The Smiths: Strangeways, Here We Come [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This Rhino pressing carries the remastered audio. Strangeways reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart, spent 17 weeks there and went gold in both the UK and the US.

This edition

• Remastered

About the album

Most bands sign off with a farewell tour. The Smiths signed off with an album that turned out to be a farewell before anyone had quite noticed. In March 1987 Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce settled into the Wool Hall studio in Bath with producer Stephen Street to make one last record for Rough Trade ahead of a move to EMI. Marr arrived determined to shake off the jingly-jangly tag that had followed the band everywhere, with fewer overdubs, more space and a much wider palette.

You can hear it from the first bars: "A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours" opens on piano rather than guitar, and "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" builds through a long, stormy overture before Morrissey even arrives. "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" struts, "Death of a Disco Dancer" broods, "Unhappy Birthday" is wickedly funny, and "Paint a Vulgar Picture" takes a sharp look at the music business. The sessions were relaxed; while Morrissey turned in early with his books, the rest of the band stayed up overdubbing and, by one account in The Independent, covering Spinal Tap songs into the small hours.

Marr had left by the time it reached the shops, which makes Strangeways the band's last word, and all four members have since named it their finest. Morrissey said he and Marr agree on that quite often, at the same time, in their sleep, but in different beds. We'd call that a consensus.

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Tracklist

Listen

On Rough Trade / Rhino (cat# 2564665879), a reissue of the 1987 album.