THE SMITHS - THE SMITHS
None
of The Smiths had great experience before joining together in this
particular little enterprise, Morrissey had briefly been a member of a
couple of bands, although not always as the singer. Still, upon hitching
up with Johnny Marr, Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke he suddenly found himself
with an outlet for his writing and dreams. And, nobody had ever quite
matched lyrics like these before to what were essentially Rock songs,
although quite out of step with other music of the era, especially
commercial chart music. The Smiths signed to leading independent label
Rough Trade, and released 'Hand In Glove' as their debut single. It failed
to chart, but that was no real surprise. Morrissey felt as if it should
have charted though, there was already a buzz surrounding the group, and
'Hand In Glove' with it's see-sawing harmonica and eloquent lyric
mentioning the sun shining out of someone's behind was indeed quite
striking! The second single was 'This Charming Man', and although it
wasn't originally on this debut album, it has been present on every single
CD edition, so it makes up part of the album now. Fate accompli. Is it any
good then? Well..... 'This Charming Man' is two minutes, forty two seconds
long. Perfect pop single length. The opening guitar
figure is VERY distinctive, immediately reminds one of Sixties groups such
as The Byrds with it's 'jingle jangle' nature and sound. Morrissey sings,
and this is the thing. His voice is pretty, soaring, delicate, poetic. The
lyrics are poetry, and good poetry at that. They speak of punctured
bicycles, not having a stitch to wear. You know how it goes. A strong bass
lines works throughout the song, Morrissey sings wordlessly at times, very
beautifully if you allow your ears to hear it that way, without predjudice.
An instant classic, and even The Smiths themselves would rarely match the
perfect, concise glory of 'This Charming Man'. I may as well mention the
third single, whilst i'm at it, hadn't I? 'What Difference Does It Make'
isn't as good a Morrissey vocal or lyric as 'This Charming Man', but now
it's Johnny's turn to shine with a catchy, snappy, bouncy happy melody.
The most striking Morrissey moment here is the falsetto 'wailing' through
the songs close, and very nice and entertaining it is too.
rather
uneasily, 'Pretty Girls Make Graves' is mid-tempo, with the sound of
Johnny Marr to the fore, and Morrissey turning in another striking set of
lyrics. 'The Hand That Rocks The Cradle' is absolutely gorgeous, delicate
and swoon-some, poetic and genuinely touching. And that's the first half
of the album over. Pretty good, pretty good. 'This Charming Man' arrives
next ( at least on the CD edition ) and 'Still Ill' follows that, with a
very identifiable lyric for the 'desperate' ones, but also a lyric
jam-packed full of tongue in cheek humour. There is a common misconception
surrounding Morrissey lyrics, dour and miserable they are not. Not really,
not exactly, and some of the lyrical imagery and scene setting is pretty
much unsurpassed if you happen to be a lost romantic type. 'I Don't Owe
You Anything' is a beautiful song, enough to reduce The Smiths own drummer
Mike Joyce to tears on more than one occasion. 'Suffer Little Children' is
the second, unquestionable blast of genius on the album alongside 'This
Charming Man'. A lyric telling the story of the moors murders, a
beautiful, understated music backing perfectly completing Morrissey
telling the horrible tale, but telling it with compassion and sympathy. A
genuinely great song, a genuine and often beautiful album.
