shivers of revolutionary zeal up my spine, but then you'd laugh at a Vicar in a Tutu. They were rare and special. But well done I liked seeing your reaction and understand what you're seeing in it.

This album is 1 of my favorites along with The Cures Disintegration.

"There is a Light" is a "fine song" jeez buddy. wrong gig here for you

Go to bed and revisit this when you care and can feel at your soul about music. I'll lay down the warm towel for your baby face.

lyrics are hilarious and Marrs guitar playing is like nothing anyone else does

Hatful of Hollow is the best album to start with. Its got there best early songs.

After having watched your reviews of The Smiths albums, I am grateful for my technical ignorance of music. This process seems to be trying to define art with science. I don't THINK the smiths are great but rather FEEL the smiths greatness. I hear the lilt of the vocal, the movement of the bass and jangle of the guitar of This Charming Man and it affects me. It changes my mood and lifts my spirit. And if Van Halen or Led Zepplin or Dave Matthews Band walked into a studio and rehearsed and recorded This Charming Man it would be 3 distinct songs none of which would be as great as the original. Because it is not about the notes, it is about the artist's expression of the notes. In my joyfully ignorant opinion.

The Boy With The Thorn in His Side is my all time favourite song

PART 1. The Smiths: Multiple references to other songs, films etc in these songs - all part of the fun. OK, now some dull details:- A longer edit exists of The Queen Is Dead with about 90 seconds more riff-finding from Rourke and Marr. Live versions of the song simplified it, relying heavily on a boogie-rock riff (and usually cutting out two verses). There has been one legendary cover of I Know Its Over - this one kzfaq.info/get/bejne/lZuRapNpqtfKpXk.html Never Had No One Ever (modeled on a certain Stooges song) is minimal on purpose, meant as a jamming number (refer to the infamous "trumpet version") Bigmouth Strikes Again is in part a musical homage to the Rolling Stones/ it's actually the second (not first) of several songs where Morrissey electronically harmonizes himself (disguised as the fictional Ann Coats) There Is A Light... (maybe the only song that includes musical allusions to both David Johansen and Marvin Gaye) - its popularity may have something to do with the fact the narrator's suicide-fantasy is triggered by a moment of sexual failure "in the darkened underpass" PART 2. Another Band: Someone recommended that you review a Cocteau Twins album - (he pauses for effect) - I could bore you for hours with trivia, theories and purple prose about the Cocteau Twins, but for now I'll just say this: if you're a CT novice, don't start with Treasure (overrated / time has magnified its flaws). A better plan in fact is to play through the three 1985 EPs as if they were an LP.

I just watched 3-4 of your “first take” videos (I should be doing homework; I should go to the gym haha). I love your honesty, openness, and fair/educated criticisms of the music that you’re reacting to. This probably won’t be a popular request, but I’d love to hear your reaction to Andrew Bird, and The Microphones-particularly Bird’s album, “Noble Beasts”, and The Microphones, “The Glow Pt. 2”. They aren’t closely related sonically (perhaps they are thematically with lyrics dealing with nature), but they’re both INTERESTING artists. Great work! I’m looking forward to whatever you react to next.

Enjoyed the honest review! I'm not a huge Morrissey fan either, he's too over the top for me... But Johnny Marr, man. Johnny Marr is amazing.

So 17 months later.. I can't be bothered reading all the comments in case I may say something redundant and I know I am late, but this is my favorite album ever. I am not one of these staunch defenders of Morrissey... Watching your reaction, I thought I'd tell you why I love it and fast facts I am hoping you'll take into consideration. Why I love it: Originality. Frequent chord changes vs. power chord BS. Storytelling. At the time, the royal family was very glamorized. Charles had married Diana and they release "The Queen Is Dead" in the midst of everything and it's far more brave than God Save The Queen by Sex Pistols. The first full minute of Bigmouth Strikes Again is acoustic guitar. Bass, too, yes... but it sounds like a 2nd electric guitar and it isn't. When you're 16 as I was when I first heard "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", which is NOT depressing or even about death. It's about liking the person you're dating so much, nothing else matters, there is nowhere you'd rather be than with them. And since it can't get any better than you, I could die and be proud it was with you. We've all felt this way as a teenager with a girlfriend... Originality is better than all else. Who wants John Mayer who sounds like Dave Matthews who sounds like the Fray who sounds like maroon 5 who sound like Jack Johnson or whatever. That stuff sucks. Who the hell prefers "Banana Pancakes" and "Moves Like Jagger" and "Waiting for the World to Cha-a-ange"? Fast facts: The Smiths were revered for the lyrics and storytelling - not the vocal intricacies. The originality of the guitar was also part of the appeal. Johnny Marr did 100% of the writing of the music. He's give a finished piece to Morrissey. Morrissey would add lyrics and vocal arrangements. If the Smiths sound familiar, it's usually bands they influenced that came after but you heard first.

