599. The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)
















Track Listing

1. Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours
2. I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
3. Death Of A Disco Dancer
4. Girlfriend In A Coma
5. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
6. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
7. Unhappy Birthday
8. Paint A Vulgar Picture
9. Death At One's Elbow
10. I Won't Share You

Review

Well this wasn't as bad as Meat Is Murder or as good as The Queen Is Dead, it is somewhere in the middle, leading me towards disliking it, but I have to admit I have a more open mind about the whole Smiths thing.

There are some pretty good tracks here, my favourite being Death Of A Disco Dancer, which doesn't seem to be anybody else's favourite, oh well. People seem to like crap like Girlfriend in a Coma which is one of the more annoying Morrisey wankfests.

The good thing about Smiths albums post Meat Is Murder, is the fact that they started to be a bit more humorous about the whole thing, you really wouldn't be able to sustain the preachy quality of their earlier efforts for any longer. In that sense there are some not bad self-digs here. So, listenable but not that great.

Track Highlights

1. Death Of A Disco Dancer
2. Unhappy Birthday
3. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
4. Paint A Vulgar Picture

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Strangeways, Here We Come may be The Smiths' last album, but it does not feature their last-ever recordings, as a final two songs were recorded in May 1987 to provide B-sides for the album's lead single, "Girlfriend in a Coma" (see the entry on "I Keep Mine Hidden", B-side for this single and the last song The Smiths recorded). Two more singles were taken off Strangeways, Here We Come; they were supplemented on their B-sides by archive recordings.

Death Of a Disco Dancer, and I'll spare you Morrissey's dancing: