This is the first of quite a few eponymous albums I'll review, and one of quite a few more that I'll admit to knowing very little about. I had cast The Smiths away as shoe-gazer music, miserablistic, or even worse "gay"--at least I had back in the 80's when I was still steeping my musical tea in the machismo of Led Zeppelin and the Who. I think the genre caught up with me (or vice versa) around the early 90's with my discovery of the Sundays, which then opened my ears to other introspective and similarly contemplative music. While I'm familiar with a few of the lead singer Morrissey's songs post Smiths break-up, I can't claim having listened to any of the eleven songs on their debut.Reel Around the Fountain- Johnny Marr's jangly guitar and Morrissey's baritone voice work like peanut butter and jelly. Both sounding ethereal and easy. This song isn't complicated musically, but if it was, it would only take away from the story--the reminiscing of growing up, your first physical relationship.
You've Got Everything Now- musically a little more "in your face" and slightly protagonist. A song sung to an old friend or lover, about the turning of tables (perhaps two). You can win fame and fortune, and still be a loser.
Miserable Lie- a song that starts out sweet, and abruptly turns angry. As I read the lyrics, I think the Miserable Lie was a promise of love merely to take someone's virginity "you have destroyed my flower-like life". I understand the device of playing sweet(love) and then abruptly playing hard, but Morrissey's falsetto howls at the end are sorta tough to get through.
Pretty Girls Make Graves- Musically the song reminds me of a ska version of Men at Work's Land Down Under, but breaks away for interesting choruses and bridge. Lyrically it's about a gay man being courted by a woman who isn't aware of his sexuality, and the conflicting frustration he has feeling jealousy when she finds someone else along with feeling that "nature played this trick on me."
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle- The music and the lyrics sound slightly disjointed, as if this was a poetry reading and the house band decided to play some jingle jangle Byrds music to back it. Having said that, the poetry is dark-- the singer has sexually abused a child, or it could just be a parent so obsessed with protecting the child, or it might not be a child at all... it's open for interpretation, but to me it's clearly dark.
This Charming Man- Very upbeat and Cure-like in it's feel and bass-forward sound. The singer is riding his bike up a hill when he gets his tire punctured. Such a great line of irony and foreshadowing "Will nature make a man of me yet?" His rescuer does one better. Great "book".
Still Ill- The music is so happy, and the lyrics are so sad. Is this blues? The singer's "illness" could be depression, could be love, or maybe it's just the past that he needs to get past.
Hand In Glove- One of the first songs written between Marr and Morrissey in a matter of hours; it hit #3 on indie charts, followed by This Charming Man and What Difference Does it Make taking the #2 and #1 spots at the same time. Marr plays harmonica over the intro and outro to give a sense of working class, similar to the Beatle's Love Me Do. "Yes we may be hidden by rags, but we've something they'll never have."
What Difference Does It Make- peaked at #12 on the pop charts in the UK (#1 on indie charts). Great opening guitar riff. Old childhood friends, one reveals he's gay, and the other is "looking very old tonight"--old in his way of thinking, he can't accept him as a friend anymore.
I Don't Owe You Anything- I think this is the clunker of the album--musically it's kinda vanilla. The book is pretty straight forward--the singer is obsessed with someone, who doesn't return his interest, but will allow him to come over for sex on occasion.
Suffer Little Children- A song written about the Manchester Moors Murders, of children back in the early 60's who were of the same age as Morrissey. "You might sleep but you will never dream"
This is truly an album to me. The term album originates from when 78's were sold in a book form, much like a photo-album. Each of the pictures of this book are of the same setting (Manchester, England), the same time (the early homophobic 80's), and of different angles of the same subject (child abuse). A very heady and risky subject at the time, for a band's first release, but one that Morrissey couldn't be more forward and honest about, and one that needed the skillful Johnny Marr to write the disarming music for.
I was 15 in 1984, and surely would not have been caught dead listening to songs about homosexuality, or even introspective songs w/o power chords. Sadly, I can't even claim 10 years later that I was much different. I have grown (and will hopefully continue to) considerably since then, musically and personally.
I can listen to mafioso rap and seek to understand the struggle of the street. I can listen to an album written from the perspective of an abused gay youth, and seek to know his confusion; his struggle to find himself when the world around doesn't understand. Perhaps it's not just my growth, but society's as well, that today we can look and learn upon these once closeted subjects almost as commonly as we do the name Smith.
Next Up #480 George Michael- Faith (1987)
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