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| The Queen Is Dead #6, Strangeways #77 in Pitchfork's Top 100 of the 1980s |
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posted by davidt
on Tuesday November 19 2002, @09:00AM
BlueGirl writes:
The Smiths came in at #6 on Pitchfork's list of the Top 100 Albums of the 1980s. (This list is chock-full of indie cred. There are some seriously great reviews on here!)
Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1980s
Here's what they had to say about TQID:
"006: The Smiths
The Queen Is Dead
[Sire; 1986]
In a way, this is the Smiths album-of-choice by default, as it's the record that feels least like it was built around a few great singles. The pacing and sequencing are key, starting off with one of the band's most urgent songs (the title track) moving to the jaunty and clever "Frankly Mr. Shankly", before eventually getting around to the incredible "Cemetery Gates". The back half has two of the finest songs of the modern guitar-pop era ("The Boy with a Thorn in His Side" and "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out"), some of Morrissey's funniest lyrics ("Bigmouth Strikes Again"), and no filler. A new batch of lonely and alienated American teenagers discovers The Smiths every year. The reason is simple: few other bands could ever provide an antidote to adolescent yearnings as powerful as The Queen Is Dead. --Mark Richardson"
And my personal fave, "Strangeways, Here We Come" appeared at #77:
"077: The Smiths
Strangeways, Here We Come
[Sire; 1987]
Though time has made period pieces of The Smiths' first three proper albums, their adventurous finale Strangeways, Here We Come continues to impress, some fifteen years on. Critics cried "Bohemian Rhapsody!" on first listen to melodramas like "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" and "Paint a Vulgar Picture", but forgiving these tearjerkers, the record houses some outstanding pop songs and an anthem to rival their best material: "Death of a Disco Dancer" is a meticulously measured jam, building toward a finely executed rock and roll crescendo. The Smiths scored hits with the breezy springtime bound "Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before", and their most infamously maudlin romp, "Girlfriend in a Coma". Beneath these standouts are two equally great Smiths tunes: "Unhappy Birthday", which would have fit nicely on The Queen Is Dead, and the sweet, acoustic "I Won't Share You", which, given the egomaniacal breakdown of the Morrissey/Marr alliance, can be read a number of ways. --Chris Ott"
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Nice sentiment but you could at least have spelt the titles correctly -
"Cemet*E*ry Gates"?
"The Boy with *A* Thorn in His Side"?
Gee Mark - you ought to write the sleeve copy for a Warners Very Best Of CD sometime.