The Smiths: The World Won't Listen (2LP, remastered) [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This remastered 2LP set is pressed on 180g vinyl, with glossy inner sleeves carrying the lyrics. The collection reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart and stayed on the chart for 15 weeks.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Remastered
• 180g vinyl
• Printed inner sleeves with lyrics
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Most bands save the compilation for after the breakup. The Smiths put out three while they were still together, and The World Won't Listen, issued on Rough Trade in February 1987, is the middle one, arriving between Hatful of Hollow and Louder Than Bombs and gathering the band's 1985 to 1987 singles alongside choice B-sides.

Side one alone is a run most groups would happily call a career: "Panic," "Ask," "London," "Bigmouth Strikes Again" and "Shakespeare's Sister." "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" turns up too, having been passed over as a single from The Queen Is Dead, alongside the shelved single "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby," "Shoplifters of the World Unite," "Half a Person" and "Rubber Ring." This edition also carries the 1993 additions, "Money Changes Everything" and a cover of "Golden Lights," and swaps in the album version of "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side."

Morrissey designed the sleeve himself around a Jürgen Vollmer photograph of a 1960s fairground scene. He named the record for his hunch that radio and record buyers weren't paying attention. Our Smiths section would like a quiet word.

Also at Kops: more The Smiths on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Rhino (cat# 2564665881), a reissue of the 1987 compilation.