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Track
list .......
Is It
Really So Strange?
Sheila
Take A Bow
Shoplifters
Of The World Unite
Sweet And
Tender Hooligan
Half A
Person
London
Panic
Girl
Afraid
Shakespeare's
Sister
William,
It Was Really Nothing
You Just
Haven't
Earned It Yet Baby
Heaven
Knows I'm
Miserable Now
Ask
Golden
Lights
Oscillate
Wildly
These
Things Take Time
Rubber
Ring
Back To
The Old House
Hand In
Glove
Stretch
Out And Wait
Please
Please Please
Let Me Get What I Want
This
Night Has
Opened My Eyes
Unloveable
Asleep
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What do I
think
This
wasn't a 'proper' Smiths Album, it ws merely a collection of
singles and b-sides for the American market. However, don't
write off this collection simply becuase they contain a
large number of b-sides. This album is full of many jewels
inclduing the magestic "Half a person", the provokative "You
just havn't heard it yet baby", and the bouncy "London".
Together with many of the standout album tracks this truly
does give a true impression of the depth and variation of
their work.
What do
the Critics think
Morrissey and sidekick Johnny Marr have made the Smiths the
leading contenders to follow U2 into the Next Big Thing
arena sweepstakes.
Which
would be gratifying on any number of levels, not least of
which is Morrissey's doomed, hyper-romantic bard, a high-low
brow blend of Shelley and Keats, Reed and Morrison and
Laurel and Hardy. There's more gloom und doom here, boys and
girls, but there's giggles aplenty too. What else can you
say about a guy who sings, 'I was looking for a job, and
then I found a job/And heaven knows I'm miserable now...why
do I give valuable time/To people who don't care if I live
or die?' That he loved the Beatles, Bach and Beethoven? And
he's fully prepared for martyrdom?
How do I
love the Smiths? Let me count the ways. 'Louder Than Bombs'
is a double-album which gathers some of the band's U.K.
singles and B-sides together with seven brand-new songs, but
it stands as an epic work, coming as it does on the heels of
last year's magnum opus, The Queen Is Dead. Rock or racist,
gay or straight, fey or faking, the Smiths are a thinking
fan's rock band. Morrissey is a postmodernist Hamlet,
deciding whether he should live or die, and somehow the
thought process becomes a slapstick meditation on the
healing nature of art. 'Oh yes, you can kick me/And you can
punch me/And you can break my face/But you won't change the
way I feel.'
The set
includes such controversial U.K. smashes as 'Shoplifters Of
The World Unite,' 'William, It Was Really Nothing' and
'Panic,' the latter of which has been criticized as an
anti-black diatribe on the basis of its anthemic chorus,
'Hang the D.J.,' which, come to think of it, is not such a
bad idea in this age of tight radio
playlists.
But the
Smiths are not all Morrissey's sublime wordplay and mock
morose mindset. There's guitarist/co-songwriter
extraordinaire Johnny Marr, who creates a thick stew of
multi-textured but sharply defined melodic pop to cushion
his sidekick's prickly persona. Check out the lush,
shimmering cover of the 1965 obscurity 'Golden Lights'
(credited to one Twinkle) or the hypnotic, onomatopoeic
instrumental, 'Oscillate Wildly,' to see what Johnny can do
on his own. Marr does more with less than any musician this
side of Peter Buck and Bob Mould.
"This
well-sequenced double album collection of new recordings and
single sides previously unavailable on a U.S. LP is the
ultimate Smiths statement, as it compiles most of their peak
moments. For the uninitiated, 24 reasons to go on living.
For the fans, a reminder of why you have."
What do
some others think
"Must
get that" - Bruce
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