The The - Mind Bomb. Has more Johnny Marr. A must listen.

I'm glad you like the album now, it hurts to watch this video, tbh.

Get some Johnny Marr in your life

All of these 80s New Wave/Alternative type bands especially The Cure, Siouxie and the Banshees, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, The Smiths + a lot of others were products of the time. Its not surprising that different generations dont get it. I get it and im sure a lot of people from my generation get it but I dont really care about trying to be cool or fit in anymore. You know like you do when your a teenager.

Funny thing, Morrissey (The Smiths) and Rob Smith (The Cure) Hate each other’s guts. In various interviews they bash each other hard, and it’s pretty funny to watch.

Hmm, if Fridays I'm in Love is the only song by The Cure you really know, I can understand thinking you don't like them. I would recommend Boys Don't Cry, The Lovecats, A Forest, Caterpillar, etc.

I don't know how much being British may play into connecting with The Smiths' songs. Musically they can connect with anyone, but lyrically, they are very much a young man's largely autobiographical experience of what was a very harsh environment (Manchester) to grow up and survive in. The north was an extremely tough and bleak place in the seventies and eighties especially. Morrissey's lyrics are never about anything bigger than the little things in life -- the comforts that we often take for granted, like hot water, an inside toilet, an open possible future, etc. Some hope, as opposed to a damned existence without. Impossible to relate to unless you have experienced this reality. Somehow, the music of The Smiths connected with people, as it spoke about an experience they knew -- a landscape in the songs that was the same as the reality they were living in. And of course, Morrissey is looking back at the 1960's Britain, where we almost evolved into something far better, something wonderful, but that faltered and was snubbed out deliberately by our political leaders who saw only a loss of control for them -- leaving us where we are now in a failed, dissolusioned and largely narcisstic society of frightened people. :0/

The best album of all time. This is it man.

How the hell did you not mention the bass in this album once in an album review? lmao

the more you play it, the more you will fall in love with it. its captivating!

He was dead to the wit in the lyrics.

This great album was released on this date. June 16th, 1986

This album is legendary, and yes Morrisey is a very bizarre man. That pretty much defined the music

A lot of commentary that you’re missing.

I love The Queen is Dead, the songs are quirky and ridiculous, but also deep and sad. I really think you should check out Hatful of Hollow...it was my first Smiths album, and I love them.

The thing that really drew me into this band, not so much Morrissey, as Johnny Marr's amazing guitar work.

Interesting comparison to Radiohead. Maybe its in the guitar work...Greenwood and Marr are both masters at their craft. Just want to add that you have to let yourself embrace the eccentricity that exists within the Smiths music.

Please react to Manic Street Preachers - Holy Bible album, love ur raw opinions

I like how it doesn’t go anywhere. Feels trapped

it really grows on you after awhile. it’s very strange.

Oof. You don't like the Cure? That's impossible. You probably have only heard the super pop hits like Friday I'm in love. Disintegration and Pornography are amazing albums and best of the 80s

The smiths take a while to grow on you but when they do its great

The cure - "Jumping in someone else's train" or "A night like this" or "Killing an arabic".

U are like ryan gosling's little brother

Johnny Marr (the guitarist) is an awesome composer. To be enjoyed on his own, for sure. He teamed up with Sumner of New Order and Tennant of Pet Shop Boys to do Electronic.

The Cure is a really great band. Especially their early work... 80s era

Are you getting on any better with this album, Alex? What you find stifling I find absolutely liberating. Long live the king.

Bro heard one of the most depressingly, hauntingly beautiful song of all time and said, "fascinating.."

Just discovering the channel so going through the vids now. I really REALLY think you should check out Disintegration by The Cure, because it does sound to me like you unfortunately have a misunderstanding about Robert Smith and the band in general. I don't particularly like 'Friday I'm in Love' either, but Disintegration is easily one of my favourite albums of all time. I defy you to not enjoy that album!

Never Had No One Ever is a great stalker song. "Now I'm inside your house...I hate to intrude." When desperate turns creepy!

You should react to Spiderland by Slint, its a mix of post hardcore, post rock, spoken word, and some math rock in it

Morrissey - "Bona Drag " The album

Please listen to and review The Associates album, "Sulk"

Dawg you ain't grounded. Morrissey is just fine.

Also, yes Morrissey has a cover of It's Over by Roy Orbison.

Top Five album in any best 80's album list...

I like to think that that vocal modular croon thing that Morrissey does is his attempt at a yodel and when he does it he's happy (heard most prominent at the end of The Boy With The Thorn In HIs Side). There's also a lot of humour (albeit skewed) in Morrissey's lyrics that I don't think you got. The bit in The queen Is Dead when he relates the time when he snuck into the palace and met the Queen etc...

I really like your reactions even if I disagree with you because you don't seem to hype up things like a lot of people do, makes it more genuine and all the better when you do like something I do

On the subject of weird vocal quirks, Bowie crafted his first half-dozen albums on them.

give power corruption & lies by new order a listen, i think you'd like it :)

Do Depeche Mode Violator

You have to listen to this album a few times before you can really appreciate it.

Back then this was all code for being gay in the 80’s Pretty explicit from that perspective. ask any gay guy growing up then.

Can’t wait to hear what you say about I Know It’s Over. The most over the top self indulgent song.

The ride cymbal that comes in at the end of Some Girls are Bigger than Others is one of the great pieces of pop drumming. But only someone who's grown up with them will truly know

Yo you should a reaction to a band called tame impala. Their album lonerisim in specific. Its modern psychedelic rock

Best statement ever the cure front man like morrissey. I think i love you .BRILLIANT.

Love your T'-Shirt 👍

This guy reminds of a recently graduated film student who gets on to an indie film set and keeps saying "you're doing it all wrong!"

I hate how you have centred The Smiths music totally on Morrissey ( not having a dig btw ) .. listen to th e album again and instead, listen to the perfection coming from Johnny Marr in the background. England's finest musician. melancholy at its finest.

Btw i dont think you need anyone to explain to you what we think about the album. Its your review. You do your own history research of you care. To put it into context to what was going on at the time and understanding it if you like. Thats your job to do as the listener not ours. Maybe we could do that in a conversation sharing music but i for one would never go into the why when your perplexed on whether u like or not. Play it again and see what u think.

I know its over and there is a light thar never goes out. Are the most depressing but beautiful. In the 80s it was good for suicidal tendencies... NB Morrissey writes emotive stuff

So you don't like the vocals but just about every critic says how influential the band is. So sounds like it's your problem.

I'm intrigued by the fact that you're listening to "my" music, but don't seem to really be liking any of it, which begs the question, what music do you listen to on your own, i.e., your favorite bands? I give you credit for trying music you don't know, because I don't listen to music I don't like. A work friend recommended a band to me the other day and the first song bored me spitless (I gave it about a minute), whereas while the second song was better, I didn't go down a rabbit hole listening to more of their stuff.

It is genuinely brave to review this. Salut!

THE SMITHS ARE A CURE

Sucks you dont like the cure one of my personal favorites loved this video though you got yourself a new subscriber.

You need to start down the path of Tom Waits. Start with Swordfishtrombones.

Haha you're so grumpy. Nice!

This album was loaned to me when it was new. I didn’t like it much at first but the lyrics are genius and Johnny Marr writes a hook like no one else in the business. I get impatient with the gay, adolescent self-absorption, and everyone is over Morrisey by now but this was a stunning album.

TAKE ME BACK TO DEAR OLD BLIGHTY

You mentioned coldplay in the same video as the smiths. How sad. That explains a lot. I see the generation gap from a far. Stay there in Coldplay land where u belong

I think you should listen to the other albums, too.

Mate you don't get it, that's fine, we do....off you pop!!!!

Best album ever produced

Wonder why this was recommended to me...

WTF- Cemetry!!!!!!!!!!!!

react to this Mortal Coil's It'll end in tears

As a fan, listening to the music since Hatful of Hollow, when TQID was released and I bought it, the record was pretty difficult to enjoy. Very crude. Some obscure/dark tunes (Never Had and I Know It's Over). Of course that progressively you start to get used to it. "Art produces ugly things which frequently become beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time." Jean Cocteau.

I Know it’s Over is the best song ever!

Your first time with music?

They are great

Your not getting the lyrics