first experience of the smiths

[vivaissy]

omg pressure!

i have a mate who wants to listen to the smiths for the first time, which album do i give him to make the best impression???

i was thinking hatful of hollow...not too dark

what do you reckon?

 

[Sister]

I always give Strangeways to the first time listeners. Partly because it's my favourite (and Moz and Marr agree with me ) partly because I think it's more accessible.

 

[wolve]

I would give Hatful or World won't listen, and then Queen, Meat, Strangeways and then Smiths. I certainly would not give their selftitledcd first! Too depressing and dark, and more "difficult" lyrics.

 

[SRA]

TQID is the best album they did to my mind, by far, but you want to sort of ease them into it.

Id go for Hatful of Hollow too, but make sure they know it's only a getting together of odd bits and ends, then hit em with TQID

 

[veradicere]

omg pressure!

i have a mate who wants to listen to the smiths for the first time, which album do i give him to make the best impression???

i was thinking hatful of hollow...not too dark

what do you reckon?

The Queen is Dead...as much as we all have our personal opinions of which album is best, TQID remains in the eyes of non-fanatics as their best album.

(BTW, hatful of hollow is my personal favorite, but I don't know if it is accessible enough for a newbie)

 

[whoiseuan]

louder than bombs- quantity, quality and contains material from the beginning right through to the pre-strangeways singles.

 

[Sister]

louder than bombs- quantity, quality and contains material from the beginning right through to the pre-strangeways singles.

That was my first one and I couldn't go past Shakespeare's sister for a long long time. I think it's too big and too fragmented for the first time listeners. At least it was for me.

 

[El Manzo]

My first experience of The Smiths was with 'Strangeways, Here We Come'.
All I can say is that it stayed on my turntable for a good month back in 1988.
That was the record that made me fall in love with Moz & Co., and today I still think it's the best introduction to their catalogue.
And now a curiosity about El Manzo (If you care):

Years later, the night before I was discharged from the Army, a couple of friends, who knew nothing about The Smiths, but were great musicians, woke me up around 2 AM shouting: "Goodbye to El Manzo, he is going home..., this is a song by one of his favourite bands, The Smiths...After a second they played all SHWC, note by note, with a tamburine and an acoustic guitar. I think they learned the songs in a couple of days. The next morning, after a year, I was a free man again.

 

[Pervomartovtsi]

My first experience of The Smiths was with 'Strangeways, Here We Come'.
All I can say is that it stayed on my turntable for a good month back in 1988.
That was the record that made me fall in love with Moz & Co., and today I still think it's the best introduction to their catalogue.
And now a curiosity about El Manzo (If you care):

Years later, the night before I was discharged from the Army, a couple of friends, who knew nothing about The Smiths, but were great musicians, woke me up around 2 AM shouting: "Goodbye to El Manzo, he is going home..., this is a song by one of his favourite bands, The Smiths...After a second they played all SHWC, note by note, with a tamburine and an acoustic guitar. I think they learned the songs in a couple of days. The next morning, after a year, I was a free man again.

that was an incredible story ...

still I think hatful would be the "welcome to smiths world" album

 

[chica]

You just can't go wrong with The Queen Is Dead. It was my introduction to The Smiths and look what it's done to me But I guess it depends on what kind of music your friend prefers. I was all about catchy indie-pop tunes back then and "Bigmouth" was the first song by the Smiths I heard... the rest is history.

El Manzo, your story nearly made me cry . So beautiful.

 

[Spineless Swine]

my first album was TQID which probably aint the best one to be intoduced the smiths, although out of the 4 'proper' albums it is. I just listened to 'there is a light' on repeat for ages for some reason, then gradually started to listen to the rest. I remember 'mr shankley' was one of my early faves too, i'd never heard lyrics like it before. I rememeber prior to listening to the smiths i didnt think lyrics really mattered that much (I was a foolish oasis fan) mozzer changed all that.

including all the compilation albums id say the best one to be introduced to the best band ever is 'the best of..1' which probably has the right amount of songs on (just over 10 i think?) and has a selection of all the different periods of the smiths and includes some of the best b-sides too which is interesting (unlike the boringly obvious track list for 'the very best of.')