This one is my favorite album. Yes, I love The Smiths (the album) but that's just a long song to me. This is an album of awesome songs.  I can sing along to this whole album but not necessarily recite them in order, like I can with The Smiths. The reason I love this album so much is because all of the tunes are just so darn catchy musically and the lyrics tell a bunch of great little stories.

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before by The Smiths

A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours: I like to pair this one with Sinead O'Connor's "Jackie" because they're both narrated by ghosts.

I Started Something I Couldn't Finish: I just caught up on the comments from earlier this week and wanted to give this one to @oats23. At 2:18 when he sings "and that's what tradition means" I'm reminded of the voice of Yoda. I LOVE that. I mean, we know he's just playing around with his voice. I do that a lot when I'm just messing around at home - it feels good. I must have picked it up in my 18 years of listening to The Smiths and trying to sing along with Moz.

Death of a Disco Dancer: Piano! I always loved those tiny little guitar sounds in the background. @jlb13, Is that just some strumming on guitar strings that aren't slack?

Girlfriend in a Coma is one of my favorite songs ever, not just Smiths songs. I just love the straightforwardness of discussing the possibility of someone dying being something one would both relish and mourn. People don't talk about this kind of thing so openly, even here in big mouthed US of A. Also, I've had boyfriends I might have been able to sing this song about, verbatim, had they ever fallen into a coma. AND, the subject having such beautiful music - the symphonics in the background.

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before is possibly my favorite Smiths song (!) It definitely has my favorite song lyric ever: "I crashed down on the cross bar and the pain was enough to make a shy bald Buddhist reflect and plan a mass murder"
And that painful honesty of "nothing's changed. I still love you, oh I still love you. Only slightly, only slightly less than I used to, my love." is so charming. Radical honesty is something I strive for and statements like this are inspiring. And Marr, oh Marr, that outro is superb and far too short.

Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me: the yelling/cheering/crowd noise in the background sounds SO RAD on headphones. I used to laugh at myself whenever I'd sing along as if I was singing about myself. I mean, this guy can really turn up the mope, so much so that, and I think I already mentioned this, you just come out on the other side. I'd like to think he did this on purpose, to help us. Even with songs like this, I never understood why people called this music sad or depressing. It's therapy y'all, therapy. 
"The story is old, I know, but it goes on." aka "You're not alone! People have been breaking up since they've been getting together and it's going to keep happening"
And yay for symphonic pop. Go strings!!

Unhappy Birthday: "may the lines sag heavy and deep tonight" Facial lines? Clothes lines? Fishing lines?
I also love the mysteriousness of the rest of the more straightforward lyrics and how they seem to contradict themselves. 

Paint a Vulgar Picture is SO meta. I mean, The Smiths put out so many different physical versions of so many of their songs. And we fans go for it! We want all of the "extra tracks and a tacky badge" - we especially want the photographs.  I especially love the fact that he's the fan singing to someone who died and is being exploited after death and this is The Smiths last album. The light clapping at the end is SO SNARKY!

Death at One's Elbow is a great song to dance to. Harmonica! Kinda makes you want to swing dance but then, maybe not if someone wants "to take a hatchet to your ear."
The way he kind of mutters under his breath "don't come to the house tonight" at 1:20 makes it seem like they're in a dance hall and he's performing and giving someone a warning without looking like he's giving someone a warning. So much awesome imagery here.

I Won't Share You was the favorite Smiths song of someone I had a huge crush on in high school so I kind of don't love it because it never became "our" song. hahaha! It's a beautiful song tho and Moz sings very nicely. No growling, barking or yodeling here. Just pretty crooning. Ahhh... What a way to end it. SIGH.

@addycat

Next up is Meat is Murder - I'll be talking about the US version which has "How Soon Is Now" on it, unlike the UK version. We get to hear much more of Johnny Marr's amazing guitar stylings and Andy Rourke's basslines than we did in the debut album. 

This is my least favorite album because I like to listen to albums more than songs and I find this one doesn't flow as well as the others.

I had a Meat is Murder bumper-sticker on the the back of my motorcycle jacket when I was 16. I screamed "Fur is Dead!" at everyone wearing a fur coat in Portland, ME on New Year's Eve until my friends told me "shut up Adriene, you're wearing a leather jacket." I was vegetarian at the time, at least.

The Headmaster Ritual: Can't you just picture all the small English school boys in their tall socks and shorts being chased around by the Headmaster? That makes it a little cute but when you read the lyrics on their own, it's rather heartbreaking, especially when you know this isn't a made up story.
Musically, it's lovely tho and I love that little barky thing Moz does (is that the thing you were referring to, @mrkvm?)

Rusholme Ruffians, is my least favorite Smiths song mostly because the music never changes and the tempo of the lyrics is too fast. But, I do LOVE the bassline thruought. Plus, I love the lyrics "I might walk home alone But my faith in love is still devout" (especially when he sings "devout" with that lovely falsetto) and "Scratch my name on your arm with a fountain pen. This means you really love me"

I Want The One I Can't Have: In high school, I put this on a post-breakup mix for the Moz/Smiths loving recent ex, right before Unhappy Birthday (that's a Morrissey solo but you can see how it might be a fun combo just by the title. I'm definitely NOT trying to add in Moz solo commentary, fyi)
Per @mrkvm's Throwing Flowers post, the lyrics "if you ever want self validation, just meet me in the alley by the railway station" does that "kinda creep you out and make you feel uncomfortable sometimes" thing.

What She Said: dare I say "meh" to this one? It's never really done anything for me. I do appreciate the guitar melody tho. And, when you read the lyrics as a story, it's really a sweet, melancholy one. "What she said: 'I smoke 'cos I'm hoping for an early death and I need to cling to something.'"

That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: This was always one of my favorite songs. The underwater, pan and zoom (thanks for that term @jlb13!) guitar during the chorus just feels right to my Pisces rising self. Plus, the guitar solo before "I've seen this happen in other people's lives and now it's happening in mine" is so freaking special. I also love the trick ending with the fade out leading to a beautiful few measures of instrumental bliss.

How Soon Is Now, with it's sweeping, reverby guitar opening is definitely a special song however, I'm with @mrkvm in that it was kinda played to death. I remember many a night screaming "I am human and I need to be loooved" with my friends on the dance floor. As a troubled teen with a "need to cling to something" I identified a bit too much with "I am the son and heir to nothing in particular"

Nowhere Fast: This is the song that got this whole week started!
"And if the day came when I felt a natural emotion, I'd get such a shock I'd probably jump in the ocean" made sense to me after I started letting myself feel things (age 21) before then "I'd like to drop my trousers to the queen, every sensible child will know what this means" was what I wrote on my 3 ring binders. "And when I'm lying in my bed, I think about life and I think about death, and neither one particularly appeals to me" actually brings me out of a depression, still.

Well I Wonder, is one of The Smiths most beautiful songs both lyrically and musically. "Gasping, dying, but somehow still alive. This is the final stand of all I am. Please keep me in mind" speaks to me of a dark night of the soul. Hoping to see that anonymous crush passing you on the street is the only thing keeping you "somehow still alive." Oh, and, obviously I have a water thing because the rain sample near the end is so soothing.

Barbarism Begins at Home has the best bassline solo ending ever. Oh but that guitar solo just before the start of the lyrics is the bomb. The previously mentioned Moz/Smiths loving ex did a great imitation of Moz's little "bark" thing. It always made me laugh.

Meat Is Murder I love the sounds of the instruments but Morrissey's vegan propagandist-ness is too much for me. But I can appreciate that he probably started a generation of vegetarians. I might have this song to blame for my 10 years as such. And I do agree that "animal whines could be human cries" but not lobster; they're bugs. When I cook meat at home now I tend to sing "and the flesh that you fancifully fry" (horrible, I know)

- Addycat

My introduction to The Smiths’ music was, appropriately enough, their self-titled first album. 

My mom worked with a woman who had two boys with bright red hair. Alex, who was my age, played sports and barely said hello when we were first introduced.  Geoffrey was a couple of years older than me, had that awesome new wave haircut: long in the front & pushed to the side, short in the back. That, coupled with his haircolor, made him resemble the lead singer of Simply Red and that made me pretty much worship anything he suggested to me.  He loaned me his copy of Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and I devoured it and continued on with more Heinlein (still love his work). His best suggestion/gift was that he made me one of those awesome 120min tapes with The Smiths on side A and Midnight Oil’s Diesel and Dust on the B side. That was my favorite tape for my formative teen years. I'm surprised it didn't die from tape wear; it was stolen by a co-worker at Bagel Works in Portland Maine (ahemSpencerahem). I still miss it, even tho I have the album available for listening whenever I want. 

My note to Bob was: Every song is special and wonderful and best listened to from track one thru eleven in one go.

Okay, okay, Hand In Glove, is one of my favorite love songs. Probably a hold over from my teenage years of crushing on guys too "something" (too old, too cute, too taken, too cool) for me.

Sometime last year, via twitter, I asked: @bob_u @leerader no looking up! name this tune: I'd like to drop my trousers to the queen, every sensible child will know what I mean.
Bob responded first and admitted to googling it and discovering it was a band he wasn’t very familiar with so he wouldn’t have gotten it without googling anyway.  After my initial shock passed, I told him I’d make him a mix.  Flash forward about six months and two pings on Bob’s part asking “hey, where’s that Smiths’ mix?” when I finally sat down to choose some favorites for him.

But, I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t pick any favorites.

So, I decided the easiest way to actually get some music to him before we lost our hearing all together, would be to just send him the studio albums. No true Smiths fan could leave it at just that, of course, so I threw in Louder than Bombs because it has so many singles on it and is my 2nd favorite album.

While preparing this DVD, I felt compelled to tell him little stories about my memories of and with and how I felt about each album. Little did I know that Lee had spent “10 f*&king years!” trying to get Bob to like The Smiths, to no avail.  Soon, there was a twitter discussion about how awesome it was that Bob now appreciated their music and both Lee and Jesse were impressed and psyched.  That, my friends, is why you’re reading this post today. The Wreckaclub decided that a Smiths retrospective would be a good idea and they invited me to curate it (as a prize for getting Bob on the same page as (almost) the rest of them, no doubt!).

First, I’ll say that if you’re NOT familiar with The Smiths, you’re in for a treat. There are at least four of us here that are psyched to share our favorite songs and stories. This week may end up as a bit of a love story to a band that “was there for me when...” for countless cross-generational humans. 

If you ARE familiar with, and enjoy the music of, The Smiths, I’m hoping that in this week’s posts you will feel resonance with any of our stories and will, perhaps, add your own.  My focus will most likely be on favorite lyrics as that’s what got this whole thing started in the first place.

And finally, if you are familiar with, and DO NOT enjoy the music of, The Smiths, mayhaps, just maybe, you’ll find a reason to like even just ONE of their songs after you hear what Wreckaclub and Friends have to say.

The week will go something like this: I'll post one of their studio albums each day (in chrono, of course) and the other wreckas will hopefully add their own thoughts on the album as a whole or just selections from it, in independent posts.

Up next: The Smiths, 1984

-addycat