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The Smiths (album)

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The Smiths
Studio album by
the Smiths
Released20 February 1984 (1984-02-20)
RecordedSeptember–November 1983
Studio
Genre
Length42:55 (original UK vinyl release)
45:36 (versions including "This Charming Man")
LabelRough Trade
ProducerJohn Porter
The Smiths chronology
The Smiths
(1984) 		Hatful of Hollow
(1984)
Singles from The Smiths
  1. "What Difference Does It Make?"
    Released: 16 January 1984

The Smiths is the debut studio album by English rock band the Smiths, released on 20 February 1984 by Rough Trade Records. After the original production by Troy Tate was felt to be inadequate, John Porter re-recorded the album in London, Manchester and Stockport during breaks in the band's UK tour during September 1983.

The album was well received by critics and listeners, and reached number two on the UK Albums Chart, staying on the chart for 33 weeks. It established the Smiths as a prominent band in the 1980s music scene in the United Kingdom. The album also became an international success, peaking at number 45 in the European Albums Chart,[1] remaining in the chart for 21 weeks.[2] After its exit of the European chart, it then re-entered in the Hot 100 Albums from September for another run of three weeks.[3]

Background

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In May 1982, Johnny Marr visited Steven Morrissey at his home in Stretford to invite him to form a band. The two had first met in 1978 at a Patti Smith concert in Manchester[4] and bonded over a shared interest in literature and music.[5] After agreeing to collaborate, they began writing songs together in Marr's attic room, starting with early drafts like "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" and "Suffer Little Children".[5]

The group recorded their first demo in August 1982 and gave their live debut at Manchester’s Ritz that October.[6] In early 1983, The Smiths recorded a second demo at Drone Studios in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.[5] Though EMI passed on the tape, the group persisted, rehearsing in a space provided by their manager Joe Moss and debuting new material in local gigs.[5]

Recording and production

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After signing with independent record label Rough Trade, the Smiths spent more than a month recording a first version of the album in July and August 1983.[7] To record their debut single "Hand in Glove", In late February 1983, the group booked a one-day self-produced recording session at Strawberry Studios in Stockport to record the single at a cost of £250.[8] Due to the suggestion of Rough Trade head Geoff Travis in March 1983, the band selected Troy Tate (former guitarist of the Teardrop Explodes) as producer for sessions at Elephant Studios in Wapping, London.[9] During the following month the group recorded fourteen songs.[10] However, these recordings were totally discarded.[7]

Guitarist Johnny Marr would later write in his autobiography that he "liked Troy [...] Troy's vision was to capture the way the band sounded live". Marr later stated that Tate aimed to capture the band's live sound and viewed the album as an authentic reflection of their performances in clubs. He described Tate as working diligently to draw out passionate performances and being particularly supportive during the sessions. However, the sessions would also prove to be arduous due to an ongoing heatwave in London. The Smiths were recording in a hot basement studio at Elephant, and according to Marr, not only was the heat uncomfortable but it made it difficult to keep their instruments in tune.[11]

While recording a BBC session for Dave Jensen in August 1983, the Smiths met producer John Porter, who was working in one of the studios. Travis, harbouring reservations about the group's session with Troy Tate, gave Porter a cassette of the sessions beforehand in the hopes that he could remix them. Porter told Travis that the sessions were "out of tune and out of time". Feeling the Tate sessions were unsalvageable, Porter offered to re-record the album himself. Despite praising the work with Tate, only a week prior, to the press by stating "we've done everything exactly right and it'll show", the Smiths singer Morrissey accepted, as did Travis, while Marr hesitantly agreed.[10] Marr would later claim in his autobiography that when the band heard the finished work done under Tate, Morrissey didn't like the album and the others weren't entirely happy with the results either. He wrote that "I could hear myself that the mixes sounded underproduced and were not the finished article that we needed as our introduction to the world".[12] Since then, the Smiths began work with Porter in September 1983.[13]

Strawberry Studios building in 2013

The album's creation proved by Simon Goddard to be the most difficult of the band's career, shaped by "an arduous process of trial, error, frustration, haste and, ultimately, disappointment".[7] Due to tour commitments, the group had to make the record in a piecemeal fashion. Marr later recalled that "working with John immediately got us results [...] he and I formed a musical and personal relationship that was inspiring [...] he nurtured not just me but all the band".[13]

Recording started at London's Matrix Studios, with the majority of the work undertaken during a week's stay at Pluto, just outside Manchester. A final overdub session was performed at Eden in London that November.[13] After listening to a finished mix of the album the following month, Morrissey told Porter and Travis that the album "wasn't good enough". However, the singer said that due to the album's cost of £6,000, "[they said] it has to be released, there's no going back".[14]

Musical style

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Music critics have categorised The Smiths as an alternative rock,[15] indie rock[16] and post-punk[17] recording. Music journalist Stephen Thomas Erlewine on AllMusic would describe their songs as "vital and alive, developing a new, unique voice within pop music".[18] Douglas Wolk described the album's aesthetic as "murk, sexual frankness, and situational ambiguity".[19] The opening track "Reel Around the Fountain" is a six-minute composition that emerged from Morrissey's reflections on an early formative sexual encounter, seemingly with an older partner. Anchored by his restrained lower-register vocals, the song sets a melancholy tone for the album. "You've Got Everything Now" introduces a faster pace to the album, combining a lively arrangement with Morrissey's pointed address to a rival figure. Its lyrics express regret over the direction of his own life, though he still asserts a sense of moral or emotional superiority.[20]

Artwork and packaging

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The original image used in The Smiths album cover

The cover for The Smiths was designed by Morrissey. It features American actor Joe D'Allesandro in a cropped still from Morrissey's 1968 film Flesh.[21][22] The photograph of Morrissey on the original card inner sleeve was taken at an early London concert by Romi Mori, who subsequently played bass guitar for the Gun Club.

Promotion and release

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The album was released on 20 February 1984, and debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart.[14] At the time of its release, Morrissey stated that The Smiths was "a signpost in the history of popular music" and that he expected "the highest critical praise". For the most part, the album was well received, reaching high chart positions but prevented from reaching number one by Sparkle in the Rain by Simple Minds.[23]

The single "What Difference Does It Make?" was shortened and released in January 1984, reaching number 12 on the UK Singles Chart.[24] "This Charming Man" was included as the sixth track on all original US releases of the album on Sire Records (LP, CD and cassette) and on the UK cassette on Rough Trade. Following the 1989 bankruptcy of Rough Trade,[25] WEA Records purchased the Smiths' back catalogue.[26] In 1992 WEA re-issued the band's catalogue, and all subsequent pressings of The Smiths have incorporated "This Charming Man".[27]

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[18]
Billboard[20]
Blender[28]
Chicago Tribune[29]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[30]
Q[31]
Rolling Stone[32]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[33]
Uncut[34]
The Village VoiceB−[35]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album a score of five stars on AllMusic, writing that the album was "the bracing beginning of a new era" in an era dominated by synth-pop and post-punk. He noted that the Smiths' sound wasn't radically different from traditional British guitar pop, but was "an astonishing subversion of the form," with Johnny Marr's "inventive songwriting" and Morrissey's "distinctively ironic, witty, and literate" lyrics.[18] Daryl Easlea, writing for BBC Music, described The Smiths as "an incredible statement of intent" and noted that it "defined northern British pop in a manner not unlike the Beatles had two decades earlier". Easlea added that the music was "completely out of step with the times, yet has come to define them," and credited the album with mapping out "a new stage of indie music".[36]

Accolades

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The music critic Garry Mulholland included it in his list of the 261 greatest albums since 1976 in Fear of Music: "The Smiths made safe their early legend with a debut album about child abuse. The production was flat and dour, yet it succeeded in conjuring yet another Manchester-in-song, distinctly different from that of Ian Curtis and Mark E. Smith. But everything about The Smiths ran contrary to mid-80s pop, from Joe D'Allesandro on the cover to the restrained jangling of the songs, but mainly through Moz's [Morrissey's nickname] dramatised disgust at sex, which here exists to ruin true love at best, and to ruin an entire young life at worst".[37]

Slant Magazine listed the album at 51 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s" saying "There's no reason why a mordant, sexually frustrated disciple of Oscar Wilde who loved punk but crooned like a malfunctioning Sinatra should've teamed up with a fabulously inventive guitarist whose influences were so diffuse that it could be hard to hear them at all and formed one of the greatest songwriting duos of the '80s".[38] PopMatters included the album on their list of "12 Essential Alternative Rock Albums from the 1980s" saying: "Morrissey's career are fully accounted for on The Smiths, where they are rendered all the more piercing by Johnny Marr's delicate guitar-picking and John Porter's stark production".[15]

In 1989, the album was ranked number 22 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s.[39] In 2003, the album was #481 on that magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[40] The magazine ranked it at #473 on an updated list in 2012, calling it "a showcase for Morrissey's morose wit and Johnny Marr's guitar chime".[41] The album was ranked number 51 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time.[42] It placed at number 73 in The Guardian's list of the 100 Best Albums Ever in 1997.[43]

Legacy

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The Independent wrote an overview on 40 years since its release, the feature would go on to say: "The band's dissatisfaction with The Smiths was a key driver in the 1984 release of a compilation of early BBC sessions titled Hatful of Hollow, now regarded as one of the greatest albums of its era. Here, the swift recording process had better captured the punkish urgency of their music, and deserved prominence was afforded to B-sides that would come to rank amongst their finest achievements: the yearning 'Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want' and the wonderfully crepuscular "How Soon is Now?".[44] The Grammy Awards would write about the album's 40th, stating: "Despite its subject, the cover of The Smiths doesn't scream starpower; it looks ripped out of a moldering magazine. Which completely jibes with the music—glimmering yet murky, seemingly anti-produced in places. That vibe was the point from the beginning—hence their band name".[45]

The business newspaper, City A.M. said: "It's a strange, imperfect album, the production slightly anaemic, the pacing a little off. But my god there are some bangers on there. The first three tracks on the flipside—'Still Ill', 'Hand in Glove' and 'What Difference Does it Make'—define the band for me, even if they took things up several notches over the five years they were together".[46] Slant Magazine would question "Why was the muscular and memorable 'What Difference Does It Make?' buried three tracks from the end when it had been released as a single a month prior to the album's release? And though it's largely a moot point now, "This Charming Man" should have been included in the album's tracklisting from the start. It was, after all, one of the best singles of 1983—vibrant and essential, a delectable pop treat".[47]

Track listing

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All lyrics are written by Morrissey; all music is composed by Johnny Marr.

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Reel Around the Fountain"5:58
2."You've Got Everything Now"3:59
3."Miserable Lie"4:29
4."Pretty Girls Make Graves"3:44
5."The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" (quotation from "Sonny Boy" by Ray Henderson, Lew Brown and Al Jolson)4:38
Side two
No.TitleLength
6."Still Ill"3:23
7."Hand in Glove"3:25
8."What Difference Does It Make?"3:51
9."I Don't Owe You Anything"4:05
10."Suffer Little Children"5:28
US LP/cassette and UK cassette
No.TitleLength
6."This Charming Man"2:41

Notes

  • The track "This Charming Man" did not appear on the original UK LP release. It appears as the first song on side B of the original US LP release. The first UK CD release in 1986 did not include the song, though all UK CD re-releases since 1993 include it. All US CD releases include the song.

Personnel

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Charts

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Chart performance for The Smiths
Chart (1984) Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[48] 77
European Top 100 Albums[1] 45
UK Albums[49] 2
US Billboard 200[50] 150

Certifications

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Certifications for The Smiths
Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[51] Gold 100,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

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  1. ^ a b "European Hot 100 Albums Chart" (PDF). Music & Media. 19 March 1984. p. 17. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  2. ^ "European Hot 100 Albums Chart" (PDF). Music & Media. 13 August 1984. p. 12. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  3. ^ "European Hot 100 Albums Chart" (PDF). Music & Media. 24 September 1984. p. 14. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  4. ^ Goddard, Simon (1 February 2013). Songs That Saved Your Life. Titan Books. p. 16. ISBN 9781781162590. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d Goddard, Simon (2006). The Smiths: Songs That Saved Your Life. Reynolds and Hearn. pp. 16–32. ISBN 1-905287-14-3.
  6. ^ Goddard 2009, p. 165.
  7. ^ a b c Goddard 2009, p. 448.
  8. ^ Goddard 2003, pp. 28–29.
  9. ^ Goddard 2003, p. 34.
  10. ^ a b Goddard 2003, p. 35.
  11. ^ Marr 2016, p. 174.
  12. ^ Marr 2016, p. 175.
  13. ^ a b c Goddard 2003, p. 46.
  14. ^ a b Goddard 2003, p. 87.
  15. ^ a b "Hope Despite the Times: 12 Essential Alternative Rock Albums from the 1980s". PopMatters. 27 August 2014. p. 1. Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  16. ^ "Blender's 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever". Stereogum. 14 November 2007. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  17. ^ Jackson, Josh (13 July 2016). "The 50 Best Post-Punk Albums". Paste. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  18. ^ a b c Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "The Smiths – The Smiths". AllMusic. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  19. ^ Wolk, Douglas (18 November 2011). "The Smiths: The Smiths Complete". Pitchfork. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  20. ^ a b Payne, Chris (20 February 2014). "'The Smiths' at 30: Classic Track-By-Track Review". Billboard. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  21. ^ "The artwork of the Smiths – in pictures". The Guardian. 12 August 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  22. ^ Barker, Emily (3 August 2015). "The Smiths - The Stories Behind All 27 Of Their Provocative Album And Single Sleeves". NME. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
  23. ^ Goddard 2009, p. 450.
  24. ^ Goddard 2003, p. 81.
  25. ^ Sinclair, David (8 September 2006). "Rough with the smooth". The Independent. p. 14.
  26. ^ Gennoe, Dan (2006). "Second Coming" (PDF). British Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 June 2014.
  27. ^ Rogan, Johnny (November–December 1992). "Johnny Marr's View". Record Collector. ISSN 0261-250X.
  28. ^ Power, Tony (October 2004). "The Smiths: The Smiths". Blender. No. 30. Archived from the original on 30 June 2006. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  29. ^ Kot, Greg (7 July 1991). "The Smiths And Solo". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  30. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
  31. ^ a b Cavanagh, David (December 1993). "Irreproachable". Q. No. 87. p. 139.
  32. ^ Loder, Kurt (21 June 1984). "The Smiths". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  33. ^ Sheffield, Rob (2004). "The Smiths". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 753–754. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  34. ^ Dalton, Stephen (August 1998). "The Smiths Discography". Uncut. No. 15. p. 67.
  35. ^ Christgau, Robert (29 May 1984). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  36. ^ Easlea, Daryl (2007). "BBC - Music - Review of The Smiths - The Smiths". BBC Music. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  37. ^ Garry Mulholland, Fear of Music, p.164 ISBN 0-7528-6831-4
  38. ^ The 100 Best Albums of the 1980s Archived 14 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  39. ^ Rollingstone retrieved 16 October 2011, 20:52 BST
  40. ^ Levy, Joe (2005). Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Wenner. p. 212. ISBN 978-1-932958-61-4.
  41. ^ Wenner, Jann S., ed. (2012). Rolling Stone – Special Collectors Issue – The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. USA: Wenner Media Specials. ISBN 978-7-09-893419-6
  42. ^ "100 Best Debut Albums Ever". Rolling Stone. 13 October 2013.
  43. ^ "The Guardian 100 Best Albums Ever List, 1997". rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
  44. ^ "Murderous lyrics, bare torsos, and disappointment: the story behind The Smiths debut". The Independent. 17 February 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  45. ^ "'The Smiths' At 40: How The Self-Titled Debut Fired An Opening Shot For Indie Rock | GRAMMY.com". grammy.com. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  46. ^ Dinneen, Steve (5 April 2024). "The Smiths debut album at 40 – those songs still stand alone". City AM. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  47. ^ Parkinson-Jones, Lewie (20 February 2024). "Backloaded: The Smiths's Self-Titled Debut Album Turns 40". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  48. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 279. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  49. ^ Roberts, David. British Hit Singles and Albums. Guinness World Records Limited.
  50. ^ "The Smiths". Billboard. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  51. ^ "British album certifications – The Smiths – The Smiths". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 4 May 2019.

Works cited

Further reading

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