Album Reviews

Album Reviews: The Sound of the Smiths (Deluxe Edition) by The Smiths

The Smiths have more compilations in their catalog than actual albums, so it's understandable that the announcement of another one was met with some skepticism. When the band fell apart in 1987, its creative engines–crooner Morrissey and guitar god Johnny Marr–could hardly stand the sight of each other. In the following two decades, they've continually surfaced as a dream score for concert promoters, and have turned down truckloads of money in the process. But The Sound of The Smiths brought Morrissey and Marr together at last–in the loosest sense of the word. Marr oversaw the re-mastering and Morrissey–well, Morrissey came up with the title. Compilations have been a sore subject with members of the band before, so the fact that this one is sanctioned by the co-captains may carry some weight with their fans.

The re-mastering is subtle, underscoring some of the flourishes that had been buried beneath the rather ramshackle original production. Fans could argue endlessly about the track list, but if The Smiths have to be condensed into a single disc, the first disc of The Sound of The Smiths makes a valiant attempt. The tracks don't differ much from previous compilations–in fact, it engulfs the previous collection Singles entirely, and then adds more on top of it. There's the iconic "How Soon Is Now?" with its perfect confluence of Marr's Bo Diddley-biting guitar and Morrissey's definitive moment of defiance and vulnerability: "I am human and I need to be loved! Just like everybody else does." The effervescent "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" rivals it in poignancy–another of the group's greatest moments. Interesting, propulsive pop songs like "This Charming Man" and "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" would still be huge if released fresh in 2008. For anyone coming into The Smiths for the first time, The Sound of The Smiths will make jaws drop repeatedly.

For fans, of course, songs like "Hand in Glove" and "William, It Was Really Nothing" are already entrenched in their collective consciousness. Aside from Marr's involvement in the re-mastering, the main draw for Smiths fans is the somewhat odd second disc, which features some B-sides and not-too-rare or dispensable rarities (like an extended take on "This Charming Man"), plus some essential tracks from The Queen is Dead. There's still much to recommend, and the scattershot approach weirdly helps to show the range of The Smiths, even as they go into territory they could have left uncovered–like meandering instrumentals. Morrissey's melodramatic moping and sexual hang-ups are the stuff of easy parody, but The Sound of The Smiths as a serves a sharp reminder of his star power, whether he's playing the part of a seething social commentator, foppish funnyman or terribly lonely tortured soul who just wants to be loved.

The Smiths are among the classics that can;t be skipped. If one chooses to dive into a compilation rather than the full quartet of studio albums, The Sound of The Smiths is likely the best of the batch. Wickedly, however, its shortcomings leave just enough room for the possibility of yet another compilation in the future.

—Adam McKibbin
11.26.08