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Track
list
William,
It Was Really Nothing
What
Difference
Does It Make?
These
Things Take Time
This
Charming Man
How Soon
Is Now?
Handsome
Devil
Hand In
Glove
Still
Ill
Heaven
Knows I'm
Miserable Now
This
Night Has Opened
My Eyes
You've
Got Everything Now
Accept
Yourself
Girl
Afraid
Back To
The Old House
Reel
Around The Fountain
Please
Please Please
Let Me Get What I Want
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What I
say :
The
second Smiths Album, which was contains many of the song on
the first. however this album contains versions from BBC
Radio sessions, which are in many cases, better than the
originals. Persoanally I prefer the softer version of
"Charming Man", which benefits from the folkier less
produced quality.
What the
critics said :
"Would you like
to marry me? When Morrissey pops the (metaphorical)
question, what can you actually say to the Thin Boy? Pour
scorn on his bewitching lines and scoff in the face of his
musical eloquence? Or submit and offer to buy the
ring?
Before scrawling an
answer in black ink across a bared chest, it might pay to
heed a tidily-packaged and atractively-priced (16 tracks for
f3.99) assortment of singles, B-sides and Radio One
sessions. Similar in style to Elvis Costello's vital 'Ten
Bloody Marys' compilation, 'Hatful Of Hollow' is a golden
hour of The Smiths, spasmodically spanning a period of 18
months from their early John Peel and David Jensen
broadcasts up to their most recent single 'William, It Was
Really Nothing'.
It is a patchy, erratic
affair and often all the better for that. A song like the
maudlin epic 'Reel Around the Fountain' that was later
fleshed out and cushioned by the softer production on the
debut album is included here in raw, less 'pleasant' form;
'Accept Yourself' and 'These Things Take Time' from the
Jensen session are thrillingly abrasive; 'Still Ill' and
'Girl Afraid' remind one of a dull, prosaic competence which
marked the band's musicianship in their early days; the
wistful 'Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want' and
the dense, relatively complex 'How Soon Is Now' illustrate
the new heights to which they have recently
aspired.
But what difference does
it make? The most staggering changes are not in Morrissey's
beguiling, ambivalent obsessions, which have remained
similar throughout, but in the flowering of Johnny 'Guitar'
Marr, that chiming man, into one of the era's truly great
instrumentalists. Compare the monosyllabic flatness of his
early picking with the cascading mandolins that close
'Please Please Please' and it will be clear just how much he
has come on. His role in the band is now worthy of at least
equal billing with Morrissey's, a fact acknowledged on the
awesome 'How Soon', a track previously only available on the
'William' 12": with the voice buried deep in a clammy,
claustrophobic mix, Marr - adriotly supported by the two
unsung grafter Smiths - unleashes a barrage of multi-tracked
psychedelic rockabilly, his Duane Eddy twang destroyed in an
eerie quagmire of quivering guitar noise.
Magnificent!
And so to the calculated
mystique of Morrissey: the man-child has mastered the knack
of giving away absolutely nothing while appearing to be the
most frank, disarming, and explicit wordsmith currently
working in pop. But, for all their sexual ambivalence and
lyrical unorthodoxy, his songs are universal in the
vulnerabilities and desires they seek to express. And it is
that, as much as Marr's unfettered brilliance, that has
given this group the unmistakeable stamp of
greatness.
Pride of place here
should perhaps go to the track never before available on
vinyl, the Peel session version of 'This Night Has Opened My
Eyes', a sordid but plaintive tale of a young mother getting
rid of an unwanted baby in which Morrissey's vivid
observation of the woman's conflicting emotions does nothing
to detract from the impact of the gruesome
tragedy.
Seeking splendour in
simplicity and bringing magnificence out of misery, these
charming Smiths are vivid and in their
prime."
What do
some others think:
Here I need your help ! Send your review to
IanTurner@btinternet.com
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