The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead

This is definitely the Smiths' best and most important album. It's not just a Post-punk and New wave album, but also an Indie-pop one. And, for this reason, it can be listened to easily even today.

Questo è l'album più bello e più importante degli Smiths sicuramente. Non è solo un'album Post-punk e New wave, ma anche Indie-pop. E, per questo motivo, si può ascoltare tranquillamente anche oggi.

A few copies were signed by Morrissey with a gold marker at Rough Trade shop and then sent out for sale. I bought mine in Woolies in Rugeley Staffs. There were three other copies - all signed so I assumed it was part of the artwork ie printed. Deary me!

The Smiths were the 80s Beatles. Can any other group rival them? This is their best album. Brilliant from start to finish.

I've got multiple copies of TQID but there is something special about this first EMI UK pressing.
Highly recommended.

play this record almost everyday. morrisey is a lyrical genius. felt like connecting with an old friend i never got to meet. every track will never not be fun to sing along to. i get lost in my own world at every play and don't regret any of it

Sounds great compared to a US 80’s press and a 2012 reissue, very open sound

Having already dipped his toe into darker and deeper waters, Morrissey opted to bath in it this time around, crafting an album of astonishingly sombre reflection and scornfully mocking glee in the process. "The Queen Is Dead" was rhythmic strafing to the same effect as "How Soon Is Now?", but the devastating melancholia shifts into the sardonic tone that led Morrissey to be labelled the Pope of Mope by the 1980s press (an unfair term considering he is whip-smart and slyly jovial on a good portion of the album). Somewhat unconventionally for the era, the album is devoid of synths, instead focusing on high quality musicianship of the rock variety, with Morrissey's lyrical genius and incredibly ancillary production ably complemented by Johnny Marr’s high-timbre guitar riffs and sonic urgency. Aided by the aforementioned friction between Morrissey’s devilishly biting wit and Marr's layered rock'n'roll, evidenced in the literary homage "Cemetery Gates", veiled vilification of "Frankly Mr. Shankly" and the hilarious "Vicar In A Tutu", even the spectacular engineering of this splendid recording is integral to its greatness. Every song is informed by the duo's extraordinary synergy, and with such varied and distinctive material to work from, Marr’s instrumental virtuosity soars to remarkable heights.

"The Queen Is Dead" was without a doubt the creative peak for Morrissey and Marr's symbiosis, generating their most tuneful, clever and outrageous moments as a musical unit. Each member delivers enlightened and cooperative performances, with the well-executed and memorable drumming and bass lines providing the infectious poly-rhythms necessary to support Marr's alternately gentle acoustic and wildly imaginative electric playing. Not only is there a richness in terms of the musical foundation of the album, but Morrissey's vocals show progression alongside a strongly marked backbeat, lending the compositions a distinctly harder rock sound and frenetic pace. The band are much improved in all areas; working from the formula of "Meat Is Murder" with its singular sonic moods, the album is a web of different styles, from the acoustic pop of "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" as well as the articulated gloom of "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", no avenue of music goes unexplored. British social mores and class division constitute the majority of Morrissey's lyrical caricatures, and he is at his most intellectually diverse on "The Queen Is Dead", delivering cynical and passionate narratives as wistful as they are disdainful, as well as delving into romantic and affecting poetry as intensely as he does parody, ridicule and criticism.

Indie rock would never be the same after "The Queen Is Dead" and there has never been an album like it since. It is quite simply the most aurally pleasurable, intellectually rewarding and generally satisfying thirty-six minutes of music you will ever hear. A masterpiece if ever there was one, this is the finest assemblage of original British rock music to be released during the 1980s.

Rating: 5/5

How did it take 32 people to contribute to this listing.

All the Tonpress copies in different colours that I own from this record has the same "misspress" error on the tracks order in the A side.

Some happy geezer here is selling a 'better than new' copy for £650, maybe cogs need to introduce a better than new grading LOL!!!