louder than bombs

[applebuttaz]

ok well i just got it on my way home from school i have all the albums but this one..weird? yes i know but smith or morrissey albums come every time it snows in texas well ima get to the point i know there are different takes on the some tracks does any one know the exact ones?

[Kewpie]

Have you seen http://passionsjustlikemine.com which listed detailed information about The Smiths and Morrissey's discography?

I also recommend you to buy a copy of Simon Goddard's excellent book "Songs Saved Your Life" which documented many interesting facts about The Smiths' work.

[celibate]

wasn't 'Louder than bombs' made for thee USA market, while
'the World won't listen'for the Europe/UK market?

or the other way around?

EDIT;

both albums were available and released in the NETHERLANDS

[Oso Blanco]

wasn't 'Louder than bombs' made for thee USA market, while
'the World won't listen'for the Europe/UK market?

Exactly. However, my Louder Than Bombs cd says "Made in the U.K." ... I'm too lazy to look it up now, but I think it was intended for a US only release, but was later released in the UK and the rest of Europe anyway. I'm sure that passionsjustlikemine.com has more info about it.

[Dave]

"Louder Than Bombs"
March/May 1987
Is It Really So Strange? (Peel session 17/12/86)
Sheila Take A Bow
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
Sweet And Tender Hooligan (Peel session 17/12/86)
Half A Person
London
Panic
Girl Afraid
Shakespeare's Sister
William, It Was Really Nothing
You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby (slightly remixed)
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
Ask
Golden Lights
Oscillate Wildly
These Things Take Time
Rubber Ring
Back To The Old House
Hand In Glove
Stretch Out And Wait
Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
This Night Has Opened My Eyes (Peel session 21/9/83)
Unloveable
Asleep

UK CD [Rough Trade ROUGHCD255]
UK CS [Rough Trade ROUGHC255]
UK 2-LP [Rough Trade ROUGH255]

Australia 2-CD [Festival D70269/70]
Australia CD [1993 reissue on WEA93833-2]
Australia 2-CS [Festival C70269/70]
Australia 2-LP [Festival L70269/70]

Brazil CD [Stiletto 498.005]
Brazil CS [Stiletto ??]
Brazil 2-LP [Stiletto 270.4001]

Canada CD [Sire CD-25569]
Canada CS [Sire 25569-4]
Canada 2-LP [Sire 25569-1]

Europe CD [WEA 93833-2]
Europe CS [WEA 93833-4]

France CD [Virgin 30261]

Indonesia CS [details unknown, actually "Louder Than Bombs vol 2"]

Israel CS [Rough Trade ROUG 255-4]

Japan CD [1990 first release on Victor VICP-43]
Japan CD [1993 reissue on WEA WMC5-547]
Japan CD [1995 reissue on WEA WPCR-306]
Japan CD [2006 reissue on WEA WPCR-12443]

Saudi Arabia CS [Thomsun EN-1656; part 1, trks 1-12]
Saudi Arabia CS [Thomsun EN-1657; part 2, trks 13-24]

Taiwan CS [Crystal ROUGHC255]

USA CD [Sire 9 25569-2]
USA CS [Sire 9 25569-4]
USA 2-LP [Sire 9 25569-1]



Additional information:
"Louder Than Bombs" is the North American counterpart to "The World Won't Listen". It has less album material and includes many tracks only available on singles (many of which unreleased in North America). It includes songs already available on "Hatful Of Hollow" which hadn't been released in the USA at the time.

CBS didn't originally release "Louder Than Bombs" in Australia, but a double album edition of "The World Won't Listen" was put together with tracks from both albums. Click on title in bold for more information.

The 2006 Japanese cd reissue is slipped inside a mini-replica of an original LP sleeve. Even the inner sleeve, obi and label are replicas of the ones from the original LP pressing. Unlike all other Smiths albums reissued this way at the same time, this one isn't based on a Japanese LP because "Louder Than Bombs" was never released in that format in Japan.



Artwork information:
Shelagh Delaney, photo from the Saturday Evening Post, 21 October 1961. She would appear again on a Smiths sleeve for the "Girlfriend In A Coma" single a few months later in 1987.

The back has an orange tinted close-up of the upper half of the inside photo displayed above.



Etchings on vinyl:
None.



Additional release date information:
USA/Canada LP and cassette: 16 or 31 March 1987
USA/Canada CD: May 1987
UK: 28 November 1988
UK/Europe WEA re-release: 1994
Japan WEA 1993 re-release: 10 December 1993
Japan WEA 2006 re-release: 13 September 2006



Chart peak information:
UK: 38
USA: 63



Certifications:
USA: Gold on 19 September 1990
UK: Gold on 14 May 2004



Promotion:
Brazil: Stock copies of the LP were stamped with a BMG promo warning in gold on the back of the sleeve and in red ink on the labels.

Canada: Stock copies of the LP with a gold promo stamp on the back were used for promotion of the album.

Japan: The original 1990 cd issue and the 1993 (and possibly 1995) reissue had a promo sticker on the case or obi, and promo text etched on the cd's inner ring. The promo cd for the 2006 reissue in LP-replica sleeves have a white and red promo sticker on the back and 'sample loaned' etched on the cd's inner ring.

USA: Stock copies of the LP with a gold promo stamp on the front were used for promotion of the album. A one track promo 12" of "Shoplifters Of The World Unite" (Sire, PRO-A-2712) was distributed in April 1987 to promote the album (view front artwork in left bar). Radio and other media were sent a press kit including a 2-page bio on yellow Sire paper and 2 photos of the band in a Warner Bros folder. One of the photos shows Morrissey, hands on heart, in front of a "The Queen Is Dead" tour poster of a boy and the other shows the band in front of the Salford Lads Club, with snow on the ground.

[jeniphir]

I had the double-LP of "Louder Than Bombs" and still contend that the 4 different sides of it are the best way to listen to it. . .I used to explain (part of) my reason for loving the Smiths by talking about how life-affirming the music could be, even at its most harrowing. "When you are still alive after listeing to Side 4 of Louder Than Bombs, you really feel like you've SURVIVED."

I didn't buy it on CD until about 4 months ago; I know when it was first released it was not remastered and the sound on the CD was AWFUL. It's much better on more recent CD releases.

--jeniphir

[Oso Blanco]

Are you sure that it has EVER been remastered? I bought the CD in the early nineties, and I think it sounds ok.

I'm not a big fan of remastered albums anyway, there are too many of them out there that sound worse than the original. There are only a few that would really need to be remastered, "The Smiths" and "Hatful Of Hollow" for example.

[Not Right in the Head]

Are you sure that it has EVER been remastered? I bought the CD in the early nineties, and I think it sounds ok.

I'm not a big fan of remastered albums anyway, there are too many of them out there that sound worse than the original. There are only a few that would really need to be remastered, "The Smiths" and "Hatful Of Hollow" for example.

I totally agree about those two albums, but the other day I listened to The Queen Is Dead on CD in the for the first time in a few years (usually I listen to ripped copies on the 'puter), and I was shocked at how poorly mixed it was. Even with the bass level pumped up a couple notches, the album sounded like it had no low range. The car is new, and the sound system is excellent, and nearly all other CDs sound great in it.

[jeniphir]

Maybe I'm using the wrong terminology. . .??? I just know that there was some problem in the early days where recordings that had sounded fine on vinyl and cassette sounded muddy and lacked depth. I know the CD copy of LTB that my sister bought way back when definitely sounded poorer than the one I bought more recently.

::shrug:: The more vital point of my post was the thing about the double-LP "experience." If my ditzy is showing in the other part of the post, I will defer to people more knowledgable about technical stuff!

--jeniphir

[PregnantForTheLastTime]

Ok, now I am going to have to dig out my original Louder than Bombs CDs and put them into a CD player... I've burned everything to the PC and we have a wireless media thingy that lets us listen in any room.

They can't have been that bad. Mine might be worn out from overuse, though. That was the first CD I bought for myself after I got my CD player in high school.

[Oso Blanco]

I totally agree about those two albums, but the other day I listened to The Queen Is Dead on CD in the for the first time in a few years (usually I listen to ripped copies on the 'puter), and I was shocked at how poorly mixed it was.

Remastering won't change anything about the mix, though. Otherwise it would be called "remixing". And that's the last thing I would want them to do.

[Zenith Nadir]

Mine is RoughCD255 and I'm 99% certain I bought it in the UK. However on the CD itself it says "made in France by MPO".

Is that just the location of the company that presses the discs. Nothing special about it?

[Buzzetta]

I totally agree about those two albums, but the other day I listened to The Queen Is Dead on CD in the for the first time in a few years (usually I listen to ripped copies on the 'puter), and I was shocked at how poorly mixed it was. Even with the bass level pumped up a couple notches, the album sounded like it had no low range. The car is new, and the sound system is excellent, and nearly all other CDs sound great in it.

Agreed - I would love the Smiths albums to be remastered. I would love to see a job done on each as they are doing with the Cure albums. Robert Smith is really doing an excellent jobs throwing in demos as well as a remastered album. I await Disintegration.

[Oso Blanco]

I would love to see a job done on each as they are doing with the Cure albums. Robert Smith is really doing an excellent jobs throwing in demos as well as a remastered album.

Now, that's funny! I was thinking about using The Cure as an example for how it should NOT be done. Some songs on their remasters are missing bits and pieces, the person who did the job must have been half deaf, and some of the bonus tracks are audience recordings!

[Darth Vegan]

regardless of all the hub-bub, it's a wonderful compilation